Watch: MEGADETH Joined By FEAR's LEE VING For Performance Of 'Nothing Is Something' From MD.45

Lee Ving, frontman for the legendary punk band FEAR, joined MEGADETH on stage last night (Saturday, June 24) during the latter band's concert at MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre in Tampa, Florida to perform the song "Nothing Is Something" from Ving's 1996 collaboration with MEGADETH leader Dave Mustaine, MD.45. Video of Lee's appearance can be seen below.

Both FEAR and MEGADETH served as the support acts for MISFITS at the Tampa show, with the horror punk pioneers making their first Florida appearance featuring the classic lineup of original singer/songwriter Glenn Danzig and original bassist Jerry Only with longtime guitarist Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein.

In 1996, Ving and Mustaine released "The Craving", the sole album from the duo's side project MD.45. That version included vocals and harmonica by Ving. In 2004, Mustaine reworked the album, replacing Ving's tracks with his own. In Mustaine's 2011 autobiography, "Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir", he stated the change was "an effort to entice interest from MEGADETH fans who might have overlooked the original."

"The Craving", was a critically panned affair that featured a musical style once described by Mustaine as "the New Wave of British Heavy Metal crossed with a punk singer, and whatever influences the two of us have melted into one."

In a May 2020 interview with "The 80its" podcast, Ving said that the 2004 re-release of "The Craving" was done "without any notification or preparation, like notifying the guy who sang it first." When asked if Mustaine had contacted him since, Ving said that Mustaine had "not reached out in practically any way."

But Ving said that he wanted some closure to the matter. "In fact," Ving said of Mustaine, "if I knew how to call him, I would, just to get pressure off the matter. And we could be what friends we could be."

Back in 2004, Mustaine revealed in an online post that he got $250,000 from his then-record label Capitol to make the MD.45 album. But he claimed that Capitol "did not market MD.45 at all because it would have possibly interfered with their other priority, the successful band MEGADETH. However, the great people of EMI allowed me to go back in and re-issue this record, which I am totally pumped about."

Mustaine and Ving reportedly created the MD.45 band name by reversing their initials. Mustaine's reversed are "MD" and Ving's are "VL," which is 45 in Roman numerals.

Two decades ago, Mustaine told Classic Rock magazine that "a lot of" the music on "The Craving" "was intended for MEGADETH, but every time I turned around, Marty [Friedman, then-MEGADETH guitarist] had a solo record coming out; Nick [Menza, then-MEGADETH drummer] had his own solo project. Y'know, was this MEGADETH or not? I said, 'You don't see me going off to play with anybody else. If I'm not doing it, then none of you guys are. And if I do it, then we all can — but I might not come back.' By the time I got into the studio with Lee, I figured it was a case of goodbye. But we got back together after a little period of time."