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March 15, 2012 - InfoWars Nightly News
01:08:18
20120315_Thu_NightlyNews
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The End
Here in the bunker with us is Dave Mustaine, founder of Megadeth, one of the first members of Metallica, known as one of the greatest guitarists of all time.
And he's a patriot who loves liberty and loves this country and loves God.
I tell you, I love Dave Mustaine.
He just ended his big Gigantor tour.
Huge success.
David, it's great to have you here with us.
Thanks, Alex.
Good to be here, finally.
Wow!
So you just ended the tour here in Austin.
Yeah, Gigantor 2012 in North America we ended.
There's no telling how much longer Gigantor will go in other countries and stuff like that, but this was the end of the beginning of this year.
We started on Philadelphia over on the East Coast and worked up into Canada and across Canada pretty well.
We have a Canadian drummer, so we all of a sudden became really huge up there.
Good.
Is it just me, or is Megadeth getting bigger than ever?
Because I hear about it all the place.
I hear it a lot more on the radio.
You guys are so prolific, and stuff's even getting better.
I think we're getting more popular, but with what happened with unlocking the recording industry and everybody being able to get records basically at will,
We had to kind of focus more on the live aspect, so I think the hard work touring has paid off because whether record sales help a band survive anymore or not, you know, we're still able to continue to get out to the masses because, you know, good times, bad times.
People like entertainment and the funny thing is during, you know, when it's considerably tougher times, heavy metal becomes more popular, so.
As things have kind of gone in a more difficult period, the same way it was during the 80s, you know, it's cyclical.
It's the same stuff and times are getting kind of tough now and heavy metal is becoming much more popular again.
You know, every record, it's kind of like a snapshot of your life.
And you have to live life in between records to experience something so that you're not just regurgitating the same stupid song and lyrics a hundred times, because people will eventually catch on to that.
But there's also the fact that when people discover a band in the very beginning, that's the band that they hold on to.
Very rarely do you see a band go 13 albums into their career like we have and still continue to generate new fans.
And, you know, although you do lose fans on the way, you know, they grow up, people get married, their wives tell them to stop listening to metal and, you know, then that's the end of the story.
Or, you know, people just, they just start playing it themselves and don't listen to it because they make their own music.
When MySpace came out, there was, I think at one time I remember there was a study, there was Eight million MySpace pages with people that had their own music uploaded onto it.
And I was thinking, like, God, eight million fans on there and, you know, probably 750 or seven and a half million of them suck, you know?
Because even that 500,000 that would have good stuff, you've got your whole life to write your first record, you know?
And when it's time to write your second one, that's when the pressure's on.
It wasn't like we just got a different engineer.
We had a new producer working with me, so in the beginning it was kind of like, all right, who's this guy, Johnny K, you know, and what's he all about, you know, and he did Stained and, you know, that was kind of like those guys and Metal Is Us guys.
So when Johnny came, He was recommended by our bassist, David Ellison.
I didn't know anything about him.
It was kind of like two dogs sizing each other up.
Although we didn't get into it at all, we became fast friends.
There was some time where I thought, you know, is this going to work?
Because, you know, we spent, we had eight weeks to make the record, and we had to do 13 songs, and one of the songs had to be done immediately for Guitar Hero.
And, I mean, for Konami, that was the Never Dead song, and Sudden Death had come out earlier that year.
We started working on the song when David Elfson came back, and we were in the process of doing it for the game.
And it was going to be included in the record, so that was actually the first time that Elfson recorded with us again in eight years.
In fact, I was going to bring that point back.
It's great to see David back in the band.
Yeah, he's a good dude.
He's pretty funny.
There's an irony about this guy.
He's studying to be a pastor, but he swears more than I do.
He's in a 12-step program, but he drinks coffee from morning till night.
You know, good thing for me is we're friends.
I've always cared about him, even during, you know, the period we went through where we were kind of estranged from each other, you know, because when you're in a band together, you guys become almost like, it's kind of like a weird marriage, so to speak, like a family kind of thing.
You know, everybody always says that, but usually it breaks up because, you know, families fracture.
You can't always expect all four people to have the same viewpoint.
And we didn't at a period of time, and me being the leader, I had to make some unpopular decisions.
And of course, when things go wrong, you know, it's my fault.
And when things go great, it's everybody's credit, you know?
So I accepted that early in the game, because I knew that was how things were going to be portrayed.
And when we got back together again after all the lawsuit and stuff had happened, Dave had He was contrite about what had happened.
His case against me got completely dismissed.
He actually got really hurt.
The fans were really pissed at him for suing me.
I kept telling him, you know what, I love Dave.
The sad thing is that the kids are getting hurt in this.
The funny thing is our kids are so resilient, they don't even think about it.
They get together and they're just jumping on each other and acting like stupid kids.
It didn't even affect him.
I saw him at dinner one time and I said, you know, he said it was the dumbest thing he's ever done and I said, I forgive you.
And that was the beginning of the path back to him joining the band again.
You know, we tried a couple times to talk and God's timing just wasn't right, you know.
And when the time was right, it was effortless.
He came in, he started playing, I was looking through my hair kind of...
Kind of like trying to clandestinely check him out and see if he was, you know, having trouble or if he wasn't into it or if he was enjoying himself or whatnot.
And it was pretty cool because it, you know, give or take, you know, some hair colors changing or some hair loss, you know, we're like the same two kids we met when we met in Los Angeles back in the 80s.
I was about to say, it was great to see him back in the band, because I'd always just seen him in photos at a couple of concerts where I'd seen him early on many years ago.
It was like, wow!
I remember this guy, too.
This is even greater.
And he's such a nice guy.
Dave, we haven't really gotten into politics yet in this interview, but you were telling me just basically about what happened with the whole Santorum thing.
What went on there?
Well, you know, it's no secret I've been writing songs about not being happy with the way that the peasants are treated in the valley, you know, and being one myself, you know, the lyrics in Peace Sells talks a lot about what my beliefs are, you know, I go to work when I have to, I go to court when I have to, I pay my bills, you know, I believe in God, you know, all the things like our founding fathers would have been proud of, you know what I mean?
And I was talking and doing an interview with this guy, innocently enough.
He asked me what I thought about the candidates.
I went through the Republican candidates and said what I thought of each one at the time because it was during that horrible, embarrassing smear campaign that they were all waging towards each other.
And I mean, seemingly like that, that everybody was just fighting instead of, you know, saying, well, yeah, he may not he may have done this, but I believe this and I'm going to fight against Obama.
You know, if I told Ron Paul that last time I was on, I said, I get you guys all to fight with each other, but transcend, go after Obama.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it's not even going after Obama.
It's going after the ideals that that America was founded on and that we You know, we have a constitution.
I saw a joke the other day.
Someone said that I think Syria was writing a new constitution and that they could have ours because we don't use it anymore.
