In a recent appearance on Steve-O’s Wild Ride!, Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine took aim at Metallica’s manager, calling him “gutless” for an insensitive remark made while Mustaine was facing serious neck surgery before the Big Four concert at Yankee Stadium in 2011.
The Big Four tour, which celebrated thrash metal, saw Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax on stage together. However, Mustaine almost missed the final performance due to a neck injury that required urgent surgery.
“When the host asked if headbanging affected my performance, I told him, ‘In the beginning, it was a big difference for me because I couldn’t move,’” Mustaine recalled. “I remember we were scheduled to play Yankee Stadium for the Big Four concert the same day they found out that I needed my neck fused together.”
Mustaine went on to reveal a shocking story about his interaction with his manager while he was preparing for surgery. “So, I’m lying on the emergency table, and my manager says, ‘Oh, Metallica’s manager called you a p*ssy because you’re going to get your neck fused together and you’re not going to come out here and play instead,’” Mustaine shared.
He was clearly upset by the remark. “I thought that’s a gutless thing to say,” Mustaine continued. “I’m laying here getting ready to have back surgery, and you call me a p*ssy? So I had the doctor stitch me up, inject me full of all kinds of steroids and sh*t. I went and played the concert and then I went back and had the surgery.”
Earlier this year, Mustaine elaborated on the neck injury in an interview with Ultimate Classic Rock. He explained how the ordeal affected both his voice and his performance style. “I had my neck fused together and a plate put in my vocal box area. That’s changed a lot of stuff because my voice has been limited because of trying to save my ability to walk,” Mustaine said, emphasizing the importance of preserving his mobility.
The injury itself, Mustaine revealed, was caused by an accident with a chiropractor. “I went to a chiropractor, and he had adjusted me while he was angry at something and broke a bone in my neck,” he explained. “I lived with it for a few years in agonizing pain. I finally got an X-ray, and they said, ‘You need to get your neck fixed now.’” The timing was critical, as it was just days before the Big Four concert at Yankee Stadium.
Despite being in excruciating pain, Mustaine managed to perform at the iconic show. “The day of the concert, I flew out right before it, and I was on so much anti-inflammatory steroidal medicine just so I could walk because my neck was about to stop working,” he recalled. “But I went out and played, and we had all kinds of tape all over the stage that said, ‘Do not headbang.’”
Mustaine’s determination to perform under such extreme conditions highlighted the immense physical toll he was enduring, as well as the emotional strain caused by the insensitive comments from those around him.
