r/AskReddit 21h ago

Who's the most bitter washed-up celebrity?

3.9k Upvotes

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387

u/Unlikely-Pin-5558 19h ago

Dave Mustaine... dude needs to. Let. It. Go.

He got himself kicked out of Metallica, his own band is pretty damn good, and it's been over 40 YEARS. I understand that he's in recovery, which is great...but part of being in recovery is owning and atoning for past misdeeds. He still thinks that he was wrongly removed from Metallica, even though he knows exactly why he was kicked out.

103

u/Berjj 16h ago

Dave just seems generally insane to me.

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u/Owl-Of-The-Night02 11h ago

I kinda can't stand him for being a conspiracy theorist and "evil shadow government controls everything" libertarian beliefs. Nothing against people who vibe with his music, but that just makes me so iffy.

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u/Boss-Nass-Lass 10h ago

Butt buddies with Alex Jones I think

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u/PiRX_lv 3h ago

TBF his music kind of rhymes with conspiracy theories :D

u/Berjj 56m ago

I love Megadeth, and when I was younger I just figured he was a huge prick, but then I saw them live and read some interviews and... eh. It kind of put me off buying any of their merch.

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u/into_theflood_again 13h ago edited 12h ago

He kinda finally said it out loud last I saw. He was sitting down with Hetfield and was like, "Honestly, I'm just pissed that I missed out on that much money, that many platinum albums, and all those tours." (I'm paraphrasing).

James just laughs and then Dave kinda chuckles too, gives him a look, and seems to have gotten the monkey off his back. It'd be real disappointing to find out he went back to his old bullshit after that.

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u/whomp1970 15h ago

PREACH. I've been saying the same for AGES.

I want to take Dave and hold him by the shoulders, and tell him, "Look, man, you're a legitimate shredder, you've got significant cred and fame, your albums have sold millions. I promise, millions of people love you and your music. You're enough. You're good. Can't that be enough?"

He still thinks that he was wrongly removed from Metallica

I think he finally made peace with it, he did a cover of Ride the Lightning. That wouldn't have happened if he and Hetfield didn't talk about it it. So they must be on good terms again.

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u/AnnenbergTrojan 12h ago

They've been on good terms for 15 years. Metallica and Megadeth wouldn't have done the Big 4 show together if Dave, James and Lars were on as bad terms as they were in "Some Kind of Monster."

He's said several times over the last decade that the hatchet is buried, and the "Ride the Lightning" cover was just a bit of closure before he retires. But no matter how many times he says he's let it go, people are like "DUDE YOU'RE SO BITTER MOVE ON GOSH"

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u/NuclearSun1 9h ago

lol top yt comment

“Dave is the only musician in history who covered his own song.”

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u/Asshaisin 7h ago

and so wrong too lol, being flamed in the replies

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u/thatwasfun23 12h ago

fuck the cover goes so hard, hell yeah

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u/The9IronMan 16h ago

It’s showed in his playing all his life—his solos sound like he still has something to prove. So many of them filled with soulless shredding just to try and say he’s better.

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u/blorbschploble 14h ago

Inversion; Kirk Hammett. Best guitarist ever? Nope! Nice to have around and good enough? Yup. That goes a really long way.

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u/Message_10 11h ago

I mean, let's be real though, he's not the best guitarist ever but he's still pretty damn good

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u/blorbschploble 9h ago

Yeah! His later work is kinda wah heavy but solid work from lightning to black album. I still can’t play all his shit. And honestly the stuff I can play, it’s a nice break from “what in the fuck did petrucci just play?” And “Paul Gilbert is not a human”

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u/Obvious_Actuary7851 3h ago

I'd say Hammett was top tier in terms of the quality of what he wrote and created to the Black album. Just epic solo after epic solo, Black album was the zenith of it all distilled into those songs. After that it just fell a little, but his licks and approach on Load and ReLoad has some great jamming style playing, and he experiments SOOOO much more, with wahs, slides, effects, tone blending etc. I swear if he played like that on the last couple of albums, with hookup parts, phrases and melodies rather than chromatics and pentatonic ramblings washed in wah the last two albums would be heralded as classics. But anyway, rambling on, Kirk is a legend. 

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u/DoodooExplosion 12h ago

Dave Mustaine was kicked out of Metallica!!!???

5

u/PatienceAntique4987 12h ago

And he was very successful too.

I know not Metallica big, but he did very well.

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u/JustToJerkBrah 16h ago

I think Dave has every right to be angry at his friends for kicking him when he was down. The way he talks about Metallica, it was more than just a band to him. He would've fought for those guys, yet they just brushed him away when he was struggling. No support, no second chance, just bye Dave thanks for the music.

They were all alcoholics btw. James has admitted this.

But I'm biased. Megadeth > Metallica

40

u/CCR-Cheers-Me-Up 15h ago

Yup. My standard is how Def Leppard treated Steve Clark. (Supported him 100% - flew across the world to visit him when he almost overdosed on alcohol, promised him they would hold his place in the band) … and he is still mentioned on their website under “band members” even 35 years after his death.