You know, but to get back to the point, I was just talking about the politics like I did when I did Rock the Vote, you know, and the second person who picked up the story.
said I endorsed Rick Santorum.
And, you know, I put out a press release after that that said I never used the word endorsed.
I said that I liked the guy because he jumped off the campaign trail to go be with his sick daughter.
Now, that to me, whether you're a football player or an astronaut, if you put your family first, you get kudos in my book.
You just had the 30-year reunion with Metallica, and you were telling me in the drive over here, well, that it was a testament to the fact that dreams really do come true.
Well, I think the point that this whole thing is closure.
You know, it's very cathartic what took place.
When we started off, there was three guys that You know, we didn't know what we were going to do.
We just loved playing together.
We loved fast and heavy music.
And, you know, if you would have told us, we would have changed the world and that every guitar playing kid from here to Timbuktu would be playing my style guitar playing.
I wouldn't have said you're out of your mind, you know, but that's how it started.
We were a three-piece.
James sang, I played guitar, Lars drummed, and we had a bass player at the time that we changed for Cliff Burton, who we really wanted.
And, you know, there was a lot of personality in the band, and we went our separate ways for quite a long time.
There was the way that the public perceived us, the way that the press perceived us, and how we really are, because we're friends.
When we got back to each other, to playing with each other, it's kind of like, you know, we have this relationship that the public sees and that the press has and that we have, you know, and it's like the Jacari window, which is, you know, four different perspectives, how I see me, how you see me, how I think you see me, how you really see me thing, right?
That's one of those weird perception things they teach in psychology.
And, you know, we have kind of a three-dimensional way that our relationship is.
And our private relationship, we've been friends ever since the day we met.
You know, it's kind of like you see two people get together in the debate and they're vicious and then after it's done they shake hands like hockey players, you know.
They'll have a beer if they knock each other's teeth out, you know.
So we've always had that friendship, but the press has used what each one of us would say in jest about each other as real, you know, fiery ammo on each other, and just kind of kept it going, and the public bought into it, and I think the way that, you know, you can ask, is it real, is it over, is, you know, the big four stuff we did.
And the 30th anniversary, which is totally different.
When we did the Big Four stuff, we played Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, and Anthrax on the same bill, several countries around the world.
And when we did the 30th anniversary, it was just me and James and Lars on stage again.
Sure, there were other musicians there and stuff like that, but for me, for my heart, When I got fired that day, there was so much I wanted to still do with those guys.
And if I would have gotten a warning, it would have been different.
I would have said, oh, sure, man.
I want to be in a band.
I love this band.
It's my band, too.
And if my drinking's causing a problem, you know, I'll be comfortable doing something else, you know?
But it didn't really happen that way, and I think it was necessary because, you know, you have two great bands now.
I was about to say, it's fate!
We wouldn't have had Megadeth, and we wouldn't have got to see you really charge out.
I mean, you never want to toot your horn and say that you really were there to help crystallize Metallica.
Well, it was the three of us, yeah.
But, you know, I can't take any credit for James's songwriting ability or his guitar playing ability.
He is a poet.
He blew my mind when he picked up the guitar the first time, because he used to just sing.
And I did all the guitar playing, and in fact, I talked between every song, too.
And when he picked up the guitar the first time, I remember watching him and I was like, oh my god, this guy's really, really good.
And in fact, it almost intimidated me.
I was a gunslinger at the time, so I wasn't really that flappable, but I watched him and I was just like, wow, this guy's really good, you know?
And so that's part of the reason I had such a difficult time letting go and just thinking, you know, it's just another band.
Just like most people that are in bands, you know, they look at a band as being, you know, kind of like having a, you know, Game of Cards or something like that.
But it was it was tribal.
It was communal.
It was like really important to all of us.
You know, I remember when we first went to San Francisco, we were doing blood packs with the guys in Exodus and cutting our hands and doing stuff like that.
Yeah, it was crazy times.
You know, the Satanic Bible was everywhere and, you know, we were doing all kinds of stuff.
Well, I'm not going to say they were because I don't know what they were doing, but I know what I was doing while I was part of the band, because, you know, there was just an energy that was around it where you just felt like, you know you're bulletproof. - After you left, you've been continuing, the writing is amazing, like Justice for All and just all the themes.
What can you tell us about James, where that type of stuff comes from, his background?
I mean, you've gotta be pretty in tune and smart to write stuff like that. - Yeah, I don't know.
I know that James and I have a lot in common with our parents and some of the hardships we had growing up, being kinda awkward, not socially the center of attention and stuff like that.
So I think a lot of it could be inspired by the same emotions that I did, kind of like, you know, stuff that I believed I wanted to share with people or other things that I thought, you know, you're missing the point here.
A lot of the songs I wrote back in the beginning of my career are just as relevant now as they were back in the 80s when I wrote them.
And in fact, the song Rest in Peace I wrote when I was a teenager before I was in my first band.
So, that song was back when I was... I wrote Jump into Fire, Mechanics, and Rest in Peace.
Those were my first three songs I wrote.
Hanger 18 was the fourth one.
And I never showed those guys rest in peace.
I did show it to this band called Child Saint, which is this bar band from Orange County somewhere.
KNAC was popular at the time and me and David Ellison are driving down the road and Dave's nickname is Junior because there's two of us and I'm the older one.
So we're listening to KNEC and all of a sudden I hear my music and I'm frozen solid in anger.
Oh yeah.
You know what?
You could have hit me with a phone.
It's that feeling of, yeah, I was so mad.
My butt grew together.
I was going to kill these guys.
And at the end of the song, the DJ goes, and that was Child Saint by Child Saint.
And I went like, oh my God, they stole my song title for a name for their band too?
So, you know, because Rest in Peace was actually called Child Saint when I first wrote it.
And I remember, You know, when you first start, you never think that crap's gonna happen to you.
The drummer from the Circle Jerks, when he found out we were called Megadeth, M-E-G-A-D-E-T-H, he went out and copywrote the name Megadeth with the proper spelling and charged us $10,000 to get our name back.
That's the kind of dirtbags that are in it.
No, it blows you away, the chicken shit stuff that goes on.
Yeah, it was pretty uncool.
I mean, I kind of sort of know the guy through separate circles, and I don't really know if he's a good guy or a bad guy or anything like that, but that act was pretty unctuous, you know, and especially between two musicians, you know.
I know that the guy was kind of playing music as a hobby, but I like the circle jerks, and that pretty much closed the chapter on me ever listening to them again, because I just felt God, you know how hard we're trying to survive, man?
Me and Dave are living in a studio and we're panhandling money to eat.
You're best buds with my manager, so you know this.
Yet you're gonna, you know, try and nail us for ten grand?
We got it.
Yeah, you're legendary for not taking crap, and I respect that.
I mean, did they get a stomping for what they did?
