Words and live image by Simon Milburn
“I’m doing really good,” begins a very relaxed and cheerful sounding Megadeth vocalist, Dave Mustaine. Megadeth’s latest album, Endgame, is their twelfth studio effort and their first with some new blood in the band, this time lead guitarist Chris Broderick. Whilst Mustaine has surrounded himself with talented musicians throughout his lengthy career, there’s no doubting that the chemistry of Mustaine, Broderick, bassist James Lomenzo and drummer Shawn Drover, is truly electric, with many reviews highlighting the impact that Broderick’s recruitment has had on the group.
On a busy press day, I caught up with Dave at the band’s new studio, Vic’s Garage located near San Diego, California (U.S.A.) to talk about being brutally honest, the state of the world, touring with Slayer, that persistent “big four” tour rumour that is doing the rounds, and the band’s crushing new release, Endgame.
Mustaine replies with a chipper “Thanks bud!” when I congratulate him on Megadeth’s twelfth studio release. It’s an album that has been on the receiving end of glowing reviews around the globe, and at this point in his career, surely that is a little surprising. It’s true to form sarcastic and jovial Mustaine when asked what he makes of all of this.
“That everybody has amnesia!” laughs Mustaine. “They forgot they hate me. This is like a momentary lapse in kindness and it’s gonna go back to the world treating me like I’m a bad husband again any minute.”
Jokes aside though and this is a time where Mustaine should be feeling quite proud of himself in his career.
“I am. I’m really happy. This is such a great moment for me. I told the guys in the band that, I said, ‘Y’know, James, you’ve been here before with me at this level with your previous band, with White Lion, and of course with David Lee Roth and Ozzy.’ He’s always been at that level, that superstar kind of level, although he was never really a band member in those projects. So I was able to say, ‘Hey, y’know, we’re going back James. It’s kind of like doing another tour, No, damnit!’ You know what I mean?” Mustaine laughs. “Then I was able to tell Chris and Shawn, ‘Listen, be very careful right now. Pay close attention to everything, because this could be over in a second and you want to pay attention and enjoy every single second of the way.’ Because this is what we work our whole lives for – to be, y’know, press darlings, to be bands that the fans are a staple in their record collection. You know, it’s very rarely that a record comes around like Endgame does and I’m so blessed to have it be mine. I remember that there were records when we were growing up like The Wall (Pink Floyd, 1979). You had to have The Wall and like, AC/DC’s Let There Be Rock (1978). You had to have that record. Then, as soon as Bon (Scott, AC/DC vocalist) died, you had to have Back In Black. If you didn’t have Back In Black, you were not a metal fan. By metal standards in the States though, Acca Dacca wasn’t a metal band. They were like a rock band. I was listening to Diamond Head and I started getting into Motorhead and Judas Priest which I think was more in the vein of heavy metal than what people would call metal nowadays.”
And metal is exactly what Dave and Co. have delivered on Endgame. Our review of Endgame (written by Michael O’Brien) described Endgame as “a great thrash album where every track bears some kind of resemblance to the Megadeth of old with more than a healthy nod sent in the direction of the band’s material from the very beginning of their recording history right up to and including 1994’s Youthanasia.” Ours is another of the many glowing reviews that the album has received.
“I’m honoured, thank you for that. I think that if a guy really is smart enough to ask for help, if he gets people to chip in and want to help, he’d be a dunce not to take the help that they are offering you. I’ve got three helpers with me in Megadeth and they are all talented band mates and good friends and that comes across in the studio. I think that comes across in the record. Anyone that has this record is going to be experiencing the same kind of exciting metal that we experienced back when Peace Sells (… But Who’s Buying?, 1986) came out, when Rust In Peace (1990) came out, when Countdown (To Extinction, 1992) came out. I was there. I know what happened. I didn’t have that same feeling that I have with this record on United Abominations (2007) or any record subsequent to Cryptic Writings (1997). Cryptic Writings was the last time I had a really good feeling about a record coming out. You know, you hope, you hope, you hope, you hope, but you also plan for the worst and the bummer was the trends of sales going down and people burning copies of stuff and whether they burn it and listen to it and eventually legitimize the whole thing by buying the record or if they burn it and continue to burn it and burn it, and deplete the band’s operating funds, that affects us when it comes down to sales and that affects the perception of the band. You know, if we would have had a number one record in the States right now, do I think that people would be talking differently to me right now? Absolutely! Do I think that all of our fans have legitimate records in their hands right now? No. But does that mean that I don’t love them and respect them? I love them and respect them for a lot of the things they do and I know that a lot of our fans, after listening to stuff, if they’ve got songs that they’ve burnt or stuff like that, our fans, more so than just about any other band that I’m aware of, our fans are different. They’re totally different. They are people from all walks of life. It’s not a just a particular type that we appeal to and they end up in the long run being more cerebral than a lot of other people, because we have interesting things that we talk about, our lives are really interesting because of what we do, and because of our upbringing, we have a lot of stuff in common with our fans. I’ve been through the ringer. I don’t think I had to die just to say, ‘Hey, I died once.’ I think I had to have that happen so that I would actually realize that my whole life is way more important than a record. It’s about having a relationship with our fans and playing music and traveling around the world and being a bad ass on guitar, but being a decent human being.”
Dave has certainly come along way over the years and one thing that stands out is his sheer bloody honesty.
