Dave Mustaine: 'If People Don't Like You, They're Gonna Throw Sh*t'

2 August 2023 | 2:35 pm | Mary Varvaris
Originally Appeared In

"Don't get up there acting like a spoiled f*cking brat and telling them not to throw stuff."

Megadeth @ Margaret Court Arena

Megadeth @ Margaret Court Arena (Credit: Nick Jack)

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Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine has weighed in on the fans throwing items at artists while they’re on stage discourse, which began in June.

Throwing items at artists has become a hot-button topic in recent months. “Have you noticed how people are like, forgetting fucking show etiquette at the moment?”Adele recently asked.

In a video captured by the Twitter account Pop Crave, Adele issued the audience with a challenge: “I fucking dare you,” she said, touting a t-shirt gun, shooting a shirt into the crowd after saying, “Dare you to throw something at me and I’ll fucking kill you.”

Adele’s threat came after a series of recent incidents that included a flying object hitting Harry Styles in the faceP!nk receiving a bag of a fan’s mother’s ashes while she was headlining Hyde Park’s British Summer Time festival, American pop singer Bebe Rexha was rushed off the stage after a phone was hurled at her face, US pop star Ava Max promised that one fan would “never [be] coming to a show again” after she was slapped on stage and country music singer Kelsea Ballerini was struck by what looked like a bracelet at a recent concert. This week, rapper Cardi B threw a microphone at a fan after they chucked a drink at her.

It’s become such a significant phenomenon that The Music had to investigate and label the behaviour as The Death Of Concert Etiquette.

“If people don't like you, they're gonna throw shit,” Mustaine said in a new interview with SVT, coming at the issue with a point of view likely influenced by an era where fans threw bottles of urine and live bats at bands in the 80s and 90s.

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He added, “Maybe it's graduated from rotten tomatoes to dildos; I don't know. But if you're giving them a great show, they're not gonna do that — they're not gonna do that. So don't get up there acting like a spoiled fucking brat and telling them not to throw stuff.”

Earlier this year, Megadeth performed at the inaugural Knotfest Australia and brought the Symphony Of Destruction to Melbourne’s Margaret Court Arena. You can read Kill Your Stereo’s review of the headline show here, and check out our Knotfest Sydney and Brisbane reviews.