Well, I think him having to spend the rest of his life being a CPA is a good enough stop.
Exactly.
What comes around goes around.
Yeah, because the music industry has a way of taking care of its own.
And even though I didn't ask for any help from anybody, I think that, you know, if...
You know, if you wet the bed, you gotta sleep in it sometimes.
And there's a lot of people who don't like me, but sometimes it's because they'll ask me to do something for them, and I just say no.
It's not like I say, no, mofo, or anything like this, or have their tires slashed, or get a beating, or anything like that.
Dave, people always take a shot at success.
Yeah, they do.
It's because, you know, they want an easier, softer way.
But I think that, you know, us as a race, we're wired inherently to want to do good and to want to succeed.
I mean, you know, that feeling we get, we don't get a feeling, that rush that we get when we do something good for somebody the same way that we do when we do something bad.
It's a totally different feeling.
Exactly.
I spend all my time trying to not accidentally screw somebody because I It's not that it's even like some code.
I just want people to know I do what I say I'm going to do.
Yeah.
And then I see other people who like have no scruples.
They think it's like some power they've got that they'll screw everybody.
I'm like, no, they don't get it.
Because I just instinctively know when you do something to people, it comes back seven times.
Yeah, most times.
Sometimes it doesn't even get an opportunity to get seven times the person pays with their life.
Like there was a Satanist who, when I got saved, I told my tour manager, I mean my agent, You know what?
I have to kind of take this slow because, you know, my arms hurt and I don't know if I'm ever going to play again.
If I do play, you know, there's certain things I kind of want to veer away from.
You know, I don't want to play with any satanic bands.
I'll play with bands that have darkness in them because we all have a little darkness in us or we wouldn't be human.
But guys that are confessed Satanists and, you know, I just don't really have time for that.
You know, it's not part of my... My problem is I feel violent around those people.
Well, I can control my emotions because I know that it's not the sinner, it's the sin.
It's like that whole thing about me being against gay marriage.
I have the same position that Hillary Clinton and Obama have towards the gays.
Look it up.
I'm a Christian, I'm a heterosexual man.
It's like, you know, me worrying about cat owners.
I don't like cats, you know?
I don't have anything against them, but I don't want one, you know?
I mean, that's a really crazy connection.
No, no, I get it.
I'm sick of having it shoved in my face, whatever issue it is.
It's like people kissing in front of you, you know, for no reason or whatever.
It's just like, it's forcing an idea on you that I'm not even attacking people, but it's just like, don't attack me for the way I am.
You know, I have my preference, I have who I am, and Then don't wage war against marriage and families and all of that.
For me, the whole thing, you know, when people ask me questions and stuff like that, I've got to kind of take a, I got to think, okay, what's my role here in life?
Is it to be the fly in the ointment and to always go around, you know, complaining and pointing out people's faults and stuff?
Or is it?
You know, because I went that road and I felt like I had this entitlement to stuff because, you know, man, I worked so hard.
You know, they did this and this guy did that and stuff.
And I finally started to get this real incredible piece that settled over me.
And it just changed things.
Changed a lot of stuff with touring.
It changed a lot of stuff with working together.
Like the thing with Metallica and Ellefson.
Both came from, you know, it was motivated based around us getting together and having this reconciliation and the friendship was rekindled.
Look at all the great that's come out of it.
I mean, so many kids saw a lesson in forgiveness between me and Allison.
So many people saw a lesson in reconciliation between me and Metallica.
You know, this has been, you know, besides what's going on in our government, which, you know, as much as they want to act like entertainers, they should take a note, maybe, from, you know, how entertainers get along.
You know, not act like them, but see how they work together.
Well, in my own life, having now 15 million listeners a week, I'm getting to experience, because I never got into this trying to be a celebrity, I had information I wanted to put out, kind because I never got into this trying to be a celebrity, I had information I wanted to put out, kind of like an artist You want to put it out there, you want to be appreciated, But I had no idea Thank you.
What it was like to have people kind of put you up on a pedestal.
You're still just a regular person, but they think you've got some magic special something.
And then when you can't deliver it to them or somehow give it to them, then they seem to get upset just because you're trying to walk down the road and walk your dog.
And you know, you got to get home in 10 minutes and they're mad that you won't sit there and talk to them.
And then, and then it hurts because they want a little piece of you and, and you just don't have it to give.
You know, it's, it's like, um, Two examples to give you real quick.
I was in Canada just recently and some guy was out in front of the hotel and we walked right past him and he didn't recognize me so I didn't think he was a fan.
So we go to the show and we had this really great thing from Live Nation where they had the ticket holders could upgrade their tickets to where they could meet us and have like a backstage party and they get first seating and all that great stuff.
And this guy comes up, you know, the four of us just stand in there, and all these fans are coming in, and they stand in the middle, and they take a picture, and they move on, and two people, and blah, blah, blah, and all this stuff.
And everybody's laughing, because they're all listening to how we're interacting with these guys.
And then all of a sudden, this guy walks up, and I go put my hand out.
I don't recognize him from Adam, because, you know, he was just a guy on the street.
And then he goes, you snubbed me in the hotel.
He wouldn't shake my hand.
I said, OK, well.
Fuck you, man.
And I walked out of the picture and everyone's like, what's going on?
And the security guy comes up to me and he goes, don't worry, I haven't liked that guy since he got here.
As soon as the show starts, I'm throwing him out.
And I said, well, don't do that.
But you know, and see for me before, the guy that I used to be when I felt like the world owed me something.
I would have said yes, as soon as the doors are open, kick him out, beat him up on the way out, you know.
No, it's sad that obviously he was looking, that's what a stalker does, they look for some personal way.
I've learned they want you to slight them so that then they can attack you.
It's really weird learning all the psychology.
And of course then you go and meet whole families with their kids with these beautiful awake eyes and that's what makes it so good.
But then there's the people Who love you, but they hate the fact they like you.
So it's like some kind of weird little relationship they want.
You are so nice, Dave.
You were going to come out and see me in Austin a few months ago.
You and your wife, who's awesome, Pam.
And you called me and said, listen, I know we said we were coming out there, you know, to talk to you about, you know, world events and stuff, but I hope it's okay to tell the story, but you're like, is it okay?
I hope so.
No, but you're like, listen, I apologize.
I can't come out.
I'm not feeling too well right now.
I said, Dave, don't worry about it, man.
Whatever.
That's great.
I'm just honored that you'd want to come out and hang out and stuff.
We've known each other, talked on the phone a lot over the years, met a few times.
Then all of a sudden, I hear like, Dr. Wapner, Dr. Wapner.
Dr. Wapner!
Ambulances and stuff!
And I'm like, where are you?
Well, I'm in the hospital.
Now I learn you couldn't even walk.
And here you are, because most even famous people, even if they're great people, they know they're important, they're busy, they learn to not care about other folks.
