Ever since Chris Broderick and Shawn Drover quit Megadeth, the one person yet to comment on the situation was Dave Mustaine. This past weekend, Mustaine gave, what I believe, is his first interview since all of that went down to Full Metal Jackie (video below). And while Mustaine didn't directly reveal any new information, if you read between the lines, it's pretty clear to understand what he's saying:
"Well, it depends if they they really have talent and they come in or if they're a utility player. We've had a couple of situations [in] the past, where the 'Rust In Peace' lineup broke up, Jimmy DeGrasso [drums] came in. Jimmy was a great player; we never really congealed, though. Same with Al Pitrelli [guitar]. I love both those guys as people, and I have so much respect for them as players, but for some reason, we never really could get that equilibrium between all of us.
"When you're playing in a band together, that's as close as you'll ever get to another person without having sex with them. I mean, you can't get any closer to a bandmember. After that, [we had] James Lomenzo, James MacDonough, Glen Drover, Shawn Drover, Chris Broderick… all those guys… the fans don't want those guys in Megadeth."
Am I reading too much into this or is Mustaine basically saying the fans want Menza and Friedman back in the band? That's what he's saying right? Between this, some rumors I've heard over the weekend at NAMM and Nick Menza's recent open-ended answer about returning to the band, I am starting to think there may be something to this classic-era lineup reunion rumors.
As for new material, Mustaine said he's entering the studio in March, no matter what, and again, if you read between the lines, maybe you can read into what he's saying…
"I'm going in the studio March 2 no matter what. And the songs that we have right now, we talked to the label, and I said, 'I'm not making another radio song ever.' 'Cause that's what record companies want. And I think that was the bane of Megadeth existence. When 'Countdown [To Extinction]' came out, we had so many radio songs… From 'Countdown' to 'Youthanasia' to 'Cryptic [Writings]' to 'Risk' and going down and down and down, it was more radio, radio, radio… You know, I love all those songs, but it's not really what Megadeth fans wanna hear; they wanna hear stuff like 'The Conjuring', like 'Set The World Afire', like 'Devil's Island', stuff like 'Holy Wars', stuff like 'Take No Prisoners'… And I get it — I wrote those songs, [and] I can do that in my sleep — but when you're having someone else say, 'This is what you have to do,' either you listen or you don't."
"The most exciting part right now is that I've been cataloging songs my whole career, and I had stuff from microcassettes to cassette tapes… I mean, I didn't have any 8-tracks, but I had everything possible that you could put any kind of medium of music on, including handwritten tablature. It took me three years to archive all this stuff."
If it isn't clear, he's basically saying that he realizes that nobody liked Super Collider, and so he's not going to make another soft rock album. In fact, he basically says so later on in the interview…
"When [bassist] David Ellefson did the last record, on 'Super Collider', the bass playing was really… He had said that he really had a lot of playing and stuff like that. And a lot of people don't like that record, because there's so many radio-type songs on it, and I think a lot of that has to do with the producer that you're working with."
In Mustaine-speak, "radio friendly" songs means "shitty songs that nobody really liked but the label," the same label that he initially praised.
This is a very exciting time to be following Megadeth's process. With them entering the studio in March, you'd think they have a month to figure out these lineup issues, right? We'll keep you posted.
