Megadeth Throws Mega Number One Party in LaVergne

Legendary metal band, Megadeth, threw quite a party last Sunday at the NOZ Entertainment compound in LaVergne. The #1 Album celebration brought in hardcore fans from all over the world.

Megadeth frontman, Dave MustaineIt has made his home right here in middle Tennessee for the past decade and the band shows no signs of slowing down. Justin Wray, freelance music reporter and also a Megadeth fan was there with photographer Jay Parr to cover the event. Here’s how it went:

The Party and The Fans
It was the start of Summer, 1987.  Riding shotgun in my buddy Andy’s crappy Chevy Luv Pickup Truck, which he recently got after turning 15; heading to the beach for a Saturday morning dawn patrol surf session.

Then it happened; he cranked up the stereo (I think there was one speaker), when “Peace Sells” started to play.  Andy looked over at me and beamed “This is my favorite band, Megadeth, and I am going to see them live this summer”!

As I walked around the NOZ Entertainment studios (1 and 2 of 3) in La Vergne, TN on Sunday night, I heard stories like my own, time and again.  You never forget the first-time hearing Megadeth play, whether it is from the radio, a buddy handing you a mix-tape, a friend burning a CD for you, or even more special, your first Megadeth concert!

I talked to fans from around the country and beyond. Take Mike W. from Southern Indiana.  Like myself, he heard Peace Sells for the first time as a Senior in High School and fell in love with Megadeth’s raw emotions and playing style.

Tom and Lee, originally from NYC, ranked Megadeth as one of their Top 3 bands of all time, and they have seen A LOT of Rock concerts between the two of them! They’ve already seen Megadeth 20 times, after a cousin introduced Tom to the band’s music at AGE 8!!!  Just a few short years later when Tom was 12, the same cousin sneaked him into a Megadeth concert.  Yeah, you remember when you could just slide under a fence or get boosted over a concrete wall to see a performance; we’ve all done it. Tom and Lee LOVE that Dave (Mustaine) never sold out; never caved to the mainstream demands; and stayed true to himself.

I next met Alexander and Luba, who travelled 4500 miles from Hamburg, Germany to get to Nashville, then without a rental car, walked the last 2 miles from their hotel on Waldron Road to get to the studio today.  It didn’t matter; they were so amped up to meet Dave Mustaine and the rest of the band.  Alexander first heard Megadeth when he was 12 years old, and Youthanasia hit the charts.  From there he was hooked.  He later started playing guitar, jamming along with his friends, and later joined Megadeth’s cyber army.  When he got an email message from Megadeth a few weeks ago in February, announcing this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet and chat with the entire band, he and Luba didn’t hesitate to lock in their trip to the states.

Clearly there is a common theme: young listeners, some with aspirations of becoming a musician, or at least playing an instrument, (much like Dave Mustaine himself has spoken about during countless interviews,) fell in love with Megadeth’s sound.  Not all in attendance were Gen Xers like me.  There was a smattering of Boomers, Millennials and Gen Z’s.

Ryan S. was also 12 years old when he first heard Megadeth.  Ryan cut lawns, hauled brush, and baked under the hot sun for an entire summer to pay for the entire digitally remastered collection for $500; nearly every penny he earned back in 2004.  In listening to Ryan speak, a new theme started to emerge.  The fans truly do love Dave Mustaine and are extremely grateful for the impact he’s had on their lives.  Ryan appreciates Dave’s reserved personality, and personally thanked Dave for taking the time out to chat with him when Ryan was just 14 years old and attended his first Gigantour festival.  Ryan cherishes that festival’s ticket lanyard as one of his prized memorabilia (even though he forgot to bring it this trip…lol).  During that Gigantour festival, Ryan was one of a handful of fans at the meet and greet more than a decade ago, who had a long and meaningful conversation with Dave Mustaine.  

Mark from Columbus, OH, admittedly, was in the 80’s a hardcore Megadeth fans.  As life would have it, time spent listening to Heavy Metal slowly subsided.  It wasn’t until 2.5 weeks ago when a buddy of his saw on Megadeth’s FB page that there was going to be this celebration with the new album highlighted where it was recorded outside of Nashville, TN.  Mark saw this as a sign: he had to go.  His initial memories of the band were imprinted upon him in 1988, when he traveled to Daytona to see the band perform with Dio and Savantage on the Dream Evil tour. (I later would stand behind Mark during the performance, listening to him belt out the lyrics, as every other ardent fan was doing throughout the show.)

