James MacDonough born on
April 3, 1970 in Jacksonville, Florida U.S.A. is a professional bass guitarist. He has played with
Iced Earth,
Nevermore, and most recently,
Megadeth.
MacDonough was part of
Iced Earth's line up from 1996-2000 and again from 2001-2004. With
Iced Earth he recorded: 3 full length albums, an EP, a live album, and a single. In late 2004, he was recruited into
Megadeth. James toured with Dave Mustaine and the band for almost 2 years, appearing with
Megadeth on the first ever Gigantour festival, the brainchild of Mustaine. He appears in
Megadeth's music video for the song "Of Mice and Men", the
Arsenal of
Megadeth DVD, and (in cartoon form) the band's cameo in an episode of Duck Dodgers. He never recorded a studio album with
Megadeth.
On February 10, 2006 James posted a message on the
Megadeth forums saying he was parting ways with
Megadeth. The forum post MacDonough made was entitled "Hello Droogs" and contained the following:
"I just wanted to say thank you all so much for making me feel so welcome and thank you for all the awesome memories along the road. I will not be playing with
Megadeth any longer. I'm sure Dave will post about it soon. Thanks again my Metal brothers and sisters, James."
The next day
Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine posted in the forums saying he had nothing bad to say about James and that he hopes they remain friends.
On
April 25, 2006, Blabbermouth.net reported that James would fill in for
Nevermore bass player Jim Sheppard as he underwent treatment for Crohn's Disease. James is a long-time fan and friend of the band (on his
Megadeth.com bio, he stated
Nevermore's Enemies of
Reality as one of his favorite albums) and performed with them on their tour with
In Flames in the mid part of 2006.
It was then announced on July 25 that James would fill in for
Strapping Young Lad bassist, Byron Stroud on the end of the Ozzfest tour, as Byron had to return to
Fear Factory for European festival dates.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_MacDonough