Dave Mustaine

electric guitar · lead vocals · background vocals · guitar

b. 1961 in La Mesa

Founded MegadethFounded MetallicaMegadeth today

David Scott Mustaine (born September 13, 1961) is an American musician. He is the co-founder, frontman, primary songwriter and sole consistent member of the thrash metal band Megadeth and was the lead guitarist of Metallica from 1981 to 1983. Megadeth has released seventeen studio albums, sold over 50 million records worldwide, with five albums platinum-certified, and won a Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance in 2017 at the 59th Grammy Awards, for the title track of their fifteenth studio album, Dystopia. Prior to forming Megadeth, Mustaine was the lead guitarist of Metallica but did not appear on any albums.

Early life

Mustaine was born on September 13, 1961, in La Mesa, California, (a nearby suburb of San Diego) to parents Emily Marie (née David) and John Jefferson Mustaine. His father was of French, German, Irish, and Finnish descent, while his mother was of German Jewish ancestry. The Mustaine family were Jehovah's Witnesses. Mustaine had three older sisters, Michelle, Suzanne, and Debbie, who were 18, 15, and 3 respectively when he was born. Due to the significant age difference between Mustaine and his sisters, as a child he often thought of them as his aunts rather than sisters. Mustaine has described family life as tumultuous during his early life, lamenting years later that "life unraveled in a great many ways" for his family before he was born. Mustaine has described his father as "a very smart and successful man, good with his hands and head" who was a branch manager for Bank of America before moving to NCR, where the corporation's transition from mechanical to electrical technology ultimately made him expendable and cost him his job. A longtime problem drinker, John Mustaine's issues with alcohol only grew worse from then on, and he left his four-year-old son permanently after Emily divorced him in 1965.

Personal life

Mustaine married Pamela Anne Casselberry in 1991. They have two children together: Justis Mustaine (born 1992), who also plays the guitar and has appeared in several local theatrical productions, and Electra Mustaine (born 1998), who is pursuing a career in country music. As of 2014, they live in Nashville, Tennessee. In 2023 Mustaine became a grandfather when his granddaughter Georgette was born.