Heavy Metal With a Message: 'Megadeth' Frontman Dave Mustaine Endorses Rick Santorum

Barack Obama might have the Foo Fighters playing for him, but Rick Santorum just got a much heavier endorsement. Dave Mustaine, one-time Metallica guitarist and founder of the speed-metal band Megadeth, has made clear his intention to endorse Rick Santorum, though he and his band are prepared to support anyone nominated against Barack Obama:

I’m just hoping that whatever is in the White House next year is a Republican,” Mustaine told MusicRadar.com. “I can’t bear to watch what’s happened to our great country. Everybody's got their head in the sand. Everybody in the industry is like, ‘Oh, Obama’s doing such a great job...’ I don't think so. Not from what I see.”

Blasting Republican front-runner Mitt Romney for his five sons' multimillion-dollar trust fund and Newt Gingrich for being “that angry little man,” he says he settled on Santorum.

“Earlier in the election, I was completely oblivious as to who Rick Santorum was, but when the dude went home to be with his daughter when she was sick, that was very commendable,” Mustaine told the music site.

The Atlantic notes the irony of this endorsement, coming from a musician famed for music with murderous themes in its lyrics:

Sure, it's funny that the presidential election's top "culture of life" candidate is endorsed by the guy whose albums include Killing Is My Business... and Business Is Good! and Youthanasia. But it's worse that youth candidate Obama is raising money with a band your parents probably listen to. (And that's important to Obama, judging by his reelection campaign's lame-o Spotify playlist.)

The band has also put out an amusing image featuring their mascot, Vic Rattlehead, mimicking a rather recognizable campaign poster:

Mustaine's political viewpoint has moved right over the years, as he has shifted from singing class warfare-themed songs like "Foreclosure of a Dream," and reporting from the 1992 Democratic National Convention for MTV News, to now becoming a born-again Christian and condemning Heavy Metal bands that use "Satanic" themes in their lyrics.

Nor is Mustaine the only heavy metal musician to have a complicated history with social conservatism. Ironically, one band frequently accused of the "Satanic lyrics" he denounces -- Slayer -- has recorded a song titled "Silent Scream," which graphically portrays the terror experienced by an aborted foetus in its lyrics -- a fact which led John J. Miller of National Review to call the song "the world’s only pro-life death-metal song."

Also on the metal front, Jonathan Davis, frontman of the group Korn, said the U.S. is "the worst it's ever been" because of President Obama.