The 1977 "Evil" Album That Made Dave Mustaine Want to Be a Rockstar: AC/DC Woke Up Evil in the Founder of Megadeth!

Dave Mustaine, still a young man selling marijuana in California, traded weed for records in 1977. Record store clerk Cindy changed his life by introducing AC/DC's *Let There Be Rock*.

"When I put the record on, I looked at the cover and thought, 'What the hell is with that guy's lip?' But music changed everything." Mustaine felt the sound was "too close to his face", like something evil being uncapped: "The guitars sounded demonic. It was something I had never heard."

Image credit: Far Out / Press

This moment took him out of his torpor and led him to cover bands by AC/DC, then Metallica and Megadeth. Mustaine collected everything AC/DC and opened shows for them. An album that awakened the rockstar within and shaped thrash metal!