Ex-MEGADETH Guitarist JEFF YOUNG Discusses DAVE MUSTAINE On 'Westlake And The Pig' Show

Former MEGADETH lead guitarist Jeff Young will respond to the recent accusations made by the band's frontman, Dave Mustaine, during an appearance on JFL Radio's "Westlake and The Pig" show on Saturday, December 26. You won't want to miss this candid, no-holds-barred account of his MEGADETH years, including how Mustaine's alleged addiction affected the band.

"He wasn't going to take responsibility," Young said of Mustaine. "His jealousy towards me and how fast I claimed the spotlight in MEGADETH has never quite left..."

The "Westlake and The Pig" episode featuring the Jeff Young interview will air this Saturday, December 26 between 6 and 9 p.m. on JFL Radio. Tune in at jflradio.com, iTunes Radio (Classic Rock),Nokia Mobile, Stream Finder, or via select gaming systems.

A snippet from the interview is now available for streaming using the audio player below.

In a posting on the UFO Radar forum, Young stated about his time with MEGADETH, "Here's one point I want to make crystal clear: I WAS NOT a heroin addict in MEGADETH!! I was NOT on heroin in Japan so my memory of events is VERY clear regarding Mustaine's Australia B.S. story. I didn't drink, smoke ganja, drink coffee or take asprin, for that matter, during my entire stint with the band. I never played one single show under the influence of any substance. I thought that was clear from my comments in the 'Metal Years' movie. Even during my cancer and chemotherapy, I didn't even take the drugs they gave me to prevent neausea that results from the chemo... I should have smoked some weed, though, now that i think about it!! That's why what Mustaine said pissed me off so much.

"If you notice, I never responded to the Diana B.S., the Doro B.S., the Evian water B.S., the fact he paid my guitar tech to SPIT in my water bottle every fucking night! or any other personal crap that he spewed... that's all petty PERSONAL shit... I don't care about that. What I DO care about are the PROFESSIONAL-related issues, when some douche canoe takes credit for guitar solos that I wrote or improvised — because that falsely discredits my CREATIVE and MUSICAL ABILITIES. Or when he falsely accuses me of being on drugs, unreliable and a person that would cancel a performance on a whim... that's where I finally HAD to call BULLSHIT.

"Hey, it was the '80s, and with all the peer pressure in the DETH camp and add to that that we're hanging out with freakin' Slash... of course I gave it a try. I didn't shoot it... just snorted it... guess I wanted/needed to feel what Chris Poland felt before I could really interpret his solos to the fullest, LOL!

"Point being... I HATE cocaine or anything that makes me hyper — 'cause it makes your playing sound hyper (right, Dave?) but heroin is a whole different frequency. So, yeah, I tried it a few times but never enough to be addicted or experience any sort of withdraw symptoms. I never went to rehab — only for visits It was all just more lies from a master minipulator... and that's the whole truth and nothing but the truth."

Speaking to Tim Cashmere of Undercover during MEGADETH's October 2009 tour of Australia with SLAYER, Mustaine said (see video below),"We got banned down here [Australia] a long time ago because Jeff Young was playing guitar for us and we were all pretty messed up — heroin was really prevalent — and Jeff ran out in Japan. So he wanted to go home. Now, when I ran out, I just drank. [chuckles] But he wanted to go home. And we cancelled Australia. And consequently we stuck our head into a noose and we didn't come back here for 10 years. When we did come back here, we had a different promoter. We started to make amends to the Australian audience for what had happened.

"You know, it's a long way to come down here and to get people's hopes up and not come, that sucks. Especially because I'm sure it happens a lot. I'm sure there's a lot of people that say they're coming and they change their mind. So I don't wanna ever be like that again.

"So when we came down here, it was all about regaining the relationship with the Australian people. And the metal community here is very forgiving.

"I think if you are honest and you can say, 'Hey, look, we made a mistake...'

"I should have beat Jeff's butt and stuck him in a suitcase and went to Australia. [laughs] But, at the time, there was just no reasoning with him. This is the same guy that called up my girlfriend and said, 'I fantasize about having sex with you when I have sex with my girlfriend.' And I went, 'What did he say?' So I fired him on the spot for that. . . This happened [after the heroin incident]. 'Cause it was like the dust that accumulates makes mountains and this thing became like Mount Everest; it got to the point where it was like, 'No more.' 'Cause he opened up my suitcase one time and he found this love letter from Doro [Pesch] that she sent me. And he was in love with Doro, and he goes, 'I quit.' And his guitar tech came up to me and he goes, 'Hey, I can play his stuff tonight — don't worry, man.' I said, 'No, you can't. This stuff is so involved.' [laughs] And he goes, 'Well, if it makes you feel any better, I've been spitting in his water bottle every night.' And I went... [makes puking face]. 'Cause it was so disgusting to hear the guy do that."

Audio of Dave Mustaine talking to Undercover about Jeff Young (October 2009):

(Note: Another interview with Dave Mustaine where he makes a similar claim about Jeff Young can be found at The Metal Forge.)

Video footage of Dave Mustaine's October 2009 interview with Undercover in which he claims that MEGADETH's 1988 Australian tour was cancelled because Jeff Young ran out of heroin can be viewed below. (Note: The Jeff Young bit begins around the 6:39 mark.)