Megadeth Frontman Endorses Santorum
File this one under odd political pairings of the day:
Dave Mustaine, leader of the heavy metal band Megadeth, is ready to rock out for Rick Santorum.
“Earlier in the election, I was completely oblivious as to who Rick Santorum was, but when the dude went home to be with his daughter when she was sick, that was very commendable,” Mustaine recently told MusicRadar.com. “… You know, I think Santorum has some presidential qualities, and I’m hoping that if it does come down to it, we’ll see a Republican in the White House… and that it’s Rick Santorum.”
Weighing in on the rest of the field, Mustaine called Newt Gingrich an “angry little man” and said Ron Paul will “make total sense for a while, and then he’ll say something so way out that it negates everything else.”
As for Mitt Romney, the rocker said, “I’ve got to tell you, I was floored the other day to see that Mitt Romney’s five boys have a $100 million trust fund. Where does a guy make that much money? So there’s some questions there.”
Culturally, this is kind of like if Lawrence Welk had endorsed Eugene McCarthy.
I don’t think Megadeath is anywhere near as popular as Lawrence Welk.
And I don’t mean Lawrence Welk in the 50s; I mean Lawrence Welk now.
And Eugene McCarthy was hardly as far left as Santorum is right. McCarthy was slightly ahead of the country in terms of turning against the Vietnam war, but was hardly some flaming liberal. Heck, he even ended up endorsing Ronald Reagan in 1980.
Doen’st Mitt have a daughter? Can we arrange it for her to be sick, so Daddy can rush to her side (at a good time in the campagin schedule, of course)? Maybe we can win back Mr. Mega!
I listened to some Megadeth years ago. Let’s just say this: his lyrics didn’t seem to support warmongering. Just because someone loves their daughter doesn’t actually make it okay that they want to bomb the rest of the world out of existence.
Endorsing anyone currently running for the GOP nomination is NOT metal.
I think the guys who are still in Metallica could probably give you some pointers, Dave.
@legion: Ouch!
Another reason to stay away from drugs.
I guess he’s never heard of P-Diddy, JayZ, or Russell Simmons.
Neither odd nor shocking for anyone who’s been following Mustaine’s career. Both he and Megadeth’s bassist David Elefson are bigtime evangelicals now.
I’m just surprised we haven’t heard from Five Finger Death Punch. Another rightish metal band: Avenged Sevenfold. The singer from Staind? He recorded a faux-country song called “Country Boy,” which includes this verse:
That Dio / Megadeth tour back in ’87 was epic.