In a new interview, Megadeth's Dave Mustaine has reflected on his colourful youth, specifically the period of time which saw him practise black magic after rebelling against the Jehovah's Witness sect in which he was raised.
Speaking on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, the born-again Christian singer recalls hexing two people during his teenage years, one a school bully.
Discussing his spiritual attitudes with Rogan, Mustaine outlines the importance of not telling "people how to live their life."
"If you want to go to church, go to church. And if you want to read the Bible, read the Bible. And if you don't want to hear about it, don't listen. And if you don't want people to tell you about it then tell them to shut up," the vocalist muses.
Speaking about why he decided to venture on a different spiritual path growing up, he continues, "You get out of one thing that sucks and so you do something else to extremes. When I bailed on the JW (Jehovah Witness) thing with my mom, I ran away from home up to Idaho where my sister lived and she was practicing black magic, so I got into black magic. She did not practice black, she was practicing white, but I did some black magic. I practiced black magic on two people."
Recalling the first of the two curses, which saw him hex a school bully, he remembers: "I did one on one guy that was at school and my nephew told him that I was practicing kung fu san soo at the time. So he was the school tough guy and it was my first day at school and he walked by me and sucker punched me in the stomach and I buckled over.
"And I thought, 'Here we go. This is going to suck, this school.' So I was going home and it was a two-bus ride, big bus to a small drop off and then a bus out to where we lived out in a rural area."
He continues, "We get off the first bus and everybody circles around and he's going to beat me up. And nothing happens, so I get in the bus, he gets in the bus and he walks back and elbows me in the back of the head when he's getting out and I had some chewing tobacco in my mouth so I swallowed it. I got so sick.
"I knew I had to do something or it was going to keep happening. So I put a hex on him that he would get physically injured and he did."
When asked by Rogan as to whether he really believes the bully got hurt because of the hex, Mustaine says: "I think he got hurt because I put a hex on him and because he was an asshole."
Revealing a little more detail on what the hex entailed, he adds: "It involved using some food sources and making an effigy of sorts and you do certain things to identify the doll and then you break off the arm or the leg of the doll, and that's basically what I did, I broke the leg off and the guy got in a car crash and his leg got mauled."
The other "much more fun" spell, as the singer explains, was a "sex hex" that he used to gain the attention of a girl who he had a crush on.
"I was a skinny redheaded kid going to night school after surfing and she would be there and everyone loved her, and I was just some sweaty kid," he began.
"She came by the house one night to buy some hash because I had a roommate who was selling pot and hash and stuff. And I had already done this incantation on this girl ... So I wrote my name and her name and drew some pictures and I burnt it and said a prayer and the next night she came over to my apartment to buy this hash.
"And I don't know anything about anything, and she comes in and says, 'Hey, what's your sign?' And I said, 'Oh I'm a Virgo,' and she says, 'Oh, my horoscope says I'm supposed to make love to a Virgo in a tropical surrounding.' So I went and screwed in a black lightbulb in the bathroom and plugged the tub and said, 'Here's a waterfall, let's go.'"
Listen to the full interview below:
