NEWS – Dave Mustaine Comments on His First Band, Panic, And the Origins of Hangar 18

Long before forming Megadeth and even before his tour of duty with Metallica, Dave Mustaine performed in a group called Panic. Although the band would fail to gain much exposure and Mustaine would eventually leave after responding to an ad to play guitar in Metallica, Mustaine had written a handful of songs that would later surface on Megadeth albums, most notably the 1990 classic Hanger 18. In a new interview with Total Guitar he explains: “I wrote a lot of songs when I was really young. Rust In Peace…Polaris was written before I was in my first band, Panic. So was Mechanix (Killing Is My Business… And Business Is Good!, 1985). Hangar 18 was just another one of those songs, although it was actually under a different title. These were songs that I took with me to that first band – didn’t get a chance to get them out in my second band [Metallica] – but my third one [Megadeth] I did.”

Mustaine continues: “I was about 16. I started playing guitar when I was 13. I was about 18 when I’d gotten into Panic. After that ran its course I moved onto Metallica. I think I was about 20 when that happened… When I was a kid I was fascinated by airplanes and I’d seen this number on the side of a plane and it said ‘N2RHQ.’ At least that’s what I thought it said and I went ‘wow, N2RHQ… into our headquarters. How cool?’ That was the germination that set Hangar 18 on its way.”