Megadeth‘s Dave Mustaine talked to uDiscover Music about his thirty-five year career. Read what he said here:
“I don’t know what sets us apart from the other bands, so I think probably trying to be normal and be just one of the ‘guys.’ You would be surprised – I eat at fast-food joints, you know, I like normal stuff that people do and like.
“When you see certain people that are celebrities and stuff, they’re making up for lost time, and when they get wealthy real quick they make up for lost time by buying all kinds of stuff.
“You see it in the professional sports world, they actually have a class that they teach athletes how to not get taken by your own family, so for me, I never had anything that I needed to make up for myself because, I was already starting from less than zero, so I mean, everything was just a blessing.
“And I look at this way that we connect with our fans, is that there’s no socio-economic difference between us because I was homeless, I’ve gone without meals, and I know what it’s like. I’d never put myself above our fans.”
Metal and the mainstream
“I don’t know that real, credible metal ever had mainstream dominance because that is what ultimately killed metal – mainstream exposure. I think that’s one of the things that’s kept us relevant.
“We’ve never tried to follow trends, and it’s what’s kept us – I wouldn’t say better or above anybody – but having our own standards and not trying to fit in is what’s made us have that longevity.”
Where to start with Megadeth
“If someone was listening to Megadeth today for the first time, I would have them listen to the new 35th-anniversary record that’s going to be coming out, ‘Warheads on Foreheads.’
“Because that has 35 songs, obviously, and thinking about the best representation of everything because chronologically, it’s picking up a lot of the songs how the band matured, what I went through my life, the heroin days, and cocaine days, and the alcoholism, the loss of band members lives, family members dying, all that stuff.
“You can tell listening to the songs when you know the backstory, you can tell.”
Why ‘Super Collider’ is so personal
“The ‘Super Collider’ was about my mother-in-law getting Alzheimer’s and watching her die in front of me.
“It was the most excruciatingly painful thing I’d ever seen in my life because I know she knew, but she just couldn’t talk anymore, and at the end she’d look me and she’d want to say my name, and I’d say ‘Nana, it’s Dave, I’m right here.’
“And I started having to get some kind of counseling for myself so that I didn’t take it on myself, making it worse for her because I’d say, ‘Come on.'”
