Those familiar with Dave Mustaine's extra-musical activities know the Megadeth frontman is adept at martial arts. Now 59, the rocker hasn't slowed down in that pursuit. After last year overcoming a cancer diagnosis, Mustaine kicked off 2021 by earning his purple belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

The Megadeth bandleader earned the mid-level adult jiu-jitsu ranking last week (Jan. 14) at the Gracie Barra training location in Spring Hill, Tenn., near the musician's Nashville home base. In footage from the occasion, as shared by the Jiu-Jitsu Times, Mustaine receives his purple belt from Gracie Barra instructor Reginaldo Almeida, a third-degree jiu-jitsu black belt and a professor of the martial art.

Watch the video down toward the bottom of this page.

In an accompanying Facebook post, Almeida noted that Mustaine had achieved a blue belt two years prior. In Brazilian jiu-jitsu, a white belt is the beginner's rank, followed by blue and purple. Brown comes next, succeeded by various degrees of black. (There are also extremely high-level coral and red belts.) The Megadeth figurehead already has a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and Ukidokan karate.

"After 2 years as a blue belt and hard training and lots of ups and downs today I had the honor to promote Mr [Dave Mustaine] to his well deserved purple belt!" Almeida said. "Congratulations kid!"

Talk about a rockin' achievement. It wouldn't be a stretch to surmise that most Megadeth listeners wouldn't want to come across Mustaine in a darkened alley. Still, there's plenty that Megadeth-loving metal fans have to anticipate, including a new album from the band that should be coming down the pike shortly. In fact, during a recent Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy Camp Masterclass, the frontman even played a snippet from the effort and divulged a working title for Megadeth's long-awaited Dystopia follow-up.

"The tentative album title we have right now is called The Sick, the Dying and the Dead," Mustaine revealed during a Q&A as part of the virtual symposium. "We may change that because there's some other titles, and I usually change the titles four or five times before I settle on anything."

New Megadeth music on the way and a jiu-jitsu purple belt for Mustaine? The threat is certainly real. So unless you have some experience in martial arts training yourself, we wouldn't suggest trying to challenge the Megadeth frontman in a match-up — you just might wake up dead.

Megadeth's Dave Mustaine Earns Jiu-Jitsu Purple Belt – Jan. 14, 2021

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