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.[1] Mustaine has released sixteen studio albums with Megadeth, sold over 38 million records worldwide, 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.[2]
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.[3] He now identifies as a born-againChristian.[4][5] Mustaine has been to rehab throughout his life, fighting alcohol and drug problems,[6][7] and briefly battled throat cancer in 2019.[8] Mustaine has been married to Pamela Anne Casselberry since 1991, with whom he has two children, Electra and Justis Mustaine.[9]
In a popular vote on the internet forum of Ultimate Guitar, Mustaine was ranked third in the top 25 rhythm guitarists of all time,[10] first in Joel McIver's book The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists,[11] tenth in Loudwire's "66 Best Hard Rock + Metal Guitarists of All Time",[12] and third in their "10 Greatest Rhythm Guitarists in Rock + Metal".[13]