Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine: Bullies ‘Motivated Me to Play the Guitar’

Bullies may make life miserable for others, but every once in a while they inadvertently lead others toward greatness. Megadeth's Dave Mustaine reveals in a new interview with Seymour Duncan Pickups that being bullied led him toward playing the guitar.

When asked about how he developed his style of playing, Mustaine stated, "It's kind of like having someone slam your hand in the door of a car. You can either sit there and do nothing and accept the pain or you can open the door and go after and kick that guy's ass. That's basically what motivated me to play the guitar."

He adds, "There was a lot of things in my life I didn't like. I was getting picked on as a kid and was able to express myself through the guitar. When you're 13 and you're strawberry blonde and you're skinny and freckle-faced and you're going to a school where everybody is surfers, you get picked on."

Mustaine says he decided to find a way to not get picked on, so he began taking martial arts classes, but also noticed that when he went to parties, people loved the guy with the guitar. "I had gone to a bunch of keg parties," recalls Mustaine. "There was people playing there and I was like, 'Wow, everybody loves these guys because he's got a guitar.' And that's when I started playing. I was 13."

The rocker says that by playing the guitar, it raised his value to those people around him. All these years later, Mustaine is one of the most respected guitarists in all of music, not just metal. Check out the full interview with Seymour Duncan Pickups in the player above.

He's currently working with his band on a new album.

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