David Scott Mustaine (born September 13, 1961) is an American musician. He is best known as the co-founder, frontman, primary songwriter and sole consistent member of the thrash metal band Megadeth and for his time as the lead guitarist of Metallica.[1] Mustaine has released sixteen studio albums with Megadeth, sold over 50 million records worldwide,[2] with six 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.[3]
Prior to forming Megadeth, Mustaine was the lead guitarist of Metallica but did not appear on any albums. He was, however, credited as a writer on four songs from Kill 'Em All and two songs from Ride the Lightning. Mustaine was born into a family of Jehovah's Witnesses.[4] He now identifies as a born-againChristian.[5][6] Mustaine has been to rehab throughout his life, fighting alcohol and drug problems,[7][8] and briefly battled throat cancer in 2019.[9] Mustaine has been married to Pamela Anne Casselberry since 1991, with whom he has two children, Electra and Justis Mustaine.[10]
In a popular vote on the internet forum of Ultimate Guitar, Mustaine was ranked third in the top 25 rhythm guitarists of all time,[11] first in Joel McIver's book The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists,[12] tenth in Loudwire's "66 Best Hard Rock + Metal Guitarists of All Time",[13] and third in their "10 Greatest Rhythm Guitarists in Rock + Metal".[14]