Since migrating from Metallica to Megadeth back in 1983, Dave Mustaine has had his share of obstacles to overcome. He endured a lengthy battle with the bottle and admitted in the documentary Some Kind of Monster to feeling resentful for being fired from Metallica, but the 2008 clean-and-sober Mustaine is a musician who is at the top of his game.
The frontman delivered some of his most memorable riffs and complex arrangements on Megadeth’s latest album
United Abominations, and it’s obvious that his fan base is as strong as ever. For further evidence of that fact, just watch the DVD
That One Night: Live In Buenos Aires (let’s just say that there’s a sea of Megadeth fans that sing along with everything - vocals, guitar parts, percussion, you name it).
It’s been almost a year since United Abominations was released, but Mustaine’s schedule hasn’t slowed down. Most recently he returned from the UK leg of the 3rd annual Gigantour festival, and April 12 will mark the start of the North American dates. Things did get a little complicated back in February with the announcement that Chris Broderick (formerly of Nevermore) had replaced Glen Drover as Megadeth’s second guitarist. In case some of you are wondering, there’s no classic Mustaine feud brewing. Drover parted ways to spend more time with his young child, and Mustaine - a father of two himself - completely supported his decision.
As the date approached to chat with Mustaine, I have to admit there were some nerves on my part. After all, this is the man who has been known to pick apart journalists with a single comment and start feuds that span several years. Once we got the interview started, I found Mustaine to be a different man than what his image has portrayed over the years. Although there were moments when Mustaine went into “blunt mode,” his candid nature was actually refreshing. Simply put, these weren’t canned answers to sell records. He did take a jab at a few people during the interview, but more often he came across as a down-to-earth, congenial guy who is extremely appreciative of his dedicated fan base. And those fans likely feel the same way about Dave - blunt comments and all.
UG: One of the biggest pieces of news recently has been the addition of guitarist Chris Broderick. What has Chris brought to the band?
Dave: He obviously brings a sense of great caliber of guitar playing. He had come recommended by Shawn (Drover), and Glen (Drover) had parted because he had needed to spend time with his 3 year old. I absolutely understood why Glen would want to leave. I did it a few years earlier. When Glen knew that Chris was coming in, he gave a glowing endorsement. All he does is work out and play guitar, and that’s great! I went to YouTube and I looked at a couple of the clips that he had. I thought this guy was a remarkable player.
He was supposed to audition and I was putting together a gymnasium at my house. James (MacDonough) laughs about this because he said that Chris thought it was some kind of initiation thing! “Dave, I know you and I know you just needed your gym built!” So he’s thinking, “Yeah, I passed with flying colors. My hazing was to be lifting weights.”
He’s a great guy and we get along great. He’s got a great look, very healthy. He plays great, sings great, and he’s got a great personality. He’s teachable, which is good in this business. Guys that are as good as someone like Chris usually are really arrogant and hard to deal with.
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| "As far as being able to play a song from beginning to end, most guitar players can't do that." |
Have most of the guitar players who have played in Megadeth picked up the music pretty quickly?
No, none of them have. The guitar players that are part of Megadeth’s alumni, they’ll all tell you that on the outside looking at the guitar parts, it’s relatively pretty comprehensive. They’re all really accomplished guitar players who will say that they’ve got it.
I remember Al Pitrelli. Al was not an eagle’s nest of talent, so to speak. If there was a tier, Al would probably be some of the least talented that we’ve had. There were periods where we had more of the B Level of people than the A Level guys. He said that he would be there 2 days, know all the songs in the set and have a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. I said, “None of us smoke.” He goes, “Okay, Nicorette Gum!” It was like, “You just don’t get it.”
Chris had to come down numerous times, and Chris has got degrees and all types of credentials as a genius guitar player. He told me, “I’m writing a 3-part fugue with 2 guitars and a bass." I’m like, “Oh, my God. I can’t believe I even know what that means. I think I know what you mean!” I said, “And where are you going to use that?” I was thinking he would say, “Well, I’m going to put it in the new Megadeth record.” He goes, “Well, you’ve already heard some of it.” I’m going, “Okay, that’s a good start.” So we’re really excited about this guy.
