When guitarist Dave Mustaine’s arm was left uncomfortably numb, it looked like the end of the road for the band. Not so, learns Neil McKay.
Megadeth star Dave Mustaine returns to Belfast next week, having beaten a freak injury that threatened to curtail his career as a heavy metal legend.
Doctors told Mustaine that he would never play the guitar again after he severely damaged nerves in his left arm. But two years on, Mustaine and Megadeth have a new album out, are back on tour, and, he maintains, playing better than ever.
It was in January 2003 that Mustaine’s world was thrown into turmoil completely without warning.
He explains: “I slept on my arm, that’s how simple it was, and when I woke up I had nerve damage to the [left] arm. It was crazy, I woke up and the arm was dead.
“I thought it was going to be OK, that the numbness would soon go away, but it took four months to get the feeling back in the arm.
“The doctor said that I would never be able to play guitar again and that I would be lucky if I got 80% use of my arm back.
“When he told me that it was a low moment, I tell you, I was very gloomy. For a second I thought, ‘That sucks’, then I realised that I wasn’t going to settle for that. I’ve never been a quitter and I was going to make sure I beat this thing.