Here you are calling me up, you know, to tell me, hey, I can't come out there, you know, next week.
And then later I learned you're, like, in such pain you couldn't even walk.
So I'm just blown away that you would, like, actually call me And they wouldn't tell me, by the way, I can't even walk and I'm in a hospital bed, I mean... Well, um, funny thing is, you know, your parents tell you stuff when you're growing up, and you kind of, it's in one ear and out the other ear, and my mom used to tell me when she watched me play guitar to stop shaking my head, because I was gonna, you know, rattle something loose up there, and she was kind of mocking me.
My mom had a pretty weird sense of humor, and the irony is that, um, Last summer while we were out doing Mayhem, my arm went numb again.
And I had to finish the Mayhem tour with only two fingers working.
Wow.
And our songs require more than two fingers, you know.
So I had to think in my mind as we were playing, oh my god, how do I jump from here to here and do the solos with two fingers and stuff?
And so the time came where I finally needed to have the surgery because I have arthritis problems, stenosis, degenerative disc disease, and When they looked inside the x-rays, they said, well, you need two surgeries right now.
You need a fusion and you need a framinectomy, which is they go in on each side of the vertebra and they drill around your nerves.
And if they go like, you know, you've lost that nerve.
And fortunately for me, the first doctor who saw us was a really close friend of ours, took us to the hospital room.
My son walked in and I was on the floor just sobbing in pain because it was unlike anything I've ever felt.
And I've had kidney stones and, you know, stuff like that.
But while you're in this pain, you're calling me up saying, "I'm sorry, I can't come to town." Well, actually, when I called you, it was a little bit after the surgery.
So while I was still uncomfortable and going through the rehabilitation stuff, the surgery had happened before that.
And what happened was when they did the fusion, they fused C8 and T1 together.
And the reason I chose this doctor was he had just done Peyton Manning, who was one of my favorite football players.
You know he's good.
Yeah, so I knew that if he wasn't good, I would know if, you know, if Peyton started having problems, you know, and I was watching him and I went, this is the guy, you know, and so we went in there and as he was getting ready to close the surgery up, he found a bone fragment in my spinal cord that had broken off.
He used that dye, you were telling me about that.
Yeah, they put some dye in there when they're done with the surgery, and if it's still living tissue, it absorbs the dye, and if it's dead tissue, like cartilage or bone, it will become bright blue because of the ink.
So, he's cleaning it out, and all of a sudden, he finds this bone fragment the size of A pencil eraser, which, you know, isn't really big, you know, if you're comparing certain things to it, but imagine, you know, like a thorn in a lion's paw, what that would be like having an eraser-sized bone fragment in your spinal column, pressing against your nerves.
For those who don't know, there's that big pink nerve right down the middle that's ecstasy of pain, and this was jammed in there.
It was painful.
You know, it had finally come loose, and the guy found it, and I don't have any pain anymore.
The guy was great.
Robert Watkinson.
I'm Marina Del Rey.
You, before the surgery, you were telling me you literally couldn't walk, but you got challenged to go to the New York Metallica deal, and you did it, and you likened it to a woman whose kid's under the car picking it up.
Yeah, definitely.
It was that Herculean strength kind of thing.
You know, I was looking at repercussions for not being able to do the show because, my God, I'm going to have surgery.
It's before the concert.
You know, the concert's in two days.
How am I going to have neck surgery?
Have back surgery?
And go to play Yankee Stadium the next day.
It's not going to happen.
So I said, you know what?
I'm going to have to cancel.
And somebody called me a derogatory term and it just made me really mad.
And so I told the doctors, I said, wrap me up.
I'm going to go do this concert because it was really easy to say, well, I've never played baseball stadium before, but I have.
Well, I've never played with Metallica before, but I have.
Well, I have all these things that I've already done, so it wasn't that any one of those things were significant, it was the sum of all the parts.
And then getting called out on it?
What kind of a lowlife would say something derogatory to a guy laying in an emergency room in a surgery bed getting ready to have spinal surgery?
What kind of a gutless coward would say something like that?
I know who said it and I prefer not bringing up his name because I think that it would give him some kind of power trip because, you know...
He thought that he had me at that moment, and he didn't.
I went out there, I showed up in a neck brace, you know, and everybody's there going like, oh my god, what's happening, what's happening?
I said, well, so-and-so called me this, and, you know, I just want to show him that he's that, you know, and... Edward, you told me, literally, your son came home, and you were, you were, you had to keep, what, one arm up, so it wouldn't be, see, I've had just little torn muscles in my back, and I'm in bed, and it's like such pain to get up, I'm falling down on my knees, a muscle, and my dad, you know, he's a physician, he goes, son, The worst pain, he's had it before, is the spinal column and that nerve.
He said, don't be... But I'm so... I think of myself as a tough guy.
And I've had football injuries and later lifts and weights, whatever, where just a little muscle's torn and you can't get out of bed.
And trying to get up to go to the bathroom, you're like falling on your knees and just... And of course, here you are like 50 times that.
You go get on an airplane and fly it and play at Yankee Stadium.
Well, I love our fans.
I love the opportunity to play in front of the New York audience, and I love the opportunity to play in front of Anthrax and Slayer and Metallica's bands, because, you know, they all are true to their bands, and it's these great opportunities like this where you can possibly win some new fans, you know?
But it was really about saying, oh yeah, I'm a wimp?
Watch this.
What was it you called an effing...
I'm not going to say what it was, but it was a little bit of a motivator.
But, you know, I've gone through a lot of stuff over my career.
A lot, a lot of stuff.
I mean, probably even more traumatizing than my own physical pain that I've had is to watch other people be in pain, like watching people die.
You know, I remember we had people die in Castle Donington.
We had people die when we did Rock in Rio.
You know, we ran over somebody in Atlanta going 60 miles an hour in a taxi and the guy didn't even want to stop, you know, and it was because he was black.
And I was thinking, how on earth can you run a human being over, regardless of their skin color, you know, and not want to stop?
And that to me, I went into shock that night.
I remember we went into some club called Confetti's or some dive or something like that after that.
And I was just kind of walking around the pool tables and just didn't really know where we were, what we were doing.
You know, I heard all the cabbies were talking about, yeah, you better send a meat wagon, I'll hit that psycho night square clean in the head.
And I'm thinking, you know, I'm in a time warp.
You just never believe that you'll actually be part of something like that.
And then when it happens, it changes you.
In my experience, that's what real evil is.
It's not even conscious of how callous and uncaring it is.
And they don't realize, wow, if I'm this callous, nobody's going to care about me or my family.
Well, you know, like when you're driving down the road and you hit like a rabbit or something, you know, you get that kind of like, oh man, I just killed an animal.
I mean, imagine the energy field that you would feel if you hit and killed a human being, you know, whether Whether it was intentional or not, whether you're a passenger or a driver or whatever, the difference was so different for us, you know, because the whole thing was a joke.
