Who the hell wasnt freaked out when Dave Mustaine got hurt and announced he was disbanding Megadeth? Just for the band to break up is bad enough but then to know that Mustaine might never have played music again was scary. But luckily Mustaine rebounded and is now releasing, The System has Failed, Megadeths final album even though none of the other guys from the band have contributed anything. Thats mostly because this was originally set to be his solo album but because of label obligations its now a Megadeth album.
Check out the website for Megadeth
Daniel Robert Epstein: Hey Dave.
Dave Mustaine: Hey man you got a deep voice for a girl.
DRE: Thats what people keep telling me.
Im glad youre going to be sticking around and doing Megadeth.
DM: Not for long though, this is last record, definitely. Well at least for the next five or ten years. This was supposed to be a solo record. In America when youre under contract you have to notify your label that youre going to be doing a record. They were cool, they wanted to get the purchase orders ready, the music video ready and crap like that. It used to be Daves doing a new record, whos getting the beer? [laughs]
When we told the publishing company that I was doing a new record they thought that was great. But they said I still owed them a Megadeth record and until I gave them that Megadeth record they owned me for the rest of my life! So I made the solo record a Megadeth record.
DRE: What did you have to change?
DM: If you get a quarter and scratch the Megadeth logo off the album it says Mustaine underneath it. Nothing changed one bit. Get some of those political whores off the cover and then youre done.
DRE: I want to hear what happened with the other guys from Megadeth straight from the horses mouth.
DM: Let me give you the Readers Digest version. I went into retirement because my arm got hurt really bad. I broke up the band which at the time was Al Pitrelli, Dave Ellefson, Jimmy DeGrasso and myself. I was having problems with Al because he liked to drink and we didnt want to show up at places drunk. Al also got married to a nice women but he wanted to spend time with her. After a few years most married men are willing to die so I figured if we got a couple years into the marriage that might have changed. But the fact was, Al wasnt fitting. DeGrasso was really hard to be around because he was so negative all the time with his complaining about money and wanting things. Ellefson was all about play my songs, play my songs. I hated being around these guys so when the arm injury happened it was a welcome relief and an indication that I had to stop. I could have had an injury to any other part of my body and I would have kept going but it was my left hand of all things. I realized that I was a multi-platinum artist but I was not a multi-platinum dad or a multi-platinum husband. I just took a break and when it was time for me to start playing again I still had this fire in my belly which I thought would go away when I retired but it didnt.
Tomb Raider 2 asked me to do a song for the sequel so I did Die Dead Enough for that. They loved the song and offered me money to record it. I told them we couldnt do a song for a movie for that kind of money so if they wanted a great song we couldnt do it for chump change. So we passed on that and I started on my solo career. On my solo record I had planned on using session guys like Vinnie Colaiuta who is one of the greatest session drummers in America and is famous for his time with Frank Zappa, then Jimmy Sloas on bass. But I didnt have a guitar player so I called Chris Poland. So before this happened I had those guys confirmed for my solo record.
I decided that I wasnt going to spend thousands of dollars on endless rehearsals, preproduction and spend days having to hear Ellefson tell me to listen to his songs because the album was written. I contacted the guys; Marty Friedman had a bunch of tangential questions. I told him that this is not a reunion. Ellefson wanted a bunch of money and a piece of the publishing so I said no to them and said it was off. I intended on bringing the finished record back to the studio, setting it up and having it get done. Now youre completely caught up.
DRE: You just shot a video. Who directed it?
DM: Yeah it was for the single Die Dead Enough and Thomas Mignone directed. It was actually a cool idea. I was down in Ocean City New Jersey this summer and I came up with this treatment of me being in this underground confine with people telling me to come out because the music industry sucked. It was very self gratifying but I turned it in, he adjusted it a little and it ended up being something really cool. Were still editing it but hopefully it will be done within the next two weeks in time for the album release.
DRE: What was your concept for the solo album originally?
DM: I pretty much had gotten fed up with the Megadeth is me too stuff. I dont remember anyone else riding the bus with me from New York after they got fired from Metallica. I was the one who came up with the concept, the name, the artwork, the music and everything for Megadeth.
Anytime there was any music from Megadeth it was always at least co-written by me. I remember asking Marty Friedman for lyrics. Here is his one lyric contrition and you tell me if you remember this from a Megadeth song concrete cannibal, asphalt animal. Is that tickling your taint?
DRE: [laughs] Nope.
