Megadeth: The Tragic Death of Drummer Nick Menza
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Drummer Nick Menza was part of what many considered the golden era, classic lineup of Megadeth from 1990 to 1998 along with frontman Dave Mustaine, bassist David Ellefson and guitarist Marty Freidman. Sidenote guys i’ve done a whole video on Marty Friedman’s career in the band, the link is down below. Menza would be fired from Megadeth but in the years that followed he appeared to have a complicated relationship with his former band. He would die in a truly shocking way long after he left Megadeth.. Today, let’s explore the life of nick menza.
Born to a musical family, Menza was born in Germany to a jazz saxophonist named Don Menza. His father had a pretty storied career playing with Buddy Richs band starting in 1968 and performed as a member of Johnny Carson’s tonight show band. Don would introduce his son to jazz, a style of music he continue to love during and after his time in Megadeth. Buddy Rich would even give drum lessons to Nick as a child & the aspiring drummer would play in front of his first audience at age 2 when someone placed him on Jack DeJohnette’s (dee-ja-net) drum throne during an intermission at a gig
His professional music career began at age 18 and he would play in a series of groups including Rhoads who was fronted by Randy Rhoads brother. He would even record with John Fogerty. By the late 80’s he would land a job as the Megadeth’s drum tech for Chuck Behler (Chuck Bayler) . Behler would be fired by mustaine over his drug use leading the frontman to ask Menza to join the group in 1989. He would appear on four megadeth albums with 1997’s cryptic writings being his last. The following year while out on tour to promote the album Menza learned of a tumor in his knee. He required surgery to remove it and thankfully for him it was benign. According to menza while he was in hospital recovering from surgery he would recall Mustaine calling him to let him know he was fired from the band.
David Ellefson would tell Metal Hammer why Menza was fired saying "It's funny, Nick has been and still is the most hailed and beloved member of the Megadeth legacy.
"Playing drums is hard, playing drums in Megadeth is even harder, and it beats the shit out of ya.
"Nick put in a lot of good years with us, but by 1998 [when he got fired], he was struggling to do the gig.
"There was a defining moment in Macer, Arizona, where I looked at him during some breaks in 'Darkest Hour' and it was like he was not present. He was beat up, you know?
Following his firing Menza turned his attention to raising his two kids and took up woodworking.
. Menza would recall to Metalholic “I took about 10, 12 years off to raise two boys” It was during this time that Nick made a living through his woodworking selling a perurvian percussion instrument known as a cajons. It was during this time in his life menza famously said “ i don’t want to be nick menza the drummer from megadeth. That chapter of my life is closed.” In addition to raising his kids Menza would still play music on the side putting out a single album under the monicker Menza. And play with the jazz fusion project called Ohm.
In 2004 Menza was thought to be rejoining Megadeth on tour as part of the blackmail the universe tour, but Mustaine revealed to radio station WRIF 101.1 "I had Nick Menza come in and play drums [during the rehearsals for the tour], and he just wasn't prepared. It just didn't work out. We tried for two weeks to get everything to happen, and it just didn't click. Five days before the tour started, I had to send him home.
According to Loudwire in 2007 Menza almost lost his arm due to a power saw accident. It would require him to get reconstrutive surgery. The saw responsible for the accident would be auctioned off by Menza years later. The accident didn’t stop menza from jumping back into music as he would continue to play with OHM.
In 2014 it was rumored that the classic lineup of Megadeth would be reuniting following the departure of guitarist Chris Broderick and drummer Shawn Drover . Menza was approached by Mustaine and bassist David Ellefson to replace Drover at the end of 2014 and he would in fact begin working on new music with the band, but th