You know, the driver was trying to guess what the band's name was and he couldn't guess it.
And well, anyways, it's a long story.
No, it's an important story because we were, I was telling you how I've run over two beautiful jackrabbits in front of my car out in the country where I live, and you said, hey, you know that feeling you get, it's almost like, it's not just the adrenaline, you just hit one, you kind of feel like they're cool.
Well, it's like the thing I was telling you about with Occult, the band Occult, first CD player I ever got, the first CD I ever listened to, I love the Cult.
My wife gets sick of it on road trips.
I love the cult.
Yeah, yeah, it's a great band, great band.
My wife gets sick of it on road trips.
Yeah.
It's good driving for whatever reason.
Yeah, for me it left an indelible mark because, you know, when you hear something in a different format like that for the first time, it's like, "Whoa, it's an airplane, you know, this And I remember they had this huge controversy because they had taken a picture of a Native American youth and the Native Americans supposedly, as far as I know, believe that if you take their picture, you're capturing a piece of their soul.
And for me, you know, I love our fans, but ever since cell phones became cameras, it's become more intrusive with taking pictures, you know, and And I don't mind talking with them or, you know, visiting with them or anything, but there's also, there's dudes out there that show up with stacks of records, they don't know, you know, what my middle name is, and they pretend to be fans, get us to sign all this stuff, and then they go and sell it.
It's disrespect.
It would be cool if they said, look, you know what, man, I'm going to sell all this junk.
Would you sign it for me?
Then we would say, you know, talk to our management and we'll work something out.
But hey, I've seen, I've seen people get mad at Ted Nugent for the famous films like Millions of Years Online of him coming out of a gun show or whatever.
And these guys walk up wanting to sign stuff.
And he goes, no.
What are you selling that for?
$100?
Give me $25.
They're like, no.
And he goes, well, then don't ask me to sign it.
People are like, oh, look at it.
Ted Nugent, who I've interviewed.
He's a nice fellow.
I don't agree with all his politics, but he's like sitting there telling them just nicely, no.
Because they have stacks of them.
And he goes, I found out you guys are selling all this.
I have a story with Charlie Sheen.
I'm walking out of this restaurant with him, you know, nice fellow, late to, you know, politics and things.
Had some trouble, but he stops and signs one record.
Some other thing, and he signs a photo, and it's not even his record.
And then he signs some poster of his TV show, and there's like eight of these guys lined up.
And he signs one, the guy goes, "More, sign more." And he goes, "No." And then they get mad and start chasing him to our car, you know, getting on our face.
And it's like he is sitting there signing and signing and signing and signing.
And then they're mad when he won't sign more.
Yeah, there are some people who have got between the musicians and the fans.
It's not hard to do because, you know, they know a couple key songs.
They, you know, they know your name and they act excited.
But you can tell.
I play a flying V and guys come up and ask me to sign a Stratocaster pickguard.
Well, that's kind of notorious in America, as far as I know, unless you're just visiting this planet, if you've got a pickguard, which is that little plastic cover on the front of your guitar, and it's for a Stratocaster, I don't play a Strat.
I play a V guitar, and it doesn't have that pickguard on it, first off.
And second off, when they've got dozens and dozens of the same picture, You know, amongst the... they usually show up in groups of three, too, you know.
Oh, the Shane thing, it was like, hey, like I said, it was some record from the 80s from a movie.
It was like the sound, you know, the soundtrack.
Yeah.
And it was like one guy and then another guy.
I mean, that's why I couldn't live in Los Angeles.
Because I'm, you know, nobody but a media person, but it's just all that paparazzi.
People move there to get that because, you know, they want to be an actor or they want to be a musician.
You know, we moved away from Los Angeles to Arizona and and moved out back to California after the lawsuit with me and Dave, which was, like I said, a great happy ending with that.
And, you know, we're looking at what's going on right now with the economy and and With just the way the world is right now and my parents had lived in Canada for a little bit of some time and I had some Finnish ancestry and we've been honestly weighing our options about, you know, what are we going to do?
Because if things, if America turns into what it appears from all intents and purposes it's going to turn into I won't have a job, I won't have a house, I won't have any savings, and it's not my chicken, it's our chicken.
You know what I mean?
But I wanted to tell you this other thing, too, when you said Charlie Sheen, he's going to be in Brazil when we go down and do our festival, he's going to be on the night, or two nights before us, for the one night he's playing.
there's a three-day festival down there and I just found out he was gonna be on the first show and I was like nah why are you so incredibly popular in Latin America but also in romance languages Spain Italy yeah just everywhere I think it's because of the classical approach towards the music.
Classical music was written on a piano and it was not written on a guitar, so if you transcribe classical to guitar and you can make it work, it just has a really cool sound to it.
The fans down there, they There's certain songs that they really, really like.
When we first went down to South America, it was in, I think it was 1992, we did Rock in Rio in front of 140,000 people and two people died there, which, something I was telling you earlier, which was really sad because when stuff like that happens, it really changes your Your head space when you're getting ready to go on stage.
I don't know if you've ever done any kind of an activity where it's been interrupted and you hear like, oh, two people just died here at the game or two people just died here at the race or something like that.
It changes you.
There's something dangerous and scary about a giant crow.
Yeah, there's a lot of power out there.
I mean, I love going down to Brazil.
I love all of the foreign countries that make an effort, you know, to learn English, to be able to understand our lyrics instead of just kind of, you know, singing along.
You know, we did a meet and greet the other day.
I can't remember what city it was in, but this young man had come up from Mexico.
And usually at the meet and greets, you know, they pop up, they take a picture and they walk to the end of the line and they go back to their groups drinking and eating and snacking and all that kind of stuff for the meet and greet party that we were having I was telling you about.
So this guy stops and he pulls out this letter and everyone's trying to pull him away from us.
And I thought, bless his heart, don't you move him.
I'll get so mad if you take this kid away from us right now.
He's gone to all the trouble to transcribe his native tongue into English so he can tell us how privileged he is to be here and how nervous he is to try and talk with us, but, you know, how much we've helped him in his life.
Because, you know, sometimes you just need that one person to kind of just make that one degree adjustment and you'll go right back to home.
If not, you know, you travel too far off course, that one degree, you know, you could end up who knows where.
So when he came and said that stuff, people were trying to pull him away after it was over.
So I was like, man, don't don't do that.
The fans that come from foreign countries to come and see us, you know, it ain't cheap, especially nowadays.
Oh, yeah.
Gas, 12 bucks a gallon over in France.
And we have a French couple that come all the way over to see us because they're, you know, diehard fans.
They flew to Phoenix to see us.
I saw them there and I was thinking, Man, I don't know, maybe your husband's a doctor or something, but you know what?