DM: Marty didnt write any lyrics. I have a lyric book that were putting together and it lines out basically every song and who wrote what. Some idiot from over in Europe said that I must be pretty insane to keep track of each word. I was thinking No, Ellefson is the one that wanted to keep track of every word. There are over 107 songs and the dude wrote 770 words. Thats less than 7 words a song.
DRE: You mentioned Metallica before. Their music has gotten really pussified over the years. What did you do to stop that from happening to your music?
DM: Well there never was a shortage of pussy around Megadeth for us to need to become one. But I dont know. I love what Metallica stands for but I dont like the people. I dont have anything against James [Hetfield]. I think after I apologized to him for kicking his ass we put that behind us. As far as Lars [Ulrich] is concerned, I have no problem with being the president of the I Hate Lars Club.
DRE: Do you get a chance to listen to new music much?
DM: I cant go clubbing anymore.
DRE: Do people shove demos into your hand?
DM: Well I live a pretty reclusive life in the Phoenix metro area which only has two big celebrities, Alice Cooper and me. Alice is my godfather. The people who live in our area are really decent people. They dont bug me. Every once in a while there is some tweaker who comes up to me, shows me his one tooth and says Hey fuck man, would you sign my girlfriends tit job? Um do you see my son and daughter sitting here?
DRE: Do you Alice hang out together much?
DM: We own a restaurant together and his wife is really close with my wife.
DRE: What kind of food?
DM: Its an eatertainery, food and sports on big screen TVs. Just ribs and other fun food. Its called Alice Coopers Town. Its right across from the America West Arena so its a pretty prime location.
DRE: When was the last time you got hit in the nuts?
DM: How hard?
DRE: Not by a kids wiffle ball bat.
DM: Last time I got hurt by getting hit in the nuts would have probably been when I was 13 and this one girl I was trying to kiss panicked and had that knee jerk reaction. Also Ive had accidents with my kids flying through the air at me. Dont hit dad there, oops. I tell them, youll never see any money come out of dads pockets if you hit whats in-between them.
DRE: Why dont you have any tattoos?
DM: Never, you dont put a bumper sticker on Mercedes-Benz. Ive always been the antithesis of whats popular. If you can go into a library and the girl in there has her nipples pierced and chained together with a bunch of shrunken heads hanging off her eyebrow, then its gotten pretty boring. If I go into the hospital and the doctor has a face tattoo and a goatee Im out of there. I have nothing against people who have tattoos I think body art is beautiful in fact a full page of the Megadeth website is devoted to people with body art. But for me Im 42 so if I had a tattoo, a couple of decades from now its going to be a purple lump on my ass.
DRE: Youre only 42? I forgot how young you were when you started.
DM: Yeah and fortunately for me with getting loaded over the years I spent a lot of time asleep so my face is preserved.
DRE: You ever miss drugs?
DM: You mean like put them in wrong hole? Ill tell you, we were going into Canada one time and Gar Samuelson was still in the band. We couldnt take anything back from there over the border. In the motorhome Gar turns to me and goes Hey he sounded like the dog from the Davey and Goliath cartoon. He goes hey you guys I got some opium in Canada. I asked him where it is and he said it was up his ass. I was like Ew. He pulls this baggie out of his butt and it turned out someone had sold him some crushed up pot seeds and bong cleanings.
DRE: Who is going to tour with you for this album?
DM: I spoke with Nick Menza but there was no sense in doing a Megadeth record with a particular lineup if it wasnt the original lineup. The most successful Megadeth lineup was the one we had for Rust in Peace. When I talked to Chris it wasnt for any particular reason other than having a guy that was going to add a different sound to the record to close the chapter on this part of my life. I dont know if its possible but I want to be able to do it again with my solo career. Not that many people can be successful the first time out. I did it with Metallica then I did it a second time with Megadeth but nobody has done it three times unless you count Paul McCartney that went from The Beatles to Wings to Ram back to The Beatles to Wings to Ram.
DRE: What do you think of SuicideGirls?
DM: I havent gone to the site but I found the concept interesting. Being married and having a different lifestyle nowadays makes me want to not offend any of the members or the girls. But before I was married I was always attracted to women that had that kind of hard appearance. I had a girlfriend named Candace Stark that was a Penthouse Pet. Her spread was her dressed up as a Wicca. I remember meeting her at the Troubadour when I was with Metallica, I had a Venom t-shirt on and she goes Venom cool! I looked at her and said that she has a mans voice. There is just something I like about the tough girls.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Check out the website for Megadeth
Daniel Robert Epstein: Hey Dave.
