David Scott Mustaine (born September 13, 1961) is an American musician. He is the co-founder, frontman and primary songwriter of the thrash metal band Megadeth, as well as their sole consistent member.[2] Mustaine has released sixteen studio albums with Megadeth, sold over 50 million albums worldwide, with six albums platinum-certified, and won a Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance in 2017 at the 59th Grammy Awards, for the title track of their fifteenth studio album, Dystopia.[3]

Prior to forming Megadeth, Mustaine was the original lead guitarist of Metallica but did not appear on any albums. He was, however, credited on four songs from Kill 'Em All and two songs from Ride the Lightning. Mustaine was originally born into a family of Jehovah's Witnesses.[4] He now identifies as a born-again Christian.[5][6] Mustaine has been to rehab throughout his life, fighting alcohol and drug problems,[7][8] and briefly battled throat cancer in 2019.[9] Mustaine has been married to Pamela Anne Casselberry since 1991, with whom he has two children, Electra and Justis Mustaine.[10]

In a popular vote on internet forum Ultimate Guitar, Mustaine was ranked third in the top 25 rhythm guitarists of all time,[11] first in Joel McIver's book, The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists,[12] tenth in Loudwire's "66 Best Hard Rock + Metal Guitarists of All Time",[13] and third in their "10 Greatest Rhythm Guitarists in Rock + Metal".[14]