You spend a lot of money coming to see this band, and we're going to make sure that you feel, you know, our gratitude for that.
You know, you can't buy a relationship with a band, but I think a band that has musicians in it that are in touch with reality, understand the effort that fans make and how expensive it is to buy the t-shirt, to pay for parking, to get a couple of drinks, you know, to buy a bag of popcorn.
Dave, that's the thing about you, is I'm not just saying this, I've got to know a lot of famous musicians.
I don't know, a lot of Hollywood folks, not like you have, but even if they're good people, they still get a sense of entitlement.
You are so down to earth, and that is, I think that's what makes you so human.
That's valuable.
Well, and again, you've got to think of where I grew up.
I grew up in the gutter, so, you know, I mean, all this wealth and stuff like that, it's important for me to be able to provide for my family, but I love macaroon cheese, you know?
I'm a simple guy, you know?
If I'm starving, you know what, McDonald's will do, you know?
I mean, I know that that's... You're talking about the Louis Farrakhan story?
I haven't seen that video yet.
Yeah, it was on one of the major news networks.
I need to look that up.
Yeah, it was pretty funny, actually.
You know, I respect people who dedicate their life towards trying to pastor or shepherd people.
I don't know enough about this dude to know... Sure, but tell me the story.
It's funny.
His whole thing was... but he was mad because McDonald's was... he had said that McDonald's was poisoning them.
And that they put stuff on the food and it's addictive.
And you know, a lot of us are aware of that.
We've known that for years and years and years.
It's great to see, you know, people of all races and all walks in America be able to, you know, discover the facts that are going to help them to live healthier or more prosperous lives, you know.
I mean, I'm a born-again Christian, but you know, I don't push that on anybody.
Sure.
You know, I mean, I had to tell the guy in Seattle, you know, I'm a Christian.
Stop asking me these questions, dude.
I don't, you know, gay stuff is not part of my life.
No, they may get the issue like you're attacking them.
You're not even bringing the issue up.
But no, do the Farrakhan imitation.
It was really good.
Well, I don't... It was good at dinner!
I don't know how to do a Farrakhan impression, but I just remember... You did it.
He was growling, he was very angry, and he said, I feel bad even saying it.
You said they were laughing at him though.
They started laughing and he said something like, GD stop laughing, I ain't kidding, they're trying to kill you.
I remember Louis Farrakhan and Malcolm X and stuff from when I was growing up and that they were just smartly dressed men of color and they had their own beliefs and they tried to encourage betterment for what they thought.
You know, I mean, because we all have our ideologies that we believe in.
They're trying.
Yeah.
And trying is what it's all about.
Yeah.
And God will bring you the rest of it.
I know that he's had a lot of changes in his heart lately from what I've heard.
Yeah, yes.
And, you know, it was just neat to see, you know, just just somebody, you know, the way you told a dinner was was hilarious.
And I haven't looked it up yet, but I believe the story happens.
We'll probably play a clip here on the show.
Just play it.
It's a lot better than my impression.
Have you been to McDonald's lately?
I'm not laughing, dammit, I'm not laughing!
And dammit, don't you laugh!
Cause they're killing you with your taste buds!
You don't understand Satan!
But you'll hate me for exposing them today!
There's a slime in the burger that's got silicone.
They've practiced How to deceive your taste buds!
He's like going, hey listen, they're putting stuff in this to make it addicting.
And they laugh at him, he's like the Happy Meals.
And he was like, listen, GD, I'm not joking.
They're killing you.
Is it like a second or third wind?
I mean, I'm really seeing some electricity.
And again, I like the stuff you've done the last 10 years, it's just that it seems like, it seems like you're on fire.
I think, you know, me getting honest with myself and starting to let the public know that I have some things that I know that I struggle with and to reveal it, it took all the power away, the secrecy of trying to struggle with these things in the dark.
I remember when I first went to England, You know, they thought that I'd lost my mind because of the way that I spoke, you know, instead of being tight-lipped and not telling any family secrets or anything like that.
You know, I've always been really open with our fans, and I think when my book came out, that really changed things for a lot of people.
The book!
Yeah.
Tell us about the book.
Bestseller.
Yeah, it was a New York Times bestseller, and the timing for me was great, because there's been a an enormous groundswell of people writing books now.
And, you know, I was really blessed that mine became a bestseller.
Some of the people that are writing books, I think they should save the paper.
There's another musician.
I saw his book, and I flipped through it, and the first page I landed on, he was talking about sucking and doing all these drugs and stuff and having sex with girls and all this stuff.
And I flip a couple more pages, more drugs, more sex.
And I flip a couple more pages, more drugs, and more sex.
And I know this guy.
He's not very attractive, so I'm thinking, this ain't true.
You know and you think a lot of these stories you know they expected me to be like name-calling and you know slinging mud and everything and I didn't want to do that I wanted people to Understand me.
Get the essence.
Get to know who I am.
You know, get to know what makes me tick, why I believe the things I believe.
You know, it's not because I'm some nut.
I was brought up as a Jehovah's Witness and I rebelled.
I got into witchcraft and then when that really destroyed my life...
You know, I was sitting on a hill one day, and I mean, it should be this easy for all of us to find peace with our Creator, whatever that power is that you believe in, whether it's God or it's, you know, a crystal or whatever your trip is, mine's Jesus and God.
I was sitting on a hill in Hunt, Texas, and there was a cross on the hill, and I looked at it, and you know, I've always been taught as a... It's right outside Austin!
As Joe's witness, that crosses are bad, right?
That Jesus died on a stake, you know, and I'm thinking, Well, you know, I'm looking at this cross and I'm thinking, I've been taught this is so bad.
And I said, six simple words, what have I got to lose?
And I went down and I saw this little pastor and I said, I want to do the sinner's prayer.
And he said, well, you got to get on your knees.
And I said, you know what?
I'm Dave Mustaine.
I'm too cool to get out of my knees to pray.
So, you know, I did the sinner's prayer.
I was resistant to the end.
The power's getting on your knees.
Yeah, you know, of course.
And now, you know, I'm completely surrendered.
My life's improved a hundred million times.
And I've actually got some really good friends now.
You know, people that most people would think, why are you friends with him?
You know, he's not a celebrity.
He's not a musician.
You know, you talk about me knowing people in Hollywood.
I made a preference in my life to not know a lot of people in Hollywood.
People are part of my circle.
Sure, I know them, but I'm not interested in being a socialite there.
Exactly.
It's hellish.
Yeah, and I just think that, you know, when you're dealing with an actor, hello, you're dealing with an actor.
You know, you're going to be friends with an actor.
You never know.
It's like a box of chocolates with Forrest Gump.
You never know you're going to get that whole thing.
You know, I mean, I had a bodyguard one time who lived with a guy that was an actor, and every day he would leave.
You know, you didn't know who you were talking to.
You didn't know if he was in character or who he was.
