Megadeth's Dave Mustaine to be guest soloist with San Diego Symphony

31 January 2014, 10:11 | Updated: 31 January 2014, 10:17

The guitarist with heavy metal band Megadeth, Dave Mustaine, will take centre stage in a concert with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra.

Mustaine, who has been playing with Megadeth since 1983, will perform works by Vivaldi, Bach and Dvořák in the concert with the orchestra, to be held on April 12th and entitled 'Symphony Interrupted'.

In a recent interview, Mustaine confirmed that he'll be using a very special guitar for the concert: "Dean Guitars has made a unique guitar for me that looks like a copy of a Stradivarius violin that had a baby [legendary Gibson guitar] Flying V." He also said that there's a plan to perform a solo version of Wagner's 'Ride Of The Valkyries'.

Speaking about the concert idea, Mustaine told the Phoenix Times: "It's what I like to listen to, but it's not like I played it… I was pretty excited, but then they sent over their first two songs that they want me to play, which was some Vivaldi stuff, and as I listened to it I was, like, 'This is really difficult stuff'."

It's not the first time legends of heavy metal have collaborated with the classical world.  In 1999, Metallica (with whom Mustaine was a founding guitarist) collaborated with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and Michael Kamen for a special live album.

Metallica also performed with pianist Lang Lang at last weekend's Grammy Awards.