Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir

By: Dave Mustaine & Joe Layden
Released: August 3, 2010
Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: It Books

I’ve never considered myself a huge fan of Megadeth. Their earlier albums always seemed to be very inconsistent in terms of quality, and their mid-era commercial attempts were mostly terrible. There are exceptions of course, Rust in Peace is easily one of the best thrash albums of all time and Endgame is just about equal (and sometimes better, depending on my mood) – but this isn’t about me and isn’t really about Megadeth either. This is about Dave Mustaine; the man that has had the great fortune of being part of two of the biggest metal bands of the last thirty years. He’s also the man that everyone has loved to hate due to his tendency to speak his mind and treat fellow band mates as if they were totally expendable (in hindsight one could argue that they really have been). If anyone in the metal community has lived a life that is worthy of having a book written about him, it is Dave Mustaine. The man has dealt with drug use, the stigma of being dropped from Metallica, the total rise to prominence in Megadeth, accidents, multiple member changes and a slew of other things that the average person would never even know about – that is until now.

Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir is a very entertaining trip through Dave Mustaine’s turbulent life beginning with his childhood and ending shortly before the release of their latest album Endgame. The book is very well-written in the sarcastic, crass – yet generally intelligent – style that Dave Mustaine is known for. He rarely holds anything back and tells things exactly the way he sees them; which will often elicit a chuckle due to the dry humor that he injects into every facet of his life. He also seems to be keenly aware of his target audience because he never strays too far from the musical aspects of his life. To that end, one need not worry about being subjected to an overly-long therapy session about how Dave Mustaine wasn’t hugged enough as a child. In fact, the brief portions about his childhood are basically just used to present the few experiences that stuck with Dave throughout his life before quickly moving into his teen years and the beginning of his musical and spiritual journey.

I make sure to include “spiritual” because every fan should know by now that it took Dave Mustaine finding God in order to finally kick the multitude of addictions that he has carried with him throughout his life. Due to this, God and religion come up fairly often over the course of the book – from his complete opposition to religion in the beginning to his eventual “awakening” later in life. What he never does, though, is use his book as a pulpit to preach of God or religion; an element that could have turned a lot of his fans off if it had been overdone. In fact, he doesn’t try to push any morals on his readers at all. When he speaks of his drug use or his other indiscretions, he includes the bad with the good and leaves it to the reader to make a final judgment. He will occasionally use hindsight to reflect on his past, but the judgments he makes are his own and he never tries to apply them in any kind of broad manner.

For those that are interested in the man behind the music, this book will not disappoint. It presents, along with all of the gory details, Dave’s time with Metallica, the various member changes within Megadeth, his drug use, family problems, religious struggles, label struggles as well as random amusing stories that simply demonstrate the crazy life that he has lead. There are great stories involving his days dealing drugs after being kicked from his mom’s house, and his few attempts to get “real” jobs that never really panned out. Of course, his time with Metallica is meticulously detailed, and there is actually quite a good build-up to his eventual dismissal. It’s also quite cool to learn about where the band name came from and how certain songs/events came to pass. Most interesting, though, is the fact that Dave Mustaine never misses an opportunity to specifically mention those people that have helped him throughout his life including Danny Lilker (ex-Anthrax).

There are actually only a few minor complaints that I have with this book. In the beginning, the circumstances surrounding every album are presented in quite a bit of detail but by the time of Youthanasia things start to be condensed considerably. By the time we get to The System has Failed it almost feels like more of a footnote than any kind of actual album history. Granted, by that point the debauchery had pretty much faded and this is a book about Dave Mustaine the man not Dave Mustaine’s band, but it still felt a bit lacking. To that same end, I also wish that he would have maybe given a bit of additional information about what happened to his various band mates after being removed – but, again, it is a book about Dave Mustaine not the various footnotes in his life. The only other issue I had was with a few omissions involving Chris Poland. Chris Poland was a big part of Dave’s early life and had more influence over him than most might be aware of, but he isn’t even mentioned during the Rust in Peace sessions, and barely mentioned during The World Needs a Hero era. I would have been interested to read about how it was Chris came back for those two albums and why it was he eventually left again.

Overall, Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir is everything that I hoped it could be. It details all of the major events of Dave Mustaine’s life without holding back the gory details. When something is Dave’s fault he owns up to it and when it’s someone else’s fault he doesn’t hesitate to point it out. Even for those that don’t really care to read about Dave Mustaine’s life, quite a bit of the book is actually devoted to the events surrounding the creation of Megadeth’s first six albums. I’m willing to bet that more than a few fans would be interested to read about the thought process behind Risk or the whirlwind of events surrounding the band’s original line-up. Basically, Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir has something for even the most apathetic of Megadeth fans and is written in a very entertaining manner thanks to the dry humor and no-holds-barred attitude of Dave Mustaine.