Dave Mustaine: Hey man you got a deep voice for a girl.
DRE: Thats what people keep telling me.
Im glad youre going to be sticking around and doing Megadeth.
DM: Not for long though, this is last record, definitely. Well at least for the next five or ten years. This was supposed to be a solo record. In America when youre under contract you have to notify your label that youre going to be doing a record. They were cool, they wanted to get the purchase orders ready, the music video ready and crap like that. It used to be Daves doing a new record, whos getting the beer? [laughs]
When we told the publishing company that I was doing a new record they thought that was great. But they said I still owed them a Megadeth record and until I gave them that Megadeth record they owned me for the rest of my life! So I made the solo record a Megadeth record.
DRE: What did you have to change?
DM: If you get a quarter and scratch the Megadeth logo off the album it says Mustaine underneath it. Nothing changed one bit. Get some of those political whores off the cover and then youre done.
DRE: I want to hear what happened with the other guys from Megadeth straight from the horses mouth.
DM: Let me give you the Readers Digest version. I went into retirement because my arm got hurt really bad. I broke up the band which at the time was Al Pitrelli, Dave Ellefson, Jimmy DeGrasso and myself. I was having problems with Al because he liked to drink and we didnt want to show up at places drunk. Al also got married to a nice women but he wanted to spend time with her. After a few years most married men are willing to die so I figured if we got a couple years into the marriage that might have changed. But the fact was, Al wasnt fitting. DeGrasso was really hard to be around because he was so negative all the time with his complaining about money and wanting things. Ellefson was all about play my songs, play my songs. I hated being around these guys so when the arm injury happened it was a welcome relief and an indication that I had to stop. I could have had an injury to any other part of my body and I would have kept going but it was my left hand of all things. I realized that I was a multi-platinum artist but I was not a multi-platinum dad or a multi-platinum husband. I just took a break and when it was time for me to start playing again I still had this fire in my belly which I thought would go away when I retired but it didnt.
Tomb Raider 2 asked me to do a song for the sequel so I did Die Dead Enough for that. They loved the song and offered me money to record it. I told them we couldnt do a song for a movie for that kind of money so if they wanted a great song we couldnt do it for chump change. So we passed on that and I started on my solo career. On my solo record I had planned on using session guys like Vinnie Colaiuta who is one of the greatest session drummers in America and is famous for his time with Frank Zappa, then Jimmy Sloas on bass. But I didnt have a guitar player so I called Chris Poland. So before this happened I had those guys confirmed for my solo record.
I decided that I wasnt going to spend thousands of dollars on endless rehearsals, preproduction and spend days having to hear Ellefson tell me to listen to his songs because the album was written. I contacted the guys; Marty Friedman had a bunch of tangential questions. I told him that this is not a reunion. Ellefson wanted a bunch of money and a piece of the publishing so I said no to them and said it was off. I intended on bringing the finished record back to the studio, setting it up and having it get done. Now youre completely caught up.
DRE: You just shot a video. Who directed it?
DM: Yeah it was for the single Die Dead Enough and Thomas Mignone directed. It was actually a cool idea. I was down in Ocean City New Jersey this summer and I came up with this treatment of me being in this underground confine with people telling me to come out because the music industry sucked. It was very self gratifying but I turned it in, he adjusted it a little and it ended up being something really cool. Were still editing it but hopefully it will be done within the next two weeks in time for the album release.
DRE: What was your concept for the solo album originally?
DM: I pretty much had gotten fed up with the Megadeth is me too stuff. I dont remember anyone else riding the bus with me from New York after they got fired from Metallica. I was the one who came up with the concept, the name, the artwork, the music and everything for Megadeth.
Anytime there was any music from Megadeth it was always at least co-written by me. I remember asking Marty Friedman for lyrics. Here is his one lyric contrition and you tell me if you remember this from a Megadeth song concrete cannibal, asphalt animal. Is that tickling your taint?
DRE: [laughs] Nope.
DM: Marty didnt write any lyrics. I have a lyric book that were putting together and it lines out basically every song and who wrote what. Some idiot from over in Europe said that I must be pretty insane to keep track of each word. I was thinking No, Ellefson is the one that wanted to keep track of every word. There are over 107 songs and the dude wrote 770 words. Thats less than 7 words a song.