“Well, people have got a lot to hide. I’ve made it pretty clear with my life that there’s been some things that have been pretty good, some things that have been pretty bad. The bottom line is that there’s not the same kind of people that were around for me when I was growing up that there are nowadays. This thing that happened with Kayne West in the States – would that have happened back in the ‘80’s? No. No, I don’t think so. I personally think that this guy, whatever he is – I don’t really know what he does, some hip hop dude or something – I mean, I gotta ask myself, ‘Would that have happened back then?’ Then I gotta ask, ‘What’re they thinking?’ Why would go and do something like that to this little girl? And here’s another thing… the fear that… we see in America that everybody is fighting for equal rights and stuff like that and then you have people that really are great for their cause and then you have other people that do things like this and really set back their cause, like trying to bring equality to people’s colour, and then you see stuff like this. I mean, I gotta ask myself, if that was Beyonce, and some white guy came up and grabbed the mic out of her hand, what do I think would’ve happened? Probably something different. Now, I’m not racist. I have a wonderful tour manage and my guitar tech, they’re both black gentlemen. So, any body misinterpreting what I’m saying right now, don’t bother. I’m just saying something about what kind of…what are we doing now? I mean, we’ve got a guy inside of the House Of Representatives in the United States calling our President a liar? Wow. WOW!”
It seems that the statement ‘we live in interesting times’ is none more fitting these days.
“Yeah. Well, I mean, the good thing is that every once in a while you have someone like me comes along that can kind of have a little bit of fun with life and that makes people feel good. I’m glad that Endgame is one of those records that makes people feel good. I’m excited beyond belief that people are responding to us. You know, there’s a website out here called Blabbermouth, and this website, they’ve probably caused more harm single-handedly towards me and my band than any other website in the world. I think that’s because their fans are pretty discriminate. They know what they want and what they like, and they’re probably a little bit less tolerant than some people because I just think there’s a kind of a clique that’s going on there, too. Having said that, this website, even though they hate my guts, gave me an 8.5 out of ten and said ‘It’s time for us to take a page out of Professor Mustaine’s book. He appears to have been right after all all along.’ And I’m thinking, ‘Are you kidding me?’”
After more than a quarter of a century in the industry, no doubt it’s still nice to be surprised at this point in one’s career.
“Nothing was quite as surprising as having the people of Metal Hammer say that Megadeth is better than Metallica! That was like a kick in the pie hole.”
For something like that to be said, surely it’s a case of all the planets are aligning or something like that.
“Well, it certainly is. We’ve got great reviews on Amazon, we’ve got great reviews on iTunes, we’ve got great reviews on MySpace, we’ve got great reviews on YouTube. Everything is just clicking right now. My book is coming out next spring. We picked a great name for it. It had to be, it had to be called ‘Hello Me. Meet The Real Me.’ It had to be called that! And, with the tour with Slayer coming up, and then coming back to the States, I’m already looking forward to our next trip down under. Right now, this trip is something that came up out of the blue real quick and I’m looking forward to us being able to play on our next Gigantour run down there. We have such a great relationship with the Australian audience. I know that there’s gonna be people that are gonna come to this concert that haven’t heard Slayer before. I also know that there are gonna be some Slayer fans that haven’t heard Megadeth before. So, I’m really excited about us swapping some fans and their fans getting a chance to listen to us and our fans getting a chance to listen to them. We’re not really similar in styles, but as far as the intensity is concerned, we’re pretty much towards the redline on both bands and I’m just looking forward to getting there and playing for everybody.”
No doubt that the tour announcement of Megadeth playing with Slayer surprised the global metal fraternity. It’s the first time these two seminal metal acts have shared the stage since the legendary Clash of the Titans tour from the early 90s. This is something that a lot of thrash fans never thought would happen again.
“It’s been a long time, yeah. There’s a lot of people, and I’m included in it. But, a lot of that was of my own doing. I just didn’t want to play with Slayer because I had said some things that were regrettable and I don’t think I was really mature enough at the time to look at my part in it. But, y’know, I have. Since then I’ve talked to those guys and made amends and I’m trying to live my life differently and y’know, there’s gonna be people that are waiting for me to step on my dick and I’m not gonna do that. As far as having something terrible to say, I’ve got nothing bad to say about those guys. They’re a great live band. What I said was regrettable and y’know, it was 19 years ago! God… 19 years ago, man!”
Better late than never, no doubt Australian fans are pumped to see an updated version of the Clash Of The Titans tour finally making its way down here.
“Well, I’ve always respected the audience down there. It was unfortunate when we had to cancel before but that wasn’t my doing. That was the other band members. Y’know, Jeff Young had a little heroin problem and he ran out. So, he didn’t want to go down there. Now, any time that I ran out of anything, I either found more or I just kinda roughed it!”
I couldn’t not ask Dave about the rumoured tour featuring the “big four” of thrash – Megadeth, Slayer, Metallica and Anthax. But before I’ve even finished my question, the vocalist is quick to put the rumour to rest.
“It’s just a rumour. If it was true, I would be saying something.”
But trying to find out just how Mustaine feels about even the suggestion of such a tour proves to be somewhat of a touchy subject.
“Well, this is a Megadeth interview and it’s kinda funny that right during the middle of a new release that Metallica is back in my interview. So, I’ll just answer this and say it’s just a rumour. If it happened, it would be nice. I would tell you if it were happening. It’s not happening. If it does happen, I’ll be sure and tell you.”
Whilst it may appear that I had derailed the interview right in the final moments of our chat, Dave is quick to reassure me that all is well.
“Listen, I’m 48 years old. I’m capable of saying ‘no’ to a question,” laughs Mustaine. “I’m ok. I’m in a great mood, so don’t worry about it. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
So we can put the internet rumour mill to rest on this one for the moment, and instead just relish in the fact that some lucky punters around the globe will get to see these two metal heavy weights share the stage for the first time in almost two decades.
Megadeth's latest album, Endgame, is out now on Roadrunner Records through Warner Music Australia. For more information on Megadeth, check out www.megadeth.com.
