Dave Mustaine recently criticized Metallica manager’s ‘gutless’ action.
Dave Mustaine opens up on the matter
In 2010-2011, Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax toured together to celebrate thrash metal. It was noted that Megadeth almost couldn’t play the final show at Yankee Stadium in NYC due to Mustaine’s neck health issues. During a recent chat on Steve-O’s Wild Ride!, he said:
“In the beginning, it was a big difference for me because I couldn’t move,” the musician replied when the host asked whether headbanging changed his approach to performing. “I remember we were scheduled to play Yankee Stadium with the Big Four concert the day that they found out I needed my neck to be fused together.”
Mustaine further recalled, “So I’m laying on the emergency table and my manager says, ‘Oh, Metallica’s manager called you a p*ssy because you’re going to get your neck fused together and you’re not going to come out here and play instead.’”
“I thought that’s a gutless thing to say. I’m laying here getting ready to have back surgery and you call me a p*ssy. So I had the doctor stitch me up, inject me full of all kinds of steroids and sh*t. I went and played the concert and then I went back and I had the surgery,” he added.
Earlier this year, Mustaine had also opened up on his injury in an interview with Ultimate Classic Rock. He explained that it changed how he writes music and performs live. “I had my neck fused together and a plate put in my vocal box area. That’s changed a lot of stuff because my voice has been limited because of trying to save my ability to walk,” he said.
The rocker detailed, “They fused my neck together because I’d gone to a chiropractor, and he had adjusted me while he was angry at something and broke a bone in my neck. So the guy broke my neck, and I lived with it for a few years in agonizing pain. I finally got an X-ray, and they said, “You need to get your neck fixed now.” That was right before the Big 4 show at Yankee Stadium. The day before the concert, I was in the hospital.”
“The day of the concert, I had flown out right before it and was on so much anti-inflammatory steroidal medicine so I could walk because my neck was getting ready to stop working. [But] I went out and played, and we had all kinds of tape all over the stage [that said], ‘Do not headbang,’” Dave concluded.
Following his neck injury, Mustaine also revealed in 2019 that he had throat cancer. In 2020, at a Megadeth concert, he announced he was cancer-free.
