After more than four decades of Megadeth, Dave Mustaine knows exactly how he wants this thing to end.
Not diminished, not dragging itself across the finish line, but still dangerous enough to remind everyone why Megadeth mattered in the first place.
Seven months after releasing their self-titled final album, Megadeth are now staring down the next major chapter of their farewell: taking those songs back onto the road.
That means November for us, Megadeth will return to the country alongside Iron Maiden for five shows across Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, bringing two of heavy metal’s most enduring names together as Mustaine begins winding down a career that fundamentally altered thrash metal.
The farewell has already started from an unusually high point. Released on January 23rd, ‘Megadeth’ gave the band their first-ever No. 1 on the US Billboard 200 and their first Australian No. 1, making their final studio record one of the biggest commercial moments of their career.
Why now?
Speaking exclusively with us ahead of the Australian shows, Mustaine explains that deciding to call time on Megadeth wasn’t simply about recognising a neat moment to bow out. There’s a physical reality behind it.
“Well, I wanted to go out on top, and I don’t think we can go out any more on top than this. If we were to make a new record, it would have to be so incredibly shit hot, and I think that I think we could do that. But you know, my decision was based on my hand being hurt. You know, I got something going on with my hand.”
Mustaine then showed us a visible line running through his hand, explaining that the condition is gradually getting worse.
“It’s just very, very subtle. You can see, looks like a, like a almost like a claw, and that’s gradually getting worse. It’s going to make it so that I can’t play very well. And when that happens, I’m going to have to face the inevitable: do you get surgery or do you not?”
The Final Megadeth Album Did Something No Other Megadeth Record Had
There’s a strange symmetry to ‘Megadeth’ becoming the band’s first American No. 1.
Released through Mustaine’s Tradecraft imprint via BLKIIBLK, the album moved 73,000 equivalent album units in its opening US week, including 69,000 traditional album sales.
It also debuted at No. 1 in Australia, bettering the band’s previous peak of No. 2.
Four decades into a career that helped define American thrash metal, Megadeth finally got their chart-topper with the record designed to close the book.
It makes Mustaine’s desire to “go out on top” feel considerably less metaphorical.
Yet talking to him doesn’t feel like talking to somebody carefully constructing his own epitaph. He bounces between stories, jokes and memories, occasionally disappearing down strange side roads before finding his way back.
One of those roads takes us directly into professional wrestling (with a little help from me).
Dave Mustaine Remembers Megadeth’s WCW Days
Megadeth’s relationship with WCW remains one of those beautifully late-’90s cultural collisions.
The band performed ‘Crush ’Em’ live on WCW Monday Nitro in 1999, with the song becoming associated with Goldberg during that period.
Given the reputations surrounding professional wrestling backstage culture, you might expect Mustaine to have returned with stories capable of getting several people sued.
Apparently not.
“No, man, it was it was as homogenized whole milk as you can possibly get.”
Pressed on whether anything particularly unhinged happened backstage, Mustaine remains unmoved.
“Nothing, nothing, nothing.”
Megadeth ‘Crush’Em” Live at WCW Monday Nitro in 1999
What he does remember is Goldberg himself.
“You know, Bill was great. Bill was great. I didn’t know quite what was going on. It was very showbiz, and I think that. I think that Hollywood had gotten a hold of the WCW.”
It sparks a wider tangent about watching professional bull riding in Nashville and wondering whether spectacle has swallowed the sport.
“I said you know this this isn’t real rodeo, you know. They got music going, you know. That’s not f***ing cowboy, you know.”
Mustaine laughs about the outfits, mirrors and production surrounding the riders, but underneath it sits a familiar instinct. Strip away the decoration. Get to the thing itself.
That attitude has followed Megadeth for decades.
‘99 Ways To Die’ Came From A Very Dave Mustaine Therapy Session
Megadeth have also repeatedly escaped the boundaries of metal culture.
‘Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey’, ‘Beavis and Butt-Head’ and ‘The X-Files’ all come up during our conversation, although Mustaine quickly corrects one misconception surrounding the latter.
“For years so many people have thought that I was the one who believed in aliens, and and I don’t believe in aliens. That was something that Nick Mensek believed in.”
