Megadeth's career has been one of the most spectacular and musically innovative in the history of heavy metal. For nearly 20 years, U.S.-based Megadeth soldiered on under the extraordinary vision of founder, vocalist, lead guitarist and principal songwriter Dave Mustaine.

Both Mustaine and bass guitarist David Ellefson are devoted Christians. Ellefson says, "While I don’t consider myself to be a Christian artist, I am an artist who’s Christian and have been my whole life." 

However Megadeth mainman Dave Mustaine says he got saved in 2002. He told The Edmonton Sun that his Christian faith kicked up a notch while recovering from a nerve injury in his fretting hand. He couldn't play at all for more than a year. Megadeth was shelved — for good, he thought — but the "fire" kept burning.

"I had a pretty profound spiritual experience during the process, too," he says. "I believed in God my whole life, but I was never really ready to serve Him until I said these six simple words: 'What have I got to lose?'

"People say, oh, Dave became a Christian. They think I'm a pussy. I'm not. I'm still the same guy. If you make me angry, you still make me angry. It's just the way I'm going to respond to it."

"One of the things I decided early on is that I'm not going to go around telling people they're doing something wrong. That would've been the same as when everybody was doing this sobriety police stuff in the music industry, which I thought was absolutely pathetic."

Mustaine had these things to say in an HM magazine interview: "There are so many people out there who say they're Christians, and they're at church in the morning, but at night they're out drinking and carousing. And it's tough to live up to those ideals, it really is. And the worst part about it is, you know, in saying that someone's spiritual, it means more when it comes from someone else saying that you're a spiritual person, than you saying it."

"...I've seen more stuff than you could possibly ever see in your lifetime. And for me to have been able to live through it is like, you know, I know there's a reason. My own pastor said that I could do more by living my life right, playing hard, and doing my gigs, than going around saying, ‘Hallelujah, Jesus loves you.' And I know that God knows that too, so I don't do that shtick. It's all these hypo-Christians that go around and say, ‘You're bad! You're this, you're that.' You know, I live my life and I do my gig. I'm a father, I'm a husband. I'm loyal to my wife and family, and that's the best thing that I can do for them."

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