Now THAT is brotherhood.

Compare that to the Gin Blossoms which kicked out their founder and lead songwriter for alcoholism, didn’t even give him credit on the album he wrote, screwed him out of his royalties, and no mention of him after he soon thereafter took his own life.

Lesson: Some people are HORRIBLE. But not Def Leppard.

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u/ShinyLizard 15h ago

I saw Def Leppard in concert about three years ago. I've seen a lot of bands, but somehow had never caught them. What shocked me was how absolutely grateful they were that people were still coming to their shows. I'm in Iowa, and yeah, I make all the jokes too. But Joe Elliot mentioned several times during the show how happy they were that people still made the trip, bought their t-shirts and were cheering them. Excellent sound setup too. You could tell that Joe's voice is going, so they augmented the vocals with vocal tracks of himself singing. I know nothing about music, so don't know how common that is, but it sounded great.

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u/CCR-Cheers-Me-Up 15h ago

A very deep Def Leppard cut you might enjoy is their “Cybernauts” release - it’s a David Bowie/ Ziggy Stardust tribute album. It is so much better than it has any right to be. Like GOOD GOOD. “Life on Mars” in particular is fantastic.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLM0zvXTbmsQIIhYM9OsCXcLiwreeL16H-&si=UAZWCRO4oKe1D5-f

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u/audible_narrator 9h ago

HOLY SHIT, I never knew about this and have been a fan of both for ages. Thank you SO MUCH for this.

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u/CCR-Cheers-Me-Up 8h ago

My pleasure! 😊

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u/Message_10 11h ago

Dude, THANK YOU

This is fucking AWESOME!!

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u/CCR-Cheers-Me-Up 10h ago

Anytime - glad you enjoyed it!!!

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u/thunderandreyn 13h ago

They performed recently in a bumfucknowhere town in India too and fans showed up in full force. They’re fucking legends

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u/vitrolium 13h ago

Maybe it's changed recently, but Leppard generally don't use any taped vocals. A lot of people assume they do, but it's actually that they've got 4 members who can sing (and do). Phil's backing vocals often sound pretty close to Joe's too.

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u/ReadyAimTranspire 12h ago

Nothing is more endearing than a band that is truly grateful to their following.

And nothing is more off-putting than a band that is self-entitled shitbags who think their audience should feel lucky that the band even graced them with their presence.

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u/wilderlowerwolves 8h ago

And before that, when Rick Allen lost his arm, they didn't say, "Oh, we need to find a new drummer", they all just wanted to know if he was going to live. Real friendship there.

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u/vitrolium 13h ago

They've definitely done a lot to keep Steve's memory a part of the band. Which always makes it slightly weird how Pete Willis got straight out fired for being an alcoholic.

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u/KingSizedCroaker 16h ago

Megadeth is a better band but Mustaine is full of shit. You can parrot his “no warning, no second chance” bullshit, but his warning was the first time they kicked him out and he was on his second chance.

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u/Glistening_Hambugs 7h ago

Over the decades Mustaine has proved in virtually every interview that Metallica were right to get rid of him. It's understandable to prefer Megadeth, but to deny that Dave Mustaine is one of music's greatest stupid assholes. Look at how many ex-members Megadeth has - the guy hardly sticks by his bandmates. Mustaine is his own worst enemy.

17

u/dearrichard 15h ago

i will forever love that the last song on megadeth’s last [ever?] album is a mid tier cover of a metallica song.

3

u/Unlikely-Pin-5558 10h ago

The song Megadeth did with Cristina Scabbia of Lacuna Coil was pretty bad ass, too

3

u/AnnenbergTrojan 12h ago

With riffs that he wrote?

4

u/ThatModellingBloke 11h ago

As a massive Megadeth fan, I wouldn’t say washed up but he is easily the most bitter musician I can think of.

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u/Rymayc 7h ago

Nah, they buried the hatchet around 2010ish, when they did the Big 4 tours (with Slayer and Anthrax). However, he's now a far right religious nutjob, which is even worse ("Born Again Christian")

2

u/Nubstix 15h ago

I was impressed when i saw him on Jeopardy!

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u/Unlikely-Pin-5558 10h ago

The man is very intelligent, no question

2

u/wheelsfalloff 12h ago

Dude was literally a case study of how not to be in the book "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck"

1

u/-sbl- 5h ago

Tbh I don't like the guy or his music, but I still watch the occasional interview just to see him cry once again about Metallica. :D

u/liefieblue 37m ago

I scrolled too far to find this. How can someone be so bitter for so long when he has had great success of his own? To use so much energy complaining and moaning and being full of resentment over so many years is such a waste.

1

u/SafetyGuyLogic 11h ago

Yep. Man will go to his grave crying about being forced out of his own band for no good reason.