MEGADETH’s DAVE MUSTAINE: ‘I’m Sad For Our Nation Right Now, With The Way Everybody’s Against Each Other’

Dave Mustaine

In a recent interview with Jay Crildlin, MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine discussed the current state of the world and the U.S.

You can check out a part of the interview below.

You’ve always been a political guy. Did you have an internal conflict about whether you should do the national anthem in the first place?

“I do now. As a society right now, we’re capable of so much more. I’ve been writing songs for a really long time, and to write a song that’s timely and timeless, it’s difficult.

“Right now, if I wrote a song about how our nation is, I pray to God that 20 years from now, people wouldn’t say, ‘Yeah, things are still like they were in 2019, where everybody was at each other’s throat.’

“I’m sad for our nation right now, with the way everybody’s against each other.”

Do you think the world’s changed for better or worse since [2016’s ‘Dystopia’?

“This is going to sound so corny coming from me, but we’ve forgotten how to love and respect one another. We’ve got to be able to disagree.

“I stopped using Twitter. I was using Twitter all the time, and I just backed off it because you can’t say anything without somebody dissecting it. I have trepidation speaking with you right now, my friend, and I don’t know you, and I don’t see you doing anything to hurt me.

“But some people, they get judged before they even get spoken to. Some people have said stuff about me, and they don’t even know me. And it may not hurt me, but it sure the f*ck hurt my kids.”

When you’re going back through your catalog, preparing [best-of compilation] ‘Warheads on Foreheads’, listening to all your music again, can you hear your point of view evolving?

“There’s certain things that it’s pretty hypocritical to say I still believe the same way because things have changed.

“That’s part of being an evolved species, is having the capability to have an open mind, to change your mind, to have a spiritual awakening. I know I have, with a lot of things.

“I wouldn’t change nothing, because it made me who I am. There’s people who I’ve lost who I wish I could have said something because they passed away, but other than that, there’s nothing.”