Dave Mustaine Settles With Ex-Manager for $1.4 Million, But Mustaine’s Countersuit Will Continue
According to Billboard, Megadeth and their notorious frontman Dave Mustaine have reached a settlement to pay $1.4 million to the band’s former manager Cory Brennan. Last year, Brennan filed a lawsuit claiming that Mustaine owed him and his company, Five B Artist Management, over $1 million in unpaid commissions after the band “unceremoniously” fired Brennan and replaced him with Mustaine’s son. However, this isn’t going to settle the entire case, as Mustaine also launched a countersuit last year claiming that Brennan was fired because of “repeated management failures” that “dealt serious blows to Megadeth’s reputation and even David Mustaine’s physical health.”
In the lawsuit that Brennan launched, he claims that Mustaine recruited him in 2014 to “manage his career and get it back on track” at a time when the band was struggling to regain the commercial and critical success the band had enjoyed earlier in their career, feeling that the band “seemed to have lost their way.” In 2014, Megadeth would have still been on the heels of their critically unpopular 2013 album Super Collider, so that does make some sense. Brennan argued that he “worked tirelessly” to restore Megadeth’s reputation and helped Mustaine “with his personal struggles.”
In a statement to Billboard, Brennan’s lawyer Howard King said that Brennan was “displeased at having to sue an artist,” but was satisfied with the settlement reached. King went on to say:
“Dave Mustaine, who has a known history of firing advisors, terminated Five B Artist Management after 9 years of their having resurrected his failing career,” King said. “Ignoring the success Five B had helped Dave achieve, including a campaign to help him win his first Grammy, the release of two hit albums, and the elevation of his touring from small clubs back to arenas and amphitheaters, Dave simply refused to pay commissions owing and forced 5B to file a lawsuit.”
Mustaine’s lawyers, however, claimed that Brennan had poorly managed the band and that his firing was completely justified. In the countersuit, Mustaine’s lawyer Richard Busch wrote:
“The cross-defendants’ unfounded claims are nothing more than an attempt to capstone their years of mistreatment with extortionate demands for money not earned by cross-defendants nor owed by cross-plaintiffs.”
Even though the initial suit reached a settlement, Mustaine’s countersuit will continue to move forward. While there’s certainly two sides to this story, and the truth of the matter probably lies somewhere between Mustaine’s account of the story and Brennan’s, let’s be honest: does it really sound outside the realm of possibility that Dave Mustaine could have screwed over a manager so he could give his son a job instead? No, it really doesn’t.
