Jeff Young, the former Megadeth guitarist, recently pushed back against claims made by Dave Mustaine during an interview on Full in Bloom. Young directly challenged Mustaine’s version of events surrounding his exit from the band and the premature cancellation of an Australian tour.
Responding to Mustaine’s allegation that Young was responsible for cutting the tour short due to heroin use, Young sharply rejected the accusation. “Yeah, that’s calling the kettle black if I ever heard,” Young said. “Blame-shifting. Is that what we call that? Cowardly lying. Buck passing. What do we call that? I think we all know who ran out of heroin. I think we all know Jeff Young didn’t have the power to cancel that tour.”
Young stressed that he lived a straight edge lifestyle during his time with Megadeth and suggested that this fundamental difference contributed to his brief stint in the group.
“I was a straight edge when I met those guys,” Young explained. “So you can imagine it wasn’t a great deal of fun for me. That probably speaks to why my tenure in the band was so short because I didn’t want to be around the junk.”
He also pointed to what he described as a recurring pattern of Mustaine publicly criticizing former Megadeth members. “He said negative things about Chris, Marty, me, Nick,” Young stated. “It’s a tradition, you know, and all of the ex-Megadeth members, we’re all friends and we have a commiseration society. Everyone’s cool but one person.”
The interview marks the latest development in a decades-long dispute between Young and Mustaine. According to Ultimate Guitar, Young has previously referred to Mustaine as a “pathological liar” in connection with the narrative surrounding the cancellation of the So Far, So Good… So What! tour. Young’s time in Megadeth spanned from 1987 to 1989, during which he appeared on the band’s 1988 album So Far, So Good… So What!, making his tenure notably brief.
In addition to disputing the heroin-related claims, Young has leveled more serious accusations about Mustaine’s behavior during their time together. Metal Underground reported that Young alleged Mustaine intentionally sabotaged his gear. “He was taking the fuses out of my amps,” Young stated. “He would put in fuses that were too low voltage so when I would go on stage they would blow up on me.” These claims suggest that the conflict extended beyond verbal disputes into deliberate backstage actions.
Despite the long-running animosity, there have been moments of attempted reconciliation. Blabbermouth previously reported that Young said he received a new letter of apology from Mustaine less than two months before a 2018 article, indicating that Mustaine has, at times, acknowledged fault. However, tensions have reignited in recent years, with Young continuing to challenge what he views as Mustaine’s revisionist account of their shared history.
The ongoing feud reflects a broader pattern of strained relationships between Mustaine and his former bandmates. Loudwire noted that Young has criticized Mustaine for minimizing the accomplishments of ex-members, with Mustaine reportedly claiming that only Marty Friedman—who later reunited with Megadeth in Japan—has “ever done anything significant.” Such remarks have further fueled resentment among Megadeth alumni, whom Young says remain connected through their shared experiences, forming what he calls a “commiseration society.”
