#jeff young

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I think Dave Mustaine—yes, the Dave Mustaine, lead singer and guitarist of Megadeth—is autistic.

Specifically, he has high-functioning autism (where he wouldn’t appear autistic at first, but upon seeing the symptoms and looking back, you can see it).

Now, before you come at me and whine about how “he’s neurotypical! you’re influencing stereotypes!”, I wanna say this: I’m autistic myself and I see myself in him.

Okay, first off—emotions and drugs/alcohol.

Dave is notorious for being a bit of an asshole with many unpredictable mood swings (which usually take a turn for the worse). Many autistic people struggle with maintaining emotions consistently, and Dave may have turned to drugs/alcohol to cope with that (but it obviously didn’t go well).

Next—change and routines.

When Dave Mustaine first met Jeff Young, he wrote this in his book:

“Jeff, poor lad, looked like Bobby Sherman, with smooth, boyish features and perfectly layered hair that looked as though it had been subjected to a blow dryer for a half hour every morning. When he walked into the studio, he was wearing Sperry Top-Siders and Ocean Pacific board shorts that fit almost like hot pants. Remember, this is the pre-Jordan era, before kids started wearing hoop shorts down to their calves and everyone else followed suit. In some corners of the world (not mine, of course), Jeff would have been considered stylish. To me, he wasn't….

“‘Yeah, we'll have to put him through Rock School 101.’…

“…These are the clothes you will wear. These are the shoes. This is the kind of jewelry you wear in the metal community. Here's what you do with your hair (down, not up)….”

This right here is a classic example of a routine, of sorts.

Dave has a specific idea in his head of what a rocker looks like. Here, he’s criticizing Jeff Young of having a different style than what he believes rockers have, and he seems to be pretty upset about that.

Of course, another (possibly better) example is when Dave was kicked out from Metallica.

His over-the-top reaction was to start a band that would be faster, and better than Metallica.

Being in Metallica was a comfort place for him. It was a routine that Dave seemed very pleased with, and had got it in his head that it was something he was going to be stuck with for a while.

Then, he was fired from Metallica.

Being so unexpectedly ripped away from this place, thus igniting his anger at having his normal routine interrupted. He started Megadeth to likely have the comfort of a similar routine that he followed in Metallica.

I’m aware that he’s said he hates following the rules and likes to be in control, but his daily grind in Metallica and Megadeth (playing guitar, writing songs, etc) was still a routine he followed.

While this may not be as glaringly obvious as the other examples, I believe that Dave has a (somewhat) unique way of vocally and physically stimulating himself.

Dave is well-known for having a vastly different way of singing than other singers, often being the thing to drive people away from Megadeth.

As an autistic person who (sometimes) vocally stims themself, I do enjoy repeating certain lyrics from his songs because I find it’s fun to try to mimic his style. I’m sure that Dave can sing normally (because there’s no way he would hum like that…unless), but he probably enjoys singing like that as a way to vocally stimulate himself.

Now, for physical stims.

Putting aside the obvious one: playing guitar (which would require your hands and body to be busy at almost all times).

He’s been shown to be very theatrical during concerts: grabbing the microphone tightly (especially during emotional songs like À Tout Le Monde, during Woodstock ’99), or using his hands to emphasize certain lyrics.

Something that he seems to do a lot is mess around with his hair: running a hand through it, using his hand to flip his hair, etc

Although it does seem like something he seems to do fairly well with, Dave does sometimes struggle with eye contact. During multiple interviews, he’s always looking at something other than the camera. In his book, Dave himself said that he had to be told multiple times to even face the camera (which could be interpreted as struggling to maintain eye contact with something that he may perceive as a thing needing that).

Finally, the last thing I want to talk about is hyperfixations.

The most obvious one is playing guitar.

He mentioned first being interested in it when he was younger and quickly learning the basics. With being a guitarist as his hyperfixation, that likely led to Dave researching more and more and becoming more and more technical with his playing.

His second hyperfixation—which may not be as apparent—is music and its history.

When he starred on Rock & Roll Jeopardy, Dave knocked out every single question about music, musicians, and music history.