Dave Mustaine Gets Baptized in Blood as Band’s New Manager

Baptized in Blood singer Johl Fendley thought it was "a twisted joke" when he was told that Dave Mustaine was interested in managing them. The Megadeth frontman has now partnered with his manager, Mark Adelman, to guide the career of his new Roadrunner labelmates. "Who'd expect something like that?" marvels Fendley.

Baptized in Blood -- Fendley, lead guitarist Josh Torrance, guitarist Nick Bertelsen and bassist Matthew Harris -- were introduced to Mustaine two months ago when the Canadian Carnage Tour stopped in the punk-metal band's hometown of London, Ont.

"Our label rep [Rose Slanic] wanted to introduce us and brought us on Megadeth's bus. There was nothing more to it than that," Fenley tells Noisecreep. "She introduced us, chatted for a while and then took off; and that was it. I said [to him] in passing, 'Maybe one of these days we'll cross paths again and maybe we'll do some shows,' [as a] tossing it out there type thing. And Dave turned to me and said, 'It's a small world. You never know.'"

What Fendley didn't know was that Slanic had slipped Mustaine a copy of Baptized in Blood's forthcoming self-titled album, due out Oct. 19 in Canadian stores and digitally in the rest of the world. A week later, Fendley received an e-mail from his lawyer Pat Leyland saying that Mustaine and Adelman wanted to talk management.

"We were a little shocked by it, and some time passed and there was nothing; there was no talk about it. I was like, 'OK, this is weird,'" recounts Fendley. "I wanted to find out what's going on here. So I contacted Pat and he hooked us up with Mark, and we got on the phone and just had a chit-chat about it."

While Adelman manages Megadeth, Anthrax and other acts, this will be the first time he has partnered with Mustaine to manage a band. Findley hasn't spoken again with Mustaine, but says it puts his mind at ease that half of Baptized in Blood's new management team is an artist himself.

"Oh yeah, big time. The craziest part about it is the fact that, first of all, it's Dave Mustaine. There's really nobody bigger in our genre. He told Mark that he was just blown away by the guitaring and arrangements, and to have somebody that influential be that excited about us is probably the best part right there. He's gonna use every bit of energy and power that he has to make sure that we succeed."

Fendley says Mustaine will be back from tour on Oct. 21, and then everyone will meet and brainstorm.

"I'd just like to sit down and chat with him and find out what he's all about. He's gone through pretty crazy stuff. I do know some things about his life," Fendley says. "I think more than wanting to know more about him, I want him to know more about us because we're sort of at the opposite end of the spectrum as him.

"That's why I found it so weird that Dave would want to work with us, because he's found God. He's made that very apparent that he's religious and he goes to church every Sunday, has a couple of kids and doesn't like people who swear a lot."

But are they the opposite? "Well, our band's called Baptized in Blood."