Guitarist and singer Dave Mustaine, best known for his work in his band Megadeth, has by all accounts led a colorful life. From his troubled childhood in a broken home in sunny California to his recruitment into and subsequent dismissal from Metallica, to the artistic and commercial heights combined with personal drama and multiple addictions associated with his prolonged tenure in Megadeth, Mustaine pulls no punches and leaves none of the gory details hidden in Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir, the autobiography he cowrote with Joe Layden.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the bulk of the book seems to be spent on the various elements of his addictions. By no means an easy pill to swallow, the book delves into tale after abject tale of the depravity of drug use and subsequent bouts with counselling and rehabilitation. What emerges is the portrait of a day-to-day lifestyle structured not by work or personal relationships, but by the relentless search to acquire and use substances of various types. Conversely, his account of many of the personalities involved in the counseling and rehabilitation industries reveals a portrait of often self-serving and strangely enabling techniques of individuals supposedly responsible for helping to clean up the lives of addicts.
The bulk of the rest of the book is taken up, of course, with Megadeth’s struggles to make it in the music industry while keeping a functioning lineup and some semblance of sanity intact. Less time is spent on his relationship with Metallica than many would have assumed, although he doesn’t avoid the topic either. The ongoingly bizarre relationship between the two bands - Metallica did launch Mustaine’s career after all, yet they and much of the heavy metal community will never let him forget his dismissal - is dealt with in a forthright manner, and to his credit Mustaine’s claims on his legacy with Metallica have remained reasonably consistent throughout the years.
Surprisingly, one of the more interesting aspects of his story is one that typically receives only a cursory mention in the press. Namely, his suffering of a debilitating nerve injury to his left arm in 2002 that seriously hampered his ability to play the guitar and, by some accounts, should have ended his career. While only briefly chronicled in the book, his account of injury and physical rehabilitation provide a welcome respite from the constant churning of what could be considered rock and roll cliches throughout the rest of the book.
At nearly 350 pages and full of salacious and often profane details, Mustaine is not only a riveting yet stomach churning read, but a testament to the longevity and perseverence of its author. While many may doubt the authenticity of some of Mustaine’s claims, the book is an autobiography after all and he makes a convincing case for presenting his own story from his point of view. And to his credit, Mustaine emerges as a consistently dedicated and thoughtful musician and bandleader, although not one without his own flaws..
Originally released in hardcover edition in August of 2010, Mustaine was recently released in paperback with an additional chapter.
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