DRE: You mentioned Metallica before. Their music has gotten really pussified over the years. What did you do to stop that from happening to your music?
DM: Well there never was a shortage of pussy around Megadeth for us to need to become one. But I dont know. I love what Metallica stands for but I dont like the people. I dont have anything against James [Hetfield]. I think after I apologized to him for kicking his ass we put that behind us. As far as Lars [Ulrich] is concerned, I have no problem with being the president of the I Hate Lars Club.
DRE: Do you get a chance to listen to new music much?
DM: I cant go clubbing anymore.
DRE: Do people shove demos into your hand?
DM: Well I live a pretty reclusive life in the Phoenix metro area which only has two big celebrities, Alice Cooper and me. Alice is my godfather. The people who live in our area are really decent people. They dont bug me. Every once in a while there is some tweaker who comes up to me, shows me his one tooth and says Hey fuck man, would you sign my girlfriends tit job? Um do you see my son and daughter sitting here?
DRE: Do you Alice hang out together much?
DM: We own a restaurant together and his wife is really close with my wife.
DRE: What kind of food?
DM: Its an eatertainery, food and sports on big screen TVs. Just ribs and other fun food. Its called Alice Coopers Town. Its right across from the America West Arena so its a pretty prime location.
DRE: When was the last time you got hit in the nuts?
DM: How hard?
DRE: Not by a kids wiffle ball bat.
DM: Last time I got hurt by getting hit in the nuts would have probably been when I was 13 and this one girl I was trying to kiss panicked and had that knee jerk reaction. Also Ive had accidents with my kids flying through the air at me. Dont hit dad there, oops. I tell them, youll never see any money come out of dads pockets if you hit whats in-between them.
DRE: Why dont you have any tattoos?
DM: Never, you dont put a bumper sticker on Mercedes-Benz. Ive always been the antithesis of whats popular. If you can go into a library and the girl in there has her nipples pierced and chained together with a bunch of shrunken heads hanging off her eyebrow, then its gotten pretty boring. If I go into the hospital and the doctor has a face tattoo and a goatee Im out of there. I have nothing against people who have tattoos I think body art is beautiful in fact a full page of the Megadeth website is devoted to people with body art. But for me Im 42 so if I had a tattoo, a couple of decades from now its going to be a purple lump on my ass.
DRE: Youre only 42? I forgot how young you were when you started.
DM: Yeah and fortunately for me with getting loaded over the years I spent a lot of time asleep so my face is preserved.
DRE: You ever miss drugs?
DM: You mean like put them in wrong hole? Ill tell you, we were going into Canada one time and Gar Samuelson was still in the band. We couldnt take anything back from there over the border. In the motorhome Gar turns to me and goes Hey he sounded like the dog from the Davey and Goliath cartoon. He goes hey you guys I got some opium in Canada. I asked him where it is and he said it was up his ass. I was like Ew. He pulls this baggie out of his butt and it turned out someone had sold him some crushed up pot seeds and bong cleanings.
DRE: Who is going to tour with you for this album?
DM: I spoke with Nick Menza but there was no sense in doing a Megadeth record with a particular lineup if it wasnt the original lineup. The most successful Megadeth lineup was the one we had for Rust in Peace. When I talked to Chris it wasnt for any particular reason other than having a guy that was going to add a different sound to the record to close the chapter on this part of my life. I dont know if its possible but I want to be able to do it again with my solo career. Not that many people can be successful the first time out. I did it with Metallica then I did it a second time with Megadeth but nobody has done it three times unless you count Paul McCartney that went from The Beatles to Wings to Ram back to The Beatles to Wings to Ram.
DRE: What do you think of SuicideGirls?
DM: I havent gone to the site but I found the concept interesting. Being married and having a different lifestyle nowadays makes me want to not offend any of the members or the girls. But before I was married I was always attracted to women that had that kind of hard appearance. I had a girlfriend named Candace Stark that was a Penthouse Pet. Her spread was her dressed up as a Wicca. I remember meeting her at the Troubadour when I was with Metallica, I had a Venom t-shirt on and she goes Venom cool! I looked at her and said that she has a mans voice. There is just something I like about the tough girls.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
VIEW 25 of 32 COMMENTS
naty:
awesome interview!!!!!
rayraythemanape:
Love Megadeth! And Dave three albums since you said you were gonna hang up the hat! MOAR MOAR MOAR!!!!