'Religious abuse' framed Mustaine's early lyrics

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By ( Louder ) published

Megadeth mainman Dave Mustaine says his mother's devotion to "cult" of Jehovah's witnesses had profound impact

Dave Mustaine has recalled how severe religious abuse inspired his early lyrical output.

The Megadeth mainman says his mother’s devotion to the Jehovah’s witness movement had a profound impact on his view of the world.

He tells Paste: “I think probably as a kid who wrote my first lyric for Mechanix when I was very, very young, and then Jump In The Fire around the same time, those were the writings of a young male who was not quite 21 yet and had been severely religiously abused from my mom’s religion.

“She was a Jehovah’s witness and I don’t believe in it. My opinion is that it’s a cult, and my family’s still in that religion, and it’s a bummer.

“You grow up learning certain things like you can’t do the pledge of allegiance, you can’t have a birthday party, or any of that, and that kind of stuff really affected my myopic view of the world and the prism that I saw it through.”

He adds that as he grows older, his political leanings have changed – but insists he’s not a Republican.

He says: “I’ve been an independent ever since I was able to vote. Now, there are certain states that we’ve lived in where the paperwork to register only had certain things you had to fill in in order to get registered, but I voted for Clinton, I voted for Bush, and when it comes down to watching the whole political process right now, they’re all the same.

“Of course with my lyrics I’m not trying to generalise those things necessarily, because once you start to water down stuff so that it’s a much broader brush, I think you lose the focus. It’s like a candlelight versus a laser beam, and I would rather that I was able to really stay focused on what I write about.”

Megadeth’s 15th album Dystopia was released in January and the band are currently on tour in North America before a string of European and South American shows.

MEGADETH REMAINING TOUR DATES 2016

Mar 09: Edmonton Rexall Place, AB
Mar 10: Moose Jaw Mosaic Place, SK
Mar 13: Chicago Aragon Ballroom, IL
Mar 15: Niagara Falls The Rapids Theatre, NY
Mar 16: New York Terminal 5, NY
Mar 17: New York Terminal 5, NY
Mar 19: Bethlehem Sands Bethlehem Event Center, PA
Mar 20: Philadelphia Electric Factory, PA
Mar 21: Boston House Of Blues, MA
Mar 23: Bangor Cross Insurance Center, ME
Mar 24: Quebec Centre Videotron, QC
Apr 28: San Juan Coliseo de Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico
Apr 30: Ft Myers Fort Rock At Jetblue Park, FL
May 01: Jacksonville Rockville At Metropolitan Park, FL
May 07: Concord Carolina Rebellion, NC
May 20: Columbus Rock On The Range, OH
May 22: Schaghticoke Rock ‘n Derby, NY
May 26: Sioux Falls Badlands Pawn, SD
May 27: Pryor Rocklahoma, OK
May 29: San Antonio River City Rockfest, TX
Jun 02: Milan Gods Of Metal, Italy
Jun 03: Bologna Estragon, Italy
Jun 05: Nijmegen FortaRock, The Netherlands
Jun 07: Lodz Power Festival, Poland
Jun 09: Solvesborg Sweden Rock Festival, Sweden
Jun 10: Download Festival, France
Jun 11: Download Festival, UK
Jun 14: Groningen Oosterport, Netherlands
Jun 15: Pratteln Z7 Konzertfabrik, Switzerland
Jun 16: Luxembourg Rockhal, Luxembourg
Jun 17: Dessel Graspop Metal Meeting, Belgium
Jun 17-19: Clisson Hellfest, France
Jun 22: Berlin Huxleys Neue Welt, Germany
Jun 23: Hamburg Docks, Germany
Jun 24: Copenhagen Copenhall, Denmark
Jun 25: Halden Tons Of Rock, Norway
Jun 28: Cologne Live Music Hall, Germany
Jun 29: Frankfurt Batschkapp, Germany
Jun 30: Munich Backstage, Germany
Jul 02: Rishon LeZion Live Park Amphitheatre, Israel
Jul 07: Sofia Universiada Hall, Bulgaria
Aug 02: Santiago Teatro Caupolican, Chile
Aug 07: Sao Paulo Espaco Das Americas, Brazil
Aug 12: Brasilia Net Live, Brazil
Aug 13: Fortaleza Siara Hall, Brazil
Aug 20: Ascuncion Independiente, Paraguay
Aug 22: Buenos Aires Luna Park, Argentina

Stef Lach

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.