Legendary metal band Megadeth has been around for a while. And even in their early days, they weren’t afraid to get a little controversial. One particularly controversial song by Megadeth is the 1986 track “The Conjuring” from their album Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?
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Megadeth founder and main songwriter Dave Mustaine has said that the song was inspired by his teenage years in which he studied black magic. In fact, he’s said that the lyrics contain instruction “for hexes” as well as references to Satanic rituals.
Even the least superstitious songwriter would be nervous writing such a song. So why would Mustaine suddenly refuse to perform the song live if he was bold enough to write it? When it comes down to it, he had a change of heart… and faith.
Why Megadeth Doesn’t Play “The Conjuring” Anymore
Dave Mustaine is no stranger to the dark arts. During a radio interview, Mustaine even described a few hexes that he put on put on people in the past.
“I used to do black magic when I was a kid, and I put a hex on a dude and his leg kind of got messed up,” said Mustaine. “The other one was, I put a sex hex on this girl and the next night she was in my bed, so I think that it worked.”
Ethics aside, it’s hard to imagine someone that brazen to suddenly be afraid of a Satanic song. But, that was the case with Mustaine, who converted to Christianity in the early 2000s. As a result, from 2001 to 2018 (yes, that’s 17 years), Mustaine refused to play “The Conjuring” live during Megadeth performances.
[Get Tickets To See Megadeth Live In 2024]
Something interesting happened in 2016, though. Megadeth drummer Chris Adler asked Mustaine if he’d be open to re-recording “The Conjuring” with new lyrics. Mustaine said that he wouldn’t mind bringing out the song again.
“As long as it doesn’t hurt anybody, I wouldn’t mind doing the song again,” he said in the above-cited 2016 radio interview. “Cause it is a good song.”
The band has since started playing the song again starting in 2018, and they’ve played it as recently as June 2024. Change is simply inevitable, it seems.
Photo courtesy of Gibson
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