"Peace Sells… But Who's Buying?" turns forty this year. MEGADETH are marking it with, among other things, a pizza.
Prince St. Pizza — the New York pizzeria known for Sicilian squares and pepperoni-heavy slices — has put out a limited-edition pie with the band, running at its Los Angeles locations from September 23 through September 27. The item is The Vic's Pepperoni, a New York-style round on the shop's original sauce with shredded mozzarella and all-beef pepperoni, in a box designed for the collaboration.
"MEGADETH and Prince St. Pizza come from different worlds, but there's a real connection in the way both brands have built loyal followings by staying authentic to who they are," said Lawrence Longo, CEO of Prince St. Pizza. "For us, this partnership is about bringing those two worlds together in a way that feels genuine, unexpected and fun for the fans who have helped us become what we are today."
The pizza was also a door into a room nobody could buy into: "An Evening With Megadeth" at the Grammy Museum on September 24 sold out, and rewards members who ordered a slice or a whole Vic's Pepperoni were entered to win one of five pairs of seats. Entries closed on September 23 at 8 p.m., and no purchase was necessary — so if you are reading this hoping to get in, the pizza is still there and the ticket is not. One winner gets the grand prize of a slice before the show with Dave Mustaine, Teemu Mäntysaari, James LoMenzo and Dirk Verbeuren; another twenty take home a signed collaboration box packed with a "Peace Sells" shirt.
Prince St. Pizza started in Nolita in 2012 and has grown to twenty locations across the United States and Canada on the Morano family's recipes and the principle that "if you can put it on pasta, you can put it on pizza."
As for the album being commemorated: "Peace Sells… But Who's Buying?" came out in 1986, went platinum, and sits at No. 8 on Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Metal Albums Of All Time" — the record where MEGADETH stopped being a band with a point to prove about its frontman's former employer and became a band with its own argument. Forty years, more than fifty million albums, a Grammy and twelve further nominations later, the group's self-titled seventeenth album gave them their first No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
Brand extensions are not new ground here either. MEGADETH have been in beer since 2016 with À Tout Le Monde, followed by Saison 13, and Mustaine runs the House Of Mustaine wine label with his family. A pepperoni pie is, in that context, fairly modest.
MEGADETH are currently on the sold-out "Run For Your Lives" stadium tour with IRON MAIDEN.