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The start of Megadeth - Killing Is My Business...And Business Is Good
Megadeth started in 1983 after Dave Mustaine got kicked out of Metallica and he knew he just had to do
something. After moving back to San Francisco from New York ( where he had been with Metallica ) in
1982, Dave started a band called "Fallen Angels, but it never got very far. The next year ( New Year's
Day, 1983 ) Dave up with met David Ellefson, "Dave Jr." after the New Year's party when Dave was very
hungover and Dave Jr., not knowing this, decided to practice his bass. The Dave's lived right above/below
eachother in an apartment complex, it seems, and so Dave, hungover as I said, got really angry at Dave Jr.
and, ledgend has it, threw a flower pot at Jr's window to show his dissapproval. But eventually, when he
was able to listen comfortably, he found that Jr. was a great player and they got together on better terms
and formed the core of Megadeth. Dave and Jr. eventually got hooked up with Kerry King ( yes, he's that guy
from Slayer ) for guitars, and Lee Rash, a drummer ( who has dissappeared since he left Megadeth ). So
now Megadeth was Lee, Dave, Jr., and Kerry. Dave wanted to find one more person to be the vocalist for the
band, but the only person they came across to do it was some freak with makeup all over him. This wasn't
very good, but it was the best they could find. So rather than have some freak as a vocalist, Dave decided
to give it a try. His friends called him the "angry whiner" or something along those lines since he had a
lot of difficulty handling both guitar and voice in the beginning. But he started to get better and better.
The King/ Rash/ Ellefson/ Mustaine lineup preformed several times ( most likely on five to ten occasions),
but Kerry left since he was also in Slayer at the time, so he had to make a choice between the two, and he
went with Slayer. Dave wasn't too happy with Kerry since Kerry had his "Slayer Image," which Dave says he
found "fairly poseur." Based on that, Kerry made the right decision. Slayer had been around before Megadeth,
and Kerry was more attached to them, although if he had wanted to saty with 'Deth, he could have. That
explains the comment in the thanks from KIMB...ABIG! which says "Slayer, for loaning Kerry ( or did you? )".
Lee's fate is unknown to me, but in any case, he was out of the band by 1984 and Gar Samuelson and Chris
Poland, who had been together for a long time already in a jazz fusion band, came in. This lineup released
a 3-track demo, and signed to Combat records. Their first experience in the studio was not a good one.
Combat gave them $8,000 to produce the album. But $4,000 of that went into the band members recreation;
i.e. drugs. After that, Combat forced them to make the album with just the remaining $4,000. This is why
the album sounds sort of rough. But in any case, Killing Is My Business... And Business Is Good! was
released on May 17th, 1985 and soon Megadeth had a small but loyal following. Of course a tour followed,
although not a very large one, but eveyone has to start somewhere. At least one branch of the tour was
called the 'Killing For A Living' tour, which a guy I know saw in a bar somewhere in Texas. Towards the
end, he had to make a decision; buy another few beers or get a shirt; he didn't have enough money for
both. So he went for the beer. Now he's all pissed off at himself. Anyway, Megadeth was soon back in
the studio for another go-round in the recording industry.
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