It is weird.
You know, he would say nice things and it's like, you expect him to go like, marvelous, ha ha ha ha, this kind of stuff, you know?
Well, there's the narcissism.
I mean, the archetype of the actor is like a narcissist.
There's a lot of people who aren't narcissists who are actors, but yeah, it's all about this false reality for them and that's why the system uses them so much.
Sometimes it's a form of escapism, though, because music has been a really great way for me to be able to go in the corner and cry it out with my guitar.
I remember when Cliff Burton died.
I got in a car, I went downtown, and I did something that was regrettable.
I went down there and got some party stuff, and I went back to my house, and I tied one on, and I picked up my guitar, and I rode in my darkest hour.
In one sitting, you know, it wasn't in one time all the way through the song from beginning to end, you know, we only do that in movies, but, you know, I was one sitting and I remember just crying and just thinking, why, why did...
He died, and how come I found out the way that I did?
I didn't find out from the band, I found out through third party and stuff.
Because our relationship had so much stress over the years, it didn't dawn on them to call me directly and tell me, hey, this happened.
So is it true it was like the bus was laying over and they described it like the Wicked Witch, the boot sticking out?
I don't know about that part.
I don't want to be too graphic.
I don't know enough about what happened.
I just know that he was sleeping in one of those European buses with a window next to the bed and the bus lurched because it was swinging back and forth and hitting black ice.
You know, we hit black ice when we were driving out when I was still in Metallica when we drove out to New York, that's why in the first album, Kill Em All, why it says, fuck you, Laramie, Wyoming, because, you know, we crashed in Laramie, Wyoming.
It was my turn to drive, you know, I'm a little surfer kid, and I'm driving along, and all of a sudden the truck starts going like this.
I'm going, what is happening?
And all of a sudden the thing turns around and then it stops in the middle of the freeway and 18-wheels are going, ah, past us.
And this Jeep starts spinning towards the front of the U-Haul.
I pull this guy out of the way and it smashes right into where he was just standing.
He could have died.
So that's what that whole thing on the album is.
You see those credits and you always wonder what on earth they mean.
Now, we've got a big bus and when that thing's going 80 miles an hour, I mean, it's like, this thing is huge.
I'm telling the guy driving, I'm like, I don't care if we get there late 60s.
Slow down.
That's too fast for a bus to go.
Exactly.
We tell our drivers that he's got to drive really cool.
Especially when they do those long hauls.
One of the things I think is really cool that America's starting to do is they're making the drivers have to break their shifts up now.
You know, there's an epidemic with our trucking industry here in America with them having to work incredibly long hours to make ends meet.
And sometimes people make the ultimate sacrifice and they'll compromise their integrity and rely on stimulants to do their job.
You know, when you're not clear-headed, sometimes you make mistakes, especially judgment calls behind the wheel when you're driving a truck.
People get hurt.
I remember reading a book a little while ago about this guy that just got ran over by an 18-wheeler in his car and he survived.
He was crushed to death.
Scientifically, they lived.
And I just saw something on the news that just happened just a couple days ago, too, that a woman had been run over by an 18-wheeler and she lived.
I mean, how can you not think that there's some kind of a good force in the world when stuff like that happens?
Say you don't believe in God.
You gotta have some kind of belief in a power that's greater than yourself when you see stuff like that happen.
You know, where people have these miraculous escaping death kind of things.
You know, we call them guardian angels and stuff like that, but I've had a lot of those close calls.
I just created a new guitar app that teaches kids how to play guitar.
And I actually was involved in this, so the tablature's authentic.
And that company's called Rock Prodigy.
By the way, I saw the reviews on Wired and stuff.
They're not high-picking.
They say it's like the best.
Five-star.
Yeah, they say exactly.
They say this is like revolutionary.
Yeah, and I'm going back home when we leave.
I'm visiting with you.
To do some more songs on it, because it is such a revolutionary program.
And finally now, kids that, you know, learn tablature.
I remember one time I watched this guy.
Well, I didn't watch him.
I read some tablature.
You know, I have to count the notes and stuff, because I'm self-taught.
But this guy named Wolf Marshall, who was a famous tablature guy, had done one of our songs.
And at the very beginning of Holy Wars, 15 notes, right?
I think he had, like, four mistakes in the fifteen notes.
It was at least three or four mistakes.
Now, if you equate that over the entire song, how many mistakes?
And that's me playing by myself, and he couldn't even get that.
So I thought, you know, this guy's done great for guitar players, but you know what?
There is a ceiling with all people's ability, and since I believe mine's a gift from God, you know what?
I sometimes don't even know what I'm doing.
So, a lot of times when people try and interpret it, I can't even say if it's right, because it'll just be like a passing note sometimes.
You know, like, I gotta go like this on a piano.
Sometimes, you know, there'll be notes that are missed, and sometimes there'll be notes that are hit twice, and that's just kind of the way the guitar is.
But this application has I've specifically been geared for guitar players from any level to start, from beginning up to someone who is even semi-professional.
When you get up to where my level is, because most people are too arrogant to take lessons, there's not really a lot of software that's been developed for them yet.
There's a lot of transcribed stuff.
Like in guitar player and guitar world, Chris and I were just voted the number one guitar team and I was really proud of that because Chris is self-taught and I mean he's very learned.
I think he has a degree from Berkeley or something like that, but he's an amazing guitar player, and the two of us together work really well, because it's like fire and ice.
I liken it to Jimmy Page and to this player named Uli John Roth.
In certain metal circles, both people would be known, but Uli was really great and executed this mind-blowing stuff, and Jimmy would hit a note and it'd squeak and squawk, and it would be just as cool.
It's like a fingerprint, it's like a snowflake, it's all individual.
What's the name of the app for folks that want to get it?
It's Dave Mustaine Rock Prodigy, and you just type Dave Mustaine in the iTunes store and it comes right up there.
And you've got a new acoustic guitar too?
Yeah, we have an acoustic guitar.
You know, I play acoustic a little bit, I write a lot on acoustic.
Um, but we haven't really used it much in the studio, but it certainly helps writing, and I've always gotten guitars that, you know, they were gifts from the companies that we were endorsing or otherwise, and there's always something lacking.
And when I went over to Dean Guitar for their electrics, I was so just blown away with the quality of their instruments, with the attention from Josh Maloney, who's their artist rep, and from the owner, Elliot Rubison, who's a great bass player playing bass in Michael Schenker's band right now.
They just treated me so well that I thought, God, is there any way that we can do something more than just, you know, the flying V shape that I endorse, which is the VMNT model?
So they said, yeah, we would love to do that.
So we added another electric model and then the acoustic came around and I said, let's try this.
And they, you know, initially there wasn't like, you know, much attention to it because, you know, an electric guitar player playing an acoustic guitar.
