As the release of Megadeth’s final studio album looms, the band’s chief everything, Dave Mustaine, has been reflecting on a topsy-turvy career, including the tale of how they found their second lead guitarist after a bizarre guitar solo request.
Mustaine had rather unceremoniously formed Megadeth after his bitter departure from Metallica – a band he consistently says stole a bunch of his riffs. After teaming up with the unique metal shredder Chris Poland for their first two albums, he was reportedly fired in 1987 for substance abuse and selling some of Mustaine’s gear.
The band found their replacement, Jeff Young, in a rather roundabout way, after first thinking someone else was the man for the job.
“I saw something in Jeff when we hired him,” Mustaine says in the new issue of Guitar World. “It was a strange occurrence. We had tried to find a guitar player, and I went with David Ellefson to the country club in Reseda, where we watched this band called Malice. Malice had this big, tall, good-looking guitar player [Jay Reynolds] who had a Gibson Flying V and was heavily influenced, to me, by Michael Schenker.”
Mustaine’s head was turned. Reynolds was approached after the show.
“I said I wanted him to be in Megadeth,” he continues. “ He was excited about joining the band. Then we were in the studio recording [third album] So Far, So Good… So What? and I was like, ‘Okay, it’s time to do your solos, man.’
“He goes, ‘Okay, I’m gonna call up my guitar teacher, have him do [the] solos and then have him teach me.’ I thought, ‘Get out – you’re pulling my leg.’ But no, that was true. That’s what he wanted to do.”
It’s a wild pitch. It seems unlikely that Metallica would have stomached Kirk Hammett drafting in Joe Satriani to track his Ride the Lightning solos. The decision would cost Reynolds the gig.
“I went along with it,” Mustaine explains, “and Jeff [Young, his teacher] showed up, and as I said, Jeff was a really superb guitar player. He really had his own unique style, as Chris did, and we started working on the record.”
Much of Poland's unique playing style was the result of a freak accident that forced him to re-approach the instrument. Young too had his own style, and with it, Megadeth had their man.
The band’s latest lead guitarist, Teemu Mäntysaari, has showcased his superlative talents on the new single, Let There Be Shred, which is meant as a celebration of the electric guitar.
Notably, the album will close with a cover of Metallica’s Ride the Lightning, a song on which Mustaine has a co-writing credit – he has since explained his thinking behind the eyebrow-raising call.
For the full interview with Mustaine, pick up a copy of Guitar World issue 600, on sale now.
