#1861 - Dave Mustaine

Joe Rogan (0:04)

The Joe Rogan Experience.

Dave Mustaine (0:15)

Here we are, finally.

Joe Rogan (0:16)

I'm excited to talk to you, man. You've had a wild ride for a life.

You really have. I love people like you.

Dave Mustaine (0:22)

I always get my hands on the wheel.

Joe Rogan (0:23)

Yeah, no, obviously you're here, right?

Dave Mustaine (0:27)

Yes, sir.

Joe Rogan (0:27)

Yeah, and what a fucking wild ride, though. I mean, everything. Your religious background, being the first Metallica.

I mean, it's pretty wild. What is it like looking back? Does it seem... I mean, being a part of Megadeth and being a part of Metallica, like you're rock loyalty.

Dave Mustaine (0:51)

Thanks, thanks.

First off, thanks for having me on. My pleasure.

It's a pleasure. I'm stoked to be here. Yeah, what was it like? There's so much to explain. Of course, you know, being a showbiz, that there's different degrees of how excited you can get. And then you have one of those days and it's like, yeah, shit, it'll never be better than this. And then, you know, you keep working hard. You keep applying yourself, associating with the right people. And there's always gonna be another level. My sensei out in California, I used to train with Sensei Benny, the Jet, you key this?

Joe Rogan (1:28)

One of the all-time greats.

Dave Mustaine (1:30)

Yeah, yeah, that's my first black belt came from Sensei Benny.

Joe Rogan (1:33)

That's amazing. We had the Jet Center?

Dave Mustaine (1:35)

Yeah, I'm number 17, so...

Joe Rogan (1:37)

When I went to California, that was one of the first places I went to. I wanted to go to the Comedy Store and I wanted to go to the Jet Center.

Dave Mustaine (1:43)

That got ruined in the earthquake of Northridge.

Joe Rogan (1:45)

Yeah, I was there right afterwards. And when the rains came, the roof was all fucked up and they wound up having to close the place down.

Then he had a place in North Hollywood for a while.

Dave Mustaine (1:55)

Yeah, that was over by Vaughn's. I went there a couple of times, but just didn't have the magic that the Jet Center did. No, it didn't, right? Knowing Bill Superfoot Wallace and Chuck Norris and all these greats had gone in there.

Joe Rogan (2:04)

And Blinky Rodriguez.

Dave Mustaine (2:05)

Blinky, Blinky. I was really close to Blinky. My wife had trained with Sensei Lily Rodriguez, too, for her unfortunate passing.

Joe Rogan (2:13)

I met her as well.

Dave Mustaine (2:14)

Yeah, she was a badass.

Joe Rogan (2:16)

When did she pass?

Dave Mustaine (2:17)

She was probably in the last 10 years or so. I remember that there was a lot of talk about her and June Castro at the time about who was the toughest. And she had fought June, and June broke her leg. And I can't remember how long she had continued to defend herself before she stopped. I think actually someone stopped it. But yeah, just amazing stories of resilience in that family. Really gave me a lot of encouragement and a lot of the drive to get out of the mess that I was no doubt going to end up in if I hadn't fallen in love with the art.

Joe Rogan (2:51)

Found something like that. And what a great place to do it, too, because that family, those people, Benny, Blinky, Lily, all those people that were attached to them, too, that's a giant part of the history of kickboxing in America.

I mean, they were the elite of the elite. Benny was the baddest motherfucker ever during his time.

Dave Mustaine (3:12)

Yes, he was.

Joe Rogan (3:12)

People don't realize, you go back and watch those tapes of Benny Arquites when he was young. Like, it's kind of like lost on some people for some reason, but he was phenomenal.

Dave Mustaine (3:22)

Yeah, it's sad to watch how he dismantles people. There was a fight that I have one of his tapes. I have all of his tapes, but one in particular that I really like. He'd gone to Thailand and he was fighting a guy. He said, look, I'll come to your country, fight your rules, your champ, your ring, whatever. And he went there. And you know, all I can compare it to is in Star Wars where they have those guys with the big hat, you know, the big forehead, the Klingons, whatever they are. But since the Benny had kicked him across his forehead with a shin kick so many times that his whole entire forehead just had this contusion on it, looked like almost like a Darth Vader helmet, you know, after he'd had his head cut. And it was in a way, I guess, you know, maybe he was taunting him a little bit, you know.