During a recent interview with Liz Barnes on Planet Rock‘s “My Planet Rocks,” Dave Mustaine was asked about the 40th anniversary of MEGADETH.
“I think [we lasted this long by] just trying to be the best that [we] can be,” he responded (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). “And we’ve had adversity against us since the beginning because of METALLICA. The funny thing about is that we’re friends now. But what happened happened, and it’s in public belief that there’s some kind of beef between us, and there really isn’t.
Mustaine continued: “As much as back in the day we talked about it from a negative point of view, I prefer to talk about it from a positive place now, a place of forgiveness and of healing. Those guys went through a lot of stuff themselves, and I did too. It’s very well documented about all this, and getting professional help. So that’s something I think is really wonderful.
“You’ve got two of the biggest bands in metal that started from the same place, had their growing pains, came to the realization that it was just a bunch of hard feelings and a bunch of hurt people. And hurt people hurt people. And now I wish them the very, very best. And now it’s all about just coming from a place of happiness. And I think if you have that kind of attitude, you can’t help but succeed.”
During a recent Twitter Spaces conversation with RattleheadsNFT, Mustaine was asked about the band’s initial discovery and signing to a record label.
“Well, MEGADETH had a little bit of a following before we got discovered by the record company,” he responded. “So it’s kind of unfair. But the way that it started was I had a band that I was in called PANIC. And I lived in Huntington Beach. And there were a lot of bands playing backyard beer keg parties, and I thought that that was pretty fun, to go to the parties and pick up on girls. And I started seeing how easy it was for guitar players to have people freak out over them, pay attention to them, treat ’em with respect and stuff, and I know I wanted that. So PANIC was formed.
“That band was short-lived, and I ended up joining METALLICA and was in that band for about two years and then MEGADETH happened. So the discovery part was…
“After I left METALLICA, the world wanted to know what I was gonna do, because I was this huge component of METALLICA‘s success. I’m here, and then I’m gone. And people that went to go see them after I was no longer in the band and didn’t know that there was a lineup change said that there was something very, very, very wrong with the band that they heard on tape versus the band that they were watching. And that’s when people started to look for me. And the rest is history.
“Now, I think that the band did great,” he continued. “I think they were fine. In fact, I believe that Kirk [Hammett] did a good job playing my parts. Coming into a band and having to play somebody else’s stuff isn’t always fun, but I think he was a gentleman and did a good job.”
