Megadeth are being put to sleep.

After 21 years, 10 albums and numerous lineup changes, frontman Dave Mustaine is putting the final nail in the coffin of his thrash metal outfit with a last album and tour before he begins a solo career.

The fact Mustaine is playing at all is a plus. In 2002, he retired after being diagnosed with radial neuropathy when he fell asleep on his arm.

"You know when you're sitting wrong or sleeping on your arm and your hand's tingling and you shake it out and it comes back? Mine didn't come back," he says. "It was horrible. The doctor goes, 'Well you're going to have 80% use of your arm and you'll never play guitar again,' and I go, 'Oh no!'. Then I thought, 'F-- you. You obviously don't know who I am.' "

After 16 months of therapy to get his arm back up to speed, he's in fine form on the new Megadeth album, The System Has Failed.

The outspoken guitarist spoke to The Sun about a wide range of topics during a recent phone interview in advance of his sold-out show at Burton Cummings Theatre tomorrow with thrash pioneers Exodus. Here are a few snippets:

On the recording: It felt OK. I had a masseuse come in a couple of times and do my arm up because it just got really sore because I was playing at the top of my game but physically I hadn't played like that since even before the accident. I hadn't pushed myself.

On his former bandmates: After (1999's) Risk came out I was pretty much fed up with the other guys in the band trying to spread their wings. To be a good leader you've got to allow other people to contribute their ideas sometimes and you'd think ... if it doesn't work that would be the end of it, but it wasn't the end of it.

I think the band was over after (1994's)Youthanasia. Capitol wanted us to make another (commercial CD like) Countdown for Extinction and I said I'll try, but it's not that easy. And it was so difficult making that record with the infighting in the band: 'Play my stuff. You're selfish and you won't put my stuff on the record.' And I'm thinking, 'You've got to be f--ing stupid. Because if your songs are better than my songs we should put them on the record.' How dumb would it be for me not to use a better song?

On being considered a dictator: The best records came when I was dictating.

On retiring the Megadeth name: There's a lot of difficulty associated with the name. People think they're Megadeth and they've got some claim to the band. So if I just call it the Dave Mustaine Band or whatever you're not going to get ex-bass players or ex-guitar players or ex-drummers saying, 'You know, I helped make that band big.' I didn't want it to come down to that -- I mean I loved all those guys and we had great times together -- but towards the end it got really difficult.

On the new album: I knew I wanted to make a statement -- not necessarily that I had to say, 'Hey, look at me I'm the real deal' -- but basically make a statement that my arm is healed, I still love this kind of music and I want people to know this is what Megadeth stands for and what it sounds like when it's not molested.

On newfound sobriety and religion: When my life changed and I changed my faith, I stopped doing that whole AA thing because I just found it was a waste of time. Not that it's not a good place -- God sent me to AA, and AA sent me back to God, and I have something that works. I'm very happy. You'll see when we play; there is something very, very peaceful about me even though when I'm playing I'm ready to kill somebody.