Have you written any material with Chris yet?
No, not really. I’ve heard him do some stuff and I thought, “It would be great to do a riff under one of those things that you’re playing.” I may very well have heard what he’s doing and heard a necessity for a rhythm part underneath so that it could be song-worthy. There are plenty of guitar players that sit in a room with a guitar on their lap and sound like they’re playing something great. But if you put a metronome next to them, you realize that they’re pretty shitty. As far as being able to play a song from beginning to end, most guitar players can’t do that. There are a lot of guitar players, if they make a mistake, they’ll stop. They won’t know how to keep the flow of the song running along.
It’s kind of like if you’re on a motorcycle and you’re running down the freeway, and you crash. You don’t get back on the motorcycle at the same exact spot where you crashed at because there’s a long skid mark of your ass on the road. You’ve got to kind of get back on wherever you end up stopping at.
We had one period in Florida where we had a song that the drumbeat got messed up. So instead of it going snare-kick drum, it would go kick-snare. All of the sudden it became like a country polka. I went back and I was trying to holler at our guitar player to say, “No, this is wrong! This is wrong!” We were unable to communicate because it was the heat of the moment. He was up on this huge drum riser thing, too. The beauty of that is that I could say out of that entire last year, there was only song that had that happen.
That chemistry as a band definitely came across in the DVD That One Night: Live In Buenos Aires. I loved how the audience sang along with not only the vocal parts, but the guitar parts as well.
Yeah, wasn’t that crazy? We actually heard really good news from the record company that put that out. There’s something that came through the pipeline yesterday that it crossed the 100,000 mark. I don’t know if that’s the States or if that’s worldwide. If it did cross the 100,000 mark, that means that it’s platinum. It would be really nice to have platinum again.
I understand that you wrote most of the material on United Abominations. On tracks like “Pray For Blood” or “Gears of War,” can you recall whether it was a riff or a lyric that originally got those songs started?
The irony is that both those songs were written with a gamer mentality. "Gears of War" obviously is a game, and “Pray For Blood” is a song about a person who plays games. You come at it from the position that you’re listening to that song with a game controller in your hands. This guy is the best that there is, and he plays for blood. I got that line from the movie Tombstone, which I love.
You debuted a few new Dean models at this year’s NAMM convention. Are most of the specs fairly similar to what you used on your former ESP models?
Oddly enough, the specs are not really that different between the Dean guitar and the Jackson guitar. The guitar that was in between those 2 companies, that one was a little bit different as far as the dynamics and the dimensions were concerned. The Dean guitar has got a very solid feel to it, the way that it’s made. There’s a consistency to it that I really appreciate. When I pick at the guitar, it’s pretty much like a doctor who has a scalpel. I mean, I’m sure he could do the same thing with a butter knife or a razor blade, but you don’t want to leave a mess. You know what I mean? People will say, “Hey, you want to jam?” And I’ll look at their gear and I’ll think, “Uh, no.”
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| "I'm at home right now taking a much needed sabbatical." |
Did the people at Dean approach you?
I was planning on going back to Jackson, and the folks from Dean heard that I was between contracts. We talked and it seemed like it was a good fit for me. They understood me, who I am, how I play, what I need from a guitar company, and what I need from a guitar. And so far, we’ve had a good relationship.
I recently talked with Michael “Padge” Paget from Bullet For My Valentine, and he mentioned that his ESP signature model actually has most of the specs from your former model - but with a different facade. Is that flattering to you?
It depends. I mean, if he’s got a signature model and he’s using my specs, then it’s not his signature model. I’ve got say that in the long run, when you hear some of the young bands that are coming up, the ones that are good, if I have a chance to influence them or in some way inspire them to use the equipment that I use or endorse some of the equipment that I use, that’s a great thing.
It’s a gray area, though, when you start getting into the infringement of some people’s signature stuff. I like to kind of keep my nose clean and not say, “Hey, you’re using my shit.” I think that’s just a little bit too high school for me. If somebody likes my guitar, play my guitar. If you’re going to have my guitar and you’re going to put your name over the top of it, hey, that’s okay, too. At the end of the day, the guys at the factory know that they’re just continuing to build the DV8.
