Megadeth mainman Dave Mustaine was interviewed on the April 4-6 edition of Full Metal Jackie‘s nationally syndicated radio show. A couple of excerpts from the interview follow.
Full Metal Jackie: When you look back on the timeline between records, there’s usually a year or two typically between records. Are you starting to look ahead on when you’re going to work on [the follow-up to last year’s “Super Collider”]?
Mustaine: Well, we have already started the process of listening to licks and talking to people about working. The funny thing is, I’m not a big believer in coincidence as I think that’s just people’s way of saying that there’s no powers greater than us that help line out our life. I totally believe in destiny. And we just got done doing the VEVO acoustic performance a while ago, and some lady walks by and she goes, “Hey, Max Norman [mixer of Megadeth’s 1990 album “Rust In Peace” and producer of 1992’s “Countdown To Extinction” and 1994’s “Youthanasia”] says hi,” right as the elevator door closes. I stuck my hand in the door and said, “What did you say?” “Max Norman says hi.” “Max Norman? Max Norman Norman?” “Yeah.” “Wow! Wow! Really?” ‘Cause we kind of hadn’t spoken in… Jesus… forever. So I called him up and said, “What are you doing? Are you still doing this?” ‘Cause he had gotten out of making records and he’s back into making records and I thought, “I wonder what it would be like to maybe try one song with this guy and see if we can catch lightning twice.” So it’s just neat to be in that position where you can do stuff like this, because I know how hard it is for bands to make it nowadays. And that’s still the underlying goal for me, with my band, is to be able to bring other bands out with us to play live and see how great it is to play in front of some of the greatest metal fans in the world. And I’m not saying Megadeth fans are the best fans in the world; I believe that, but I know that there’s a lot of metal fans out there that, they may not like Megadeth, but that doesn’t mean that they’re not great people. So, you learn a lot of crap as you go along, too.
Full Metal Jackie: Dave, many musicians, yourself included, have described an album as a snapshot or representation of where they are in their life. What are your life priorities right now? How do you anticipate they’ll affect the musical direction of the next MEGADETH album?
Mustaine: My priorities have changed. Before I got married, it was just about myself and my band. As you change, as you grow, as you pick up people in your life, whether you’re planning on getting married or having a casual relationship, whether you’re straight or not, or whatever you do, you find love, your life changes and you start to have to think about somebody else. At least I would think that if you weren’t a selfish prick, you would be thinking about someone that you love. And once you bring a life into it, again, whether you’re straight or gay or have a child naturally or by in vitro or adoption or whatever — which, I think adoption is cool too — to have a responsibility like that totally changes things. [My son] Justis just turned 22, and he’s doing great — he’s got a great job, he works at our management company, he’s in college and all that stuff. And go figure, you would think that having a rock star as a dad, you would be a complete loser, and he’s not. [My daughter] Electra is doing great too, and as they grow up, I start to get my “Dave time” back. And I’ve gotta tell you, man, I’m loving this right now because I’ve been playing, I’ve been sitting in my studio listening to music and falling in love with the guitar again. Chris [Broderick, MEGADETH guitarist] and I just wrote some really killer stuff two days ago. I’m excited; I can’t wait to see what this new record is going to sound like.
Full Metal Jackie: Awesome, so is Max going to be somebody that you think is going to produce the whole next record?
Mustaine: No. At this point, right now, I would say a definitive “I don’t know,” because we don’t know. We don’t even know when it’s going to happen. I do know I have tremendous respect for Max. I know Cameron Webb is gonna involved with the record for sure. And I know that Max is a very positive, very hopeful question mark. But I’m a capable record producer and I know that if I did it solely with Cameron, as much as he did the last record [“Super Collider”]… He was one of [producer] Johnny K’s guys, and Johnny had some stuff he needed to do and Cameron filled in for him really well, and we made a great team. So I’d like to have Max try some stuff, but if it ain’t right, it ain’t right. Hard to think that something that Max would do wouldn’t be right, but times are a little different, and sometimes people grow apart. I’m hopeful and I’m optimistic.
Full Metal Jackie: Sounds like it’s early to tell. You have so much coming up this year.
Mustaine: Plus there’s so many frickin’ songs too. I was going through all the stuff that we had… I mean, honestly, I have more songs than I know… I don’t have to write another note for the rest of my life and I have enough music written to finish my career out. It’s a matter of just weeding out what I wanna use and what I don’t wanna use. And there’s a huge library of metal riffs for other bands and stuff. That’s one of the things we’re looking forward to too, as I go off into another phase of my career, is doing some co-writes.
Listen to the show here
Upcoming Megadeth Shows:
Apr 17 Pearl Concert Theater Las Vegas, NV
Apr 19 Pima County Fair Tucson, AZ
Apr 22 Agora Casa de Cultura Quito, Ecuador
Apr 24 Teatro De Verano Montevideo, Uruguay
Apr 26 The Metal Fest 2014 Santiago, Chile
Apr 29 Plaza de la Musica Cordoba, Argentina
May 01 Estadio Cubierto Malvinas Buenos Aires, Argentina
May 04 Espaço Das Americas Sao Paulo, Brazil
May 06 Royal Center Bogota, Colombia
May 08 Palacio De Los Deportes Mexico City, Mexico
May 10 Auditorio Banamex Monterrey, Mexico
May 11 Auditorio Telmex Zapopan, Mexico
Jun 06 Sweden Rock Festival Solvesborg, Sweden
Jun 10 Le Palais Des Sports Paris, France
Jun 11 TivoliVredenburg Utrecht, Netherlands
Jun 13 Copenhell Festival Copenhagen, Denmark
Jun 15 Nova Rock Nickelsdorf, Austria
Jun 16 Aerodrome Festival Budapest, Hungary
Jun 17 Aerodrome Festival Prague, Czech Republic
Jun 20 Amnesia Rockfest Montebello, Canada
Jun 22 Hellfest Clisson, France
Jun 23 Rockhal Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Jun 26 Rock In Roma @ Ippodromo Capannelle Rome, Italy
Jun 27 City Sound @ Ippodromo Del Galoppo Milan, Italy
Jun 28 Eishalle Deutweg Winterthur, Switzerland
Jul 15 Artpark Lewiston, NY
Jul 19 Casino Rama Entertainment Centre Longford, Canada
Jul 24 Metaldays Festival Tolmin, Slovenia
Jul 26 Qstock Oulu, Finland
Jul 28 Aurora Concert Hall Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation
Jul 29 Arena Moscow Moscow, Russian Federation
Aug 01 Skogsrojet Festival Rejmyre, Sweden
Aug 02 Wacken Open Air Festival Wacken, Germany Sold Out
Aug 04 Rock Off Festival Istanbul, Turkey
Aug 09 Oldehoofsterkerkhof Leeuwarden, Netherlands
Aug 10 Bloodstock Open Air Festival Derbyshire, United Kingdom
Sep 22 Motörhead’s Motörboat Miami, FL
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