In a recent interview with Chaoszine ahead of Megadeth’s headline performance at the Kuopiorock Festival in Finland, Dave Mustaine gave an insight into the impact his parents had on him throughout his singing career. He shared how his family viewed it in the early days, starting with his father:
“My dad was already deceased by the time I performed for the first time. He may have heard me in church when I was going to Sunday school as a little boy, but it had no bearing on my adult voice.”
Then, the vocalist revealed his mother’s approach by saying:
“My mom was a Jehovah’s Witness, so she basically had been conditioned by that religion to believe that I was Pagan and that I was going to hell and that she shouldn’t associate with me. And that if she did, this religion would ostracize her and do something called ‘disfellowship.'”
Giving more information about her religion, he went on:
“Even if it wasn’t that bad, they disassociate you either way. They brand you, and they shun you in this religion. You still have to go to church, but they shun you. Who wants to be part of that crap? Not me. I’m going there for God, not for man.”
The singer explained if his mother’s views changed and added:
“So, you know, I don’t really know how she felt about it. I know she was excited after a while. I was the black sheep in the family, and I was her failure until I became the greatest success our family has ever had.”
In his old interviews, Mustaine revealed that while his mother was religiously strict, his father was an alcoholic. So, when a Kerrang interviewer asked him to comment on his parents’ effect on his childhood in 2021, the Megadeth frontman gave more details and explained:
“It was terrible. My dad drank a lot and was abusive, so my parents got divorced when I was young, and it got worse from there. We moved up to Costa Mesa to move in with my aunt, who was a Jehovah’s Witness, and that’s when my mum became one too. They don’t believe in Christmas, birthdays or holidays. My life was ruined from that point onwards until I moved out.”
Still, Dave Mustaine paid tribute to his father and mother after their deaths through his songs. For his father, the vocalist came up with the 1986 track ‘The Conjuring.’ For his mother, he wrote the 1994 song ‘A Tout Le Monde.’