LA music legend explains reason behind final shows

When Megadeth play BMO Stadium on September 25 and 27, it will likely mark the band’s final shows in their hometown of Los Angeles.

Founding member Dave Mustaine has called the band’s self-titled 17th album, released in January, as well as the subsequent promotional tour, their last.

“It’s not that I want to,” explained Mustaine, who formed the famed metal band in 1983 after being booted from Metallica. 

The singer is retiring after being diagnosed with Dupuytren’s contracture, a gradual hand condition where tissue under the palm’s skin thickens and tightens, pulling one or more fingers toward the palm, which he demonstrated during his interview.

“It’s called Viking Hand, and, it already itches and burns and hurts after some days, but it’s not bad enough for me to need to stop right now,” Mustaine said. “I’m gonna keep trying to play every night until my playing starts to be affected.”

In the meantime, Mustaine also plans to be as prolific as possible, including the September 8 release of his third book, “In My Darkest Hour.”

It chronicles the metal legend’s 2019 battle with throat cancer, including more than 50 rounds of radiation and chemotherapy.  

“It’s a very different path when you’ve had a life-altering challenge come into your family,” Mustaine said. “I’m a survivor, so I’m in complete remission, and I thought I really should put what I went through down on paper so that anybody that’s discouraged from their diagnosis might be able to look at my story and draw some strength from that.”

The book features multiple chapters written by his wife and two children, and recalls support he received from Metallica singer James Hetfield, often pitted by the media as his rival.

On “Megadeth,” the band cover the Metallica hit “Ride the Lightning,” which Mustaine co-wrote while with the band.

“It was kind of closing the circle, I guess, knowing that this is gonna be the end,” Mustaine said. “You gotta make it as exciting, or better, so we sped it up, we spiced up the solo, we spiced up the drums, and I think the song has gotten really good response from the fans. We haven’t heard from their camp, whether they like it or not, and that’s not why I did it.”

The Megadeth song almost everyone knows, but has no idea is Megadeth, is “Peace Sells,” or at least the bass riff, which was used for decades as the theme music for MTV News.

“MTV cut it off right before I would get paid for it … at least that’s what I was told by our management and the auditors,” Mustaine said. “So it was kind of bittersweet. Funny thing is, people don’t know that I wrote that part, because it’s played on a different instrument. I was in our rehearsal room in a place called Vernon, California.”

Forty-some years later, Mustaine has no hard feelings.

“God’s been good to me,” he said. “I don’t need to have every single crumb, that I’ve earned. I can afford to walk away from certain things. You know, when you get into legal battles, nobody ever wins.”

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