Are there any techniques or tools that you would recommend to young guitarists who are just beginning and are hoping to achieve your level of playing?
I would have to say nowadays, the way you learn how to play and the simplicity to which you can learn how to play and the ease of being able to capture what you create, it’s come a long way since when I first started playing. You figure I started playing about 33 years ago, and then you think back to just 3 years ago - I’ll put things into perspective for you. Look at the speed of the Internet. Three years ago, a lot of people were switching over to cable. If you go someplace and someone has got a 14.4 modem, you’re thinking, “Dude, what’s with the string to the telephone?” The technology has multiplied exponentially, and it just continues to reinvent itself. As far as learning how to play and slow something down and being able to keep in tune when you’re slowing down, that makes it a lot easier for guitar players to learn songs.
I wish I could be learning nowadays. I do have, in a very indirect way, a vicarious pleasure because my son Justis plays. He’s better than I was at 15. So he doesn’t have to make the same personal mistakes that I made, which caused a setback in me achieving my goals sooner. I don’t see why he’s not going to end up being a better guitar player than me.
That might be hard to do, Dave.
Well, he’s got the genes. I taught him how to curl his lips!
Is Justis currently in a band?
Not yet. We’re talking about getting together the right people. I don’t want him to get into a band, become bonded with one of the players in the band, and the player be crap and us needing to jettison him. There would be some resentment from my son because he had a friend in the band.
The 3rd annual Gigantour is about to arrive in North America this April. What can we expect from the show this year?
I think it would be counterintuitive for me to say anything other than it’s better than the last one. Realistically when you talk to the people in the industry, they know that it’s one of the strongest festivals in years, whether it’s Gigantour or not. I think the diversity in the lineup has really given it a lot of credibility. The fact that we have a Scandinavians that has some real teeth, European bands, Swedes, Finland. I don’t know if you know exactly where Finland is on the map, but it’s close to the North Pole. I’ve played there numerous times, and I’ve actually got a little Finnish ancestry.
I asked Alexi (Laiho) if they wanted to be on the very first one, but evidently there was some kind of rift between him and another band on the lineup. We couldn’t do anything about it because we already confirmed the other bands. So here we are, everybody is happy, and we’re ready to rock.
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| "It would be really nice to have platinum again." |
Have you found time to write any new music on the road?
Honestly, I’m at home right now taking a much needed sabbatical. We’ve been out on tour for over a year. We come home in between legs, but as you can probably imagine, the other band members get to unplug. All that happens for me is I get off of one train and get on to another. Right now during my vacation time, I’m doing interviews and I’m doing a photo shoot today and I’m doing a seminar. I’d like to take my 46-year-old carcass down to the beach to see some water. I went to the beach this morning and the waves were perfect. If I had it my way, these guys would be using archived footage and the interviewers would be transcribing a bunch of stuff off my fact sheet over on my website.
But you do have to admit that it’s a compliment that fans and media are still very interested in what Megadeth is doing 25 years later.
I’m not ungrateful for having the attention and the work right now. It’s one of those jobs that you really treat fans with honor and respect. If you’ve got even a modicum of humility, you can last in this business. To me, the most important thing was to treat people the way you want to be treated. Some people say that I’m a mean person. Well, you know what? The person that’s saying that is probably a dipshit and I put them in their place! I have a knack for doing that.
I’m sure that there have been moments when others have deserved some of your verbal jabs.
There is some stuff I regret, though. Some of the stuff, when you see it in print now that I’m older and I have kids, I kind of wish I hadn’t have been quite as colorful with the words. But that’s who I was. I didn’t ever think that someday my 10-year-old daughter would be reading about me saying something about having sex in an interview. I didn’t think it was inappropriate at the time because there was no daughter. It’s given me a great sense of respect for the opposite sex of my fan base. I’ve always really respected everybody that’s been fans of ours.
Interview by Amy Kelly
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