Megadeth mastermind Dave Mustaine has never been one to hold back an opinion, and when asked to name his favorite guitarist of all time, he turned the question into a full tour through the players who shaped him. Speaking with Jon Chang of “YSOLIFE“, a Taiwan-based music platform, the guitarist and vocalist began by drawing a line between the pre- and post-Yngwie Malmsteen eras of shredding.
“European guitar players, there’s so many really fast-picking guys, but ever since Yngwie [Malmsteen] came out, everybody else is just a really fast-picking guy. Before Yngwie, when a really great guitar player came on the scene, you had [Michael] Schenker [UFO and Scorpions], or you had Angus [Young, AC/DC], or you had James [Hetfield, Metallica] or myself, and we were really distinguished guitar players. You had the guys from [Iron] Maiden, but then there was this explosion, and there are so many guitar players now that are really good, especially because of the software that they can learn how to play with,” he said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth).
That led Mustaine to reflect on just how differently his own generation had to learn — long before slow-down apps and instructional software existed:
“When we started off, we didn’t have all these apps. We had to learn by lifting up the stylus on the record and scooting it back a couple grooves and dropping it and hoping it went in the same f**king spot so we could pick up our guitar and our pick at the right time and play along with the song again, until they started developing, cassette decks where you could slow stuff down or back it up real easy. But that was the way we learned stuff.
When he finally got down to naming names, Mustaine broke his picks into categories — and framed the whole lineup as the company he’d want around him for one final meal:
“So, I would have to say probably one of my favorite guitar players has a lot to do with the era that they came in. And I would say for guitar layering and sounds, it would be Jimmy Page [Led Zeppelin]. For excellent note selection, it would be David Gilmour [Pink Floyd]. For being metal as f**k back when there were no metal guitar players, Ritchie Blackmore [Deep Purple and Rainbow]. I am not a fan of the keyboard, so I could have had them be a little bit lighter shade of purple and gotten rid of the keyboard player. But, yeah, he was great. And then, of course, like I said, AC/DC and Angus and UFO with Michael Schenker. That’s my ‘last supper’ kind of thing I’d want, have those guys with me.”
The conversation comes as Mustaine winds down one of thrash metal’s defining careers. Megadeth‘s self-titled 17th album, the band’s final studio record, arrived on January 23 via Mustaine‘s Tradecraft imprint on Frontiers Label Group‘s new BLKIIBLK label, following 2022’s The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead! The record made history for the group, debuting at No. 1 on the U.S. album chart on the strength of 73,000 equivalent album units in the week ending January 29, according to Luminate, the vast majority of that, some 69,000, coming from pure album sales.
It marked Megadeth‘s first-ever U.S. chart-topper, and the album also hit No. 1 in Australia and Austria, with top-five placements across Finland, Sweden, Belgium, the U.K., Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and New Zealand. For the finale, Mustaine once again teamed with producer, mixer and engineer Chris Rakestraw, who had also worked on The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead! and 2016’s Dystopia. The band announced its plans to bow out with a farewell album and tour back in August 2025.