For the (let us just say 250 ) select fans in attendance on Sunday night, the experience was truly worth every penny.  I first spied Dave Mustaine, being shadowed by Justis, his son, just after 5:30 PM in Studio 2.  I was not expecting the band members to start mingling with their fans for another full hour!  Keep in mind, that there were still probably 100 fans who hadn’t even passed through “Security” yet, to obtain their color-coded wristbands. If you weren’t focused on the delicious small bites: smashburger sliders, pulled pork sandwiches, basted wings, veggie sticks, hush puppies, antipasto salad cups, or some other appetizer with Shrimp that would have caused me to have a medical emergency, but was Jay Parr’s favorite; you may have had a better shot at some 1:1 time with a band member.  Naturally, Dave attracted the most attention, but it was Dirk Verbeuren the drummer, who set up camp just inside of Studio 2 next to the Megadeth skull sculpture, AKA “Vic Rattlehead”, who probably took the most selfies with people.  Reminding me of a Dark Elf from my DnD playing days, Teemu, was, at first, nonchalantly perusing the bountiful Merch table, chock full of signed memorabilia.  It did not take long for one of his fans to strike up a conversation near the catering table, and then he could barely move for the next 1.5 hours or so.  Similarly, James Lomenzo, the bassist, was super chill in his sunglasses, chatting it up with many of his fans close to the appetizer tables.

Another highlight of the evening was when Dagwood from Nashville’s 102.9 The Buzz radio station, let everyone know when it was time to get in line for their photo’s with the band.  Since Dave and his mates spent nearly 90 minutes hanging out with their fans, I was fearful that we’d get through the photo session before the 9:15 PM planned concert start time, but thanks to Alyssa and Abby with NOZ Entertainment, they successfully ushered all of us through the queue in time for a 9: 30-ish start time.  So, to this point, 4.5 hours in, fans had been treated to excellent food, 1.5 hours of meet and greet with the band, the opportunity to score some sweet swag from the Merch table, and ample time to chat it up with fellow fans.

9:15 rolls around; the photos with the band is near it’s close, and it is time to ROCK!  You can peruse the full setlist here (setlist.fm), but this was truly a treat. In addition to the ringing in my ears from the performance, equally loud were the non-stop chants of “I love you Dave; “We love you, Dave; ME-GA-DETH, ME-GA-DETH”…on repeat between songs.

IYKYK, but this Album is the BOMB!  My buddy Dave, a HS teacher here in town, shot me the recording of “Ride the Lightning” last month on Feb 12^th.  Ever since then, I have been listening to the full album almost non-stop.  It is powerful, addictive, full of energy, and reminds you of everything you loved about Thrash metal back in the 80’s.

Performance and awards
After the first song, Mechanix, which symbolically is off of their 1985 debut album, Dave mused: “You know, this is about the size of venue which we used to play at when this released, when we were ‘Really, Really, Big’.  Could the 24-year-old frontman ever conceive that his band and career would span over 40 years, over 50 million albums sold, and we haven’t even seen what will happen with this 17^th “White Album” over the next 6-12 months.

Well, the numbers are already in folks.  Following the epic 10-song set, the fans were treated before the encore: Holy Wars, with not 1, but 4 award presentations to the band.  A truly remarkable feat after all these years, and if I may say so, snubs.

1. Clay Bradley, VP of Creative and Claire Dodelin, AD of Creative from BMI presented Dave and the band with a plaque for Tipping Point reached No 1 on the Hard Rock Digital Song Sales chart.
2. Ben Bernstein and Aaron Meyer (sp?) from the Orchard presented Dave and the band with a plaque for the Album’s first in career, Billboard 200 Debut as the #1 album. Can you believe it?  Dave was thanked for his trust in the process, vision, and passion in making this album.
3. Tim Bailey from Back to Black Records presented Dave and the band with a plaque for Global Impact: the Album reached number 1 in Australia, plus the Top 5 in 5 more countries, including Finland, Sweden, Belgium, the U.K., Germany; and is in the Top 5 in 11 more markets!
4. Dave’s son Justis, along with Jeff and some others, presented Dave and the band with a plaque for the final studio album, which provided a long-awaited #1 debut to close out the 40-year career.  In all, I believe 3 songs off of this one album alone debuted at #1.  What a feat!  Poignantly, Dave held up his hand and pointed at Justis saying “That’s my boy”.  What a blessing for this proud father to have his son play such an integral part in the Production of not only the album, but in the entire business operation. 

As the Encore, “Holy Wars” was wrapping up at 10:45 PM, I thought to myself:  All of Dave Mustaine’s fans clearly love the man, the band, the music that is written and recorded, and agree that: “ He came, he ruled” (Lyrics from “The last note”)…and now he’ll (hopefully) not disappear, but continue to grace us, his fans, with additional songs written and/ or produced, if not performed, by Dave Mustaine.  Thank you, Dave and the Megadeth band, and fan club members, for such a memorable evening. 

–Justin Wray