MEGADETH guitarist and vocalist Dave Mustaine has named his all-time favorite guitar players in a new interview with Jon Chang of YSOLIFE, a Taiwan-based music media platform.
Asked about the state of modern guitar playing, Mustaine argued that a single virtuoso reset the bar for everyone who followed. "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," he said, suggesting that Malmsteen's neoclassical shred style flattened the individuality that once defined the instrument.
Mustaine also reflected on how differently his own generation learned to play, long before instructional apps and slow-down software existed. "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 fucking 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."
When pressed for specific names, Mustaine tied his picks to the eras that shaped him: Jimmy Page of LED ZEPPELIN, for his guitar layering and tone; David Gilmour of PINK FLOYD, for his note selection; Ritchie Blackmore of DEEP PURPLE and RAINBOW, whom he called "metal as fuck back when there were no metal guitar players"; Angus and Malcolm Young of AC/DC; and Michael Schenker of UFO.
The list echoes comments Mustaine made to Heavymetal.dk back in 2018, when he also singled out Page and the Young brothers as formative influences, saying he values a strong hook above technical complexity: "I think that's what's suffering with music nowadays — people are trying to be so fucking cerebral with their music."
The interview arrives months after MEGADETH's self-titled album, produced by Chris Rakestraw, debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 in January with 73,000 equivalent album units, alongside top-five chart placements in Australia, Austria, Finland and Sweden. Mustaine announced last August that the record would effectively cap the band's active career, though he later clarified that a farewell tour could stretch on for another three to five years. MEGADETH, formed in 1983 after Mustaine's split from METALLICA, released its debut album two years later.