It’s ‘Beavis and Butt-Head’, however, that opens another door.
The animated series featured Megadeth’s ‘99 Ways To Die’, and Mustaine remembers exactly where part of that song came from.
He had been attending therapy for two years when his therapist suddenly told him he didn’t actually need to be there.
“Oh, guess what? You don’t need to go to therapy. And I said, “I don’t. And he goes, “No. And I said, “Did I ever? And he goes, not really. And I said, not really. And I thought to myself, I’m gonna f***ing kill this guy.”
Driving home, Mustaine noticed a mortuary billboard he’d passed repeatedly on the way to those appointments.
“Drive careful, we’re not ready to see you.”
Something clicked.
“And I thought, “That’s cool. There’s my chorus line for 99 ways to die. Not ready to see you yet. 99 ways to die. Not ready to see you yet, and that’s how I came up with that part.”
Thirty-plus years later, it remains a perfect little snapshot of how Mustaine’s brain works. Anger enters one side. A Megadeth song eventually crawls out the other.
Before Megadeth, Mustaine Was ‘A Little Hooligan’
There are enough stories surrounding Mustaine’s early years that separating mythology from reality can occasionally become difficult.
When we mentions reports that he used to hot-wire cars, Mustaine corrects the record.
“I don’t know about me hot wiring cars. I do know that there were times when we would break into cars to get stereos and stuff like that, but I never quite learned how to hot wire a car, and I’m glad I didn’t. I’m glad I didn’t.”
Then comes the qualifier.
“But I was a little hooligan.”
Music wasn’t necessarily the only possible route, either.
Mustaine says baseball was one of his genuine childhood passions and believes he could have taken it further.
“Yeah, I absolutely think I could have done that. Baseball was one of one of my passions.”
He eventually became an all-star and jumped multiple levels, although his interpretation of playing catcher apparently involved treating home plate like disputed territory regardless of whether he actually possessed the ball.
“I didn’t care if I didn’t have the ball or not; they were not going to cross the path.”
In hindsight, perhaps professional baseball’s loss was thrash metal’s extremely predictable gain.
Megadeth’s Final Australian Run
All of this eventually circles back to Australia.
Megadeth were last here for Knotfest, but November will carry an entirely different weight. The band will join Iron Maiden for five Australian shows, giving local audiences another opportunity to see Megadeth while the farewell chapter is underway.
For Mustaine, Australia’s distance has never diluted the connection.
“Well, we love playing down south. It’s it’s it’s really great to be able to see people that are so so so very far away, but that are so similar to us, and our fans are are so passionate down in in Australia, and it’s it’s just for me, it’s really neat to see people so far away that they even know who we are.”
It’s an unexpectedly humble observation from somebody who has spent most of his adult life standing at the centre of one of metal’s biggest bands.
Megadeth ‘Ride The Lightning’
Then, as our time runs out, Mustaine leaves me with something considerably less formal.
“Hey, when we get down there, remember this: come find me. We’ll have a beer, a cup of coffee. We’ll finish our conversation.”
Forty plus years of Megadeth just can’t fit into a 15 minute Zoom call.
“You got it on tape. I’ll see you at the show.”
We absolutely do, Dave.
Megadeth Australian Tour Dates With Iron Maiden
- Wednesday, November 11th – Adelaide, Adelaide Entertainment Centre
- Friday, November 13th – Melbourne, AAMI Park
- Sunday, November 15th – Sydney, Allianz Stadium
- Wednesday, November 18th – Brisbane, Brisbane Entertainment Centre
- Thursday, November 19th – Brisbane, Brisbane Entertainment Centre
Tickets are on sale now via Teg Dainty
‘Megadeth’ Tracklist
- ‘Tipping Point’
- ‘I Don’t Care’
- ‘Hey, God?!’
- ‘Let There Be Shred’
- ‘Puppet Parade’
- ‘Another Bad Day’
- ‘Made to Kill’
- ‘Obey the Call’
- ‘I Am War’
- ‘The Last Note’
- ‘Ride the Lightning’ (Metallica cover – Bonus Track)
Find out more and pick up your copy here.
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