But when we did the design on it, the sound holes, the way that the thing sounds, the playability, the shape, the design.
I just found out from one of my friends at the company there that they just did something with SkyMall and the guitar is going to be in SkyMall.
Wow!
On every airplane!
Yeah, 130 million people see it every month for six months in there and the cool thing is it's a guitar with an American flag on the front of it, you know, and the flag's all blown to hell like right now where we feel like, you know, we're the red-headed stepchild of the world right now.
You know, it just seems right, and they named the guitar... I called the model itself a Mako, because the sound holes on it look like gills on a shark.
But when they did this, people lost their minds over it, and they ended up calling it Glory.
So, it's the Dave Mustaine Mako Glory.
Well, you've already risen so many times, but I can feel it.
but I mean, Dave Mustaine, Megadeth, his turbocharged.
You were telling me a story, and you were saying, you know, I see the new up-and-coming musicians coming in that are opening for us, and then I see some of the older ones, and it's kind of like the prodigal and then I see some of the older ones, and it's You're there explaining to them, this is kind of like, you know, the stages of life.
This is the lesson from life.
What did you mean by that?
I mean, describe how people come into music, how they leave music.
Well, it's hard to To explain to some musicians sometimes when they come into the music business, they've got their whole lives to write their first record.
But when I say that, I mean that you've got four or five people, sometimes three, in a band that have their whole life to write their first record.
And you have a conglomeration of maybe anywhere from 10 to 40 or 50 songs that they can wean through.
But after that process of elimination, you realize a lot of it is just kind of like, you know, getting rid of the gristle and the fat and stuff like that.
And you get down to the real meat of all the songs.
You kind of have a lot left.
And then when it's time to do your second record, the pressure's on.
Our second record was Peace House, but Who's Buying?
And that was, for us, way more successful than Killing was.
And as we've grown along, we've learned a lot of things on the way.
And some people you can talk to and they'll listen to you.
And others, they're like, you know what?
Thanks for the information.
I don't need any more anything from you.
You know, and sometimes I look at him and I think, well, you know, you're going to be in one of those guys that gets in a band and, you know, it doesn't mean absolutely nothing.
You know, when I got in a band, it was to be in a band for life.
I never intended on having to part ways with Metallica.
And it happened.
You know, I don't intend on parting ways with Megadeth, but you know what, at some point I'm going to hang up my guitar.
And it's just, With the stress on my shoulder and with the touring that we do, the demands around the world, I can't keep up with it.
You know, it's a great problem to have.
You know, I think God's really blessed me in an amazing way.
All the bad stuff that I've done over my life that, you know, just by Saying something as significantly and symbolically simple as just saying, hey, you know what, I'm not God, you are, and I'm going to listen for a little while and see what happens.
And, you know, the road got smooth and my career's turned around.
I've got my best friend back playing bass with me.
My kids like me.
You know, traffic's gotten better.
You know, it's just a whole complete paradigm shift.
The universe lays before you.
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll.
That's right.
Everybody thinks that people that are successful, even if they have talent, think, oh, it's just given to you.
Even if you've got Zeus lightning bolts, it still is a lot of work.
Yeah, you can be a great player.
That doesn't mean you're going to be in a great band.
You know, the alleyways are littered with Olympians.
And, you know, to think that there are so many other guitar players that are better than I am, so many singers that are better than I am.
You know, um... Well, are there folks better than you at, like, speed metal?
Because I've talked to famous guitarists and they say, wow, Dave Mustaine's amazing.
Yeah, there are plenty.
I believe my guitar partner is a better guitarist than I am.
I mean, I'm a good songwriter because I write from the heart and, you know, having all those hard knocks and...
You know, the stuff I was telling you about the hand-me-down clothes and stuff, you know, that whole thing really... Okay, there you go, you gotta tell that story.
It just gives you character, you know, and just growing up and wanting to fit in, you know, when you finally get that shot, it becomes inebriating.
You know, when I finally knew I was going to become something as a musician, I felt like, you know what, I'm not going to be this latchkey kid anymore.
I'm not going to be wearing, you know, hand-me-down clothes.
I'm not going to be, you know, getting food stamps and having to get lunch tickets at school and all that stuff that, you know, you look at a kid like that in school today and you think like, oh, he's a low-income punk, he's a brat, he's never going to amount to anything, you know.
And I was that.
But in a way, that's good.
I know, like, you know, these wealthy kids, Nouveau, Riche, whatever, they're even more wrecked, because they expect everything.
I mean, some of the most valuable things in my life, I grew up middle class.
My parents were so country, they didn't even think I needed the cool clothes.
It's like, you get your clothes once a year, that's it, so we'll sew the holes up in them.
Yeah, yeah.
Because that's what you get.
It wasn't even like, they didn't even know what trendy was.
Yeah.
But I remember kids making fun of me for my clothes, but what I remember was kids that had flunked three grades.
Gangin' up and stompin' on me.
And at the time it was horrible, but I went home.
My dad wasn't a tough guy, but he said, well, you just better kick their ass.
And it's like, not that I'm a tough guy, but it's like the fact that I learned to stand up for myself and got beat up and had my leg broken and all this other stuff, that, like, is really valuable now, because now I'm not scared.
Yeah, you know, I've always respected people who are my friends that are willing to say, hey, you know what, what you're doing isn't right, because, you know, I could end up in Me getting hurt, hurting them, jeopardizing my family, safety of others, my career.
You know, there's been some dumb stuff I've done.
Jumping out of a perfectly good operating airplane.
People just don't think, hey, I'm going to grab a backpack and jump out of an airplane.
But that's what I did over and over and over when I was skydiving.
And the thought of that now that I'm a little bit older, I was thinking, oh my God.
Because Justice, our son, had said that he wanted to skydive.
And I was thinking, Oh God, how do I tell him not to do this?
You know, because I was crazy at the time.
I wasn't even supposed to skydive.
I'd done an interview, and again, English into a foreign language, translated back into English.
I told some lady that I wanted to skydive, and she said that I did.
And I was so gullible at the time, so conscientious of all the people that were always, you know, going after me.
I thought, well, I gotta do it so that I don't look like a liar, you know.
And it's sad when you're in that place where people have that kind of control over you, you know.
Fortunately for me, I got healed from all that, but it was fun the first time I skydived.
Well, Dave, I don't want to worry you out here.
You've done an incredible job on this interview after this long tour, and it's just amazing.
You wanted to tell the Bill Clinton story, so let's close with that.
Well, I had gone to the White House because I'd done that work with the Rock the Vote thing, and I had gotten asked by some people out in Los Angeles to get involved with that.
I can't, unfortunately, I can't remember their name.
I do remember Dave Sorelnick from MTV was helping me as I did all the coverage and, you know, got in the Democratic National Convention and covered a lot of stuff and talked with a lot of people, and that kind of solidified my Kind of curiosity that, you know