DAVE MUSTAINE Says His Trust In God Helped Him Get Through Yankee Stadium Concert

MEGADETH frontman Dave Mustaine risked permanent injury while performing at the "Big Four" concert yesterday (Wednesday, September 14) at Yankee Stadium in New York City with METALLICA, ANTHRAX and SLAYER. "I was in a hospital [Tuesday] morning, so I'm going home to get [neck] surgery right after this," he told Rolling Stone magazine before the show (see video below). "It's pretty bad. If I move wrong tonight, I could be paralyzed."

He added, "We called yesterday and said I couldn't make [the gig]. And then I thought about it and I thought, 'You know what? I trust God and I know He's got me in His hands. I know that He hasn't brought me this far through all this adversity and done all this reconciliation with all the [other] bands [the bill] and us all getting along this well to have the finale show [of the 'Big Four' tour] here in the States stopped. And I just thought, either God's everything or it's nothing, and I believe in Him, so that's why I'm here."

Regarding the nature of his injury, Mustaine said, "It's [caused by] years of headbanging just doing this [moving head up and down] over the years. I have what's called stenosis three herniated discs and bone spurs everywhere. It's just a lot of wear and tear over my body over the years touring."

He continued, "We've had to push our Dubai date back to December and we may end up having to push our South American tour back, too, because they say the healing time is somewhere around two months. And even I [undergo the neck surgery] in the next three days, I'm not gonna be able to be fully recovered within that two-month period unless I work my butt off. I mean, I know I how I am I got my hand back after I got injured the first time. The funny thing is it's the same hand and almost the same thing. It's just that it happened once before, went away and now it's back. So I'm gonna try and figure out how I'm gonna play tonight. But I've got the will power and I've got the determination and I've got my God and I'll be fine."

MEGADETH's new single, "Public Enemy No. 1", has just been released digitally via iTunes. The song comes off the band's new album, "TH1RT3EN", which is scheduled for release on November 1 via Roadrunner Records. The CD was recorded at Mustaine's Vic's Garage studio in San Marcos, California with producer Johnny K (full name: John Karkazis),who has previously worked with DISTURBED, SEVENDUST, MACHINE HEAD and STAIND, among others. The artwork was once again created by artist John Lorenzi, who worked on the last two MEGADETH studio albums, 2007's "United Abominations" and 2009's "Endgame", as well as the band's 2007 box set, "Warchest".