We had always just assumed that Fear Factory guitar maestro, Dino Cazares, and thrash legend, Dave Mustaine, knew each other from the touring and festival circuit. However, their origin story is a lot more fun and interesting than that.
Dino was a guest on Chris Garza (of Suicide Silence fame’s) podcast (The Garza Podcast), and spoke in detail about how he serendipitously met Dave when Dave came in to a sandwich shop Dino worked at when he was 18. Being a huge fan of Dave’s music, Dino befriended him and asked him for advice on how to make it in music. Eventually, Dave started inviting him out and introducing him to people in the industry. Wild.
You can watch (or read) their conversation below:
“I got a job working at a place called Togo’s Eatery, which is a sandwich shop. Have you ever heard of it? I‘m not sure if they exist anymore, but it was right across the street from the Hollywood Palladium. OK, remember I had just turned 18 at that point, just turned 18 fresh off the boat. Right? In LA, working at the sandwich shop. Who walks in? Dave Mustaine. Dave Mustaine when he first had Megadeth going, right? I think before the album. First he walked in and I was like I was already trying to, I was like desperately trying to be in a band right?” Dino goes on…
“Dave Mustaine walks in. I was like holy shit that’s Dave Mustaine , fuck. So I started talking to him and I made him a sandwich. Remember, I was a sandwich maker. It’s funny, gloves on, hairnet. You know, making him a sandwich? And I don’t remember what kind of sandwich you like. People have asked me before what kind of sandwich you make him like I don’t remember. Anyway, I gave him the sandwich and I gave him a beer. I said it’s on me, go for it. He’s like oh man, thank you. Right, so he sat down. And I go, hey man, whenever you want to come back, come back. Yeah, I’m always here, usually working these hours. He’s like alright man, cool thank you. And then a couple days later he comes back in, sees me, I go, I tell everybody I’m taking care of Dave. I’m taking care of Dave, right?
So I made Dave some sandwiches and Dave and David Ellefson. Made both of them sandwiches, gave them all free beer. They went, sat down. I’m like you know what I’m going to ask them. How do you start a band? Where do you go? What do you do? Right? And he gave me a bunch of ideas. Said man, you got a network. Go to gigs right? Go to gigs. Try to meet people, yeah. What kind of music do you like? Obviously I like you, so I’m gonna thrash, right?
Yeah go thrasher. Start meeting people. A lot of musicians hanging out there go over there to do this. Do that there. I’m like Oh yeah, and it’s like a matter of fact. You know my band is playing when you come see Megadeth, I’m like, alright. So he invited me to a show, so I went to one of his shows. He took me backstage, introduced me to people.
He might not remember that, but he did that and then I never forgot that. So he came in, I was fucking hooked him up with food, all the time and then I started a network, Started to meet people and boom I had a band… Met Ross (editor’s note: presumably Dino is referring to nu metal producer to the stars, Ross Robinson). Met Ross… had a bandmate, Dave McClain. Ross would drive me before Fear Factory. Ross would drive me to the fucking auditions. Crazy right? I also had another band that Ross produced. It was our first demo. It’s funny shit. It’s called the Douche Lords. Stupid shit was like SOD ripoff right? Ross produced that demo. But yeah, those are the people that I met and they helped me along the way. Yeah, so people don’t know that about Dave. But yeah he helped me way back then and gave me a bunch of advice. I got lucky.”
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