Songfacts®:

• This song tells the story of a man who passed away after he had his first shot of heroin. It's a true story.
  
  Frontman Dave Mustaine told Jack Mehoff of the Colorado Springs, Colorado radio station 94.3 KILO it was one of the few times he wrote a song in "one fell swoop." The singer explained its inspiration: "I had just gone over to a friend of mine who was running a halfway house at the time and some guy just got out of prison and went and scored heroin and shot up and died there that day."
• The song's introduction is the beginning of The Searchers' 1964 version of " Needles And Pins," which was a tentative title for the Cryptic Writings album.
• Mustaine wrote this song with the band's guitarist, Marty Friedman. It was released as a single from their seventh album, Cryptic Writings.
• When Megadeth play acoustic sets, they almost always include "Use The Man" in the setlist. A version from 2001 can be heard on their album Unplugged in Boston.