Nick Menza

Menza's influences stem from being nurtured around the tutelage of such notables as Buddy Rich, Steve Gadd, Nick Ceroli, Jeff Porcaro, and Louie Bellson.

Following Rhoads, Menza was part of a succession of Los Angeles metal bands, including The Green (with Rhoads bandmates John Goodwin on guitar and Darwin Ballard on bass), Von Skeletor (another collaboration with Goodwin and Michael Guillory on guitars, Cam Daigneault on drums, and Menza handling lead vocals on the band's demo and self-released album, Injection of Death), and Cold Fire (also featuring Warrior guitarist Joe Floyd) before joining Megadeth.

Moving on to session playing including styles ranging from R&B to gospel, funk and heavy metal, recording with the likes of John Fogerty, Menza caught the attention of then Megadeth drummer Chuck Behler and became his tech.

During his tenure in Megadeth, Menza also played drums on his bandmate Marty Friedman's three solo albums, Scenes (1992), Introduction (1994) and True Obsessions (1996).

Menza has said in several interviews that, while in the hospital recovering from knee surgery, he received a phone call from Mustaine that simply said "Your services are not needed anymore".

[9] In March 2011, Menza appeared in a music video for Mindstreem's "We Up Next", a song originally written by SIN 34 guitarist Anthony Gallo featuring Tony Lanza and Daniel Wayne, Jr. on vocals.

Also in March 2011, Menza's band Deltanaut posted a video for the song "Sacrifice" in conjunction with the release of their Roy Z produced digital-only five-song EP.

The lineup consisted of Menza, his old Rhoads and The Green bandmate, bassist Darwin Ballard, guitarists Christopher Grady and Colin Reid, and lead vocalist Brian Williams.

Menza's father Don plays saxophone on the song "The King"; other guests include Roy Z on guitar and Ed Roth on keyboards.