Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine on Not Wanting to Poach a Bassist from Another Band: “I hated when we did that with Cliff Burton” – NEW ALBUM – 2022 – INTERVIEW

Posted by On September 02, 2022 0 Comment

Revolver:

Dave Mustaine: How Megadeth Made New Album While “F**king World Falls Apart”

“All we wanted to do is make a Megadeth record and the f**kin’ world falls apart.” That’s how Dave Mustaine characterizes the era that spawned The Sick, The Dying… and the Dead!, the thrash pioneer’s 16th studio album, first in six years, and first since Mustaine was diagnosed with — and beat — cancer. Revolver talked to him about the challenges of treatment, the dynamic with his current bandmates, and how he approached the writing, recording and rollout of this fiery new record.

An excerpt from the interview has been transcribed below.

On replacing Megadeth bassist David Ellefson:

(Transcribed by full in bloom)

Dave Mustaine:

We parted ways with David Ellefson and the idea to get Steve (Testament’s Steve DiGiorgio played bass on Megadeth’s new album), basically, it’s always going to be my decision. There were a couple of guys we looked at, and we were trying to finish the record. The criteria for someone to be a session player and finish the record versus a guy that’s going to be a band member that we can find right now that’s going to make a commitment and leave what they’re doing to come join us; we just didn’t have the time. So, we sought out a guy that would just help us finish the album, and that was Steve.

I’m not a guy who likes to poach people from other bands. I hated when we did that with Cliff Burton. I mean, Trauma (Cliff’s pre-Metallica band) wasn’t a great band, but I think it just sets you up for resentment from people when you go and take their band members. If the guy quits and joins your band, that’s cool, but if I would’ve gone to Testament and said, “Hey, I want Steve,” or I would’ve just gone to Steve and said, “Hey, I’ll give you a gazillion dollars,” and he quits, do you know what would happen? I would lose my friendship with Alex (Skolnick) and Chuck (Billy). It’s just not the way to go.

We welcomed James (LoMenzo) with open arms, and everyone loves him. He’s just such a great, great guy. So, it wasn’t a hard decision to make. Basically, I called him to see what he was doing. Everybody is really happy with him. I haven’t really seen that much push back from the fans. I know the two people that matter most, besides me, Dirk (Verbeuren) and Kiko (Loureiro), love him. It’s what I wanted. I wanted to have the four of us playing together and be comfortable with one another knowing there was no weirdness going on or any double-dealing or anything like that because those are the things that always ruin bands. We’ve just had this closeness, the four of us, since James came. They’re always together somewhere, always. James is at the bar having a glass of wine with Kiko or James is in the gym working out with Dirk. They’re always doing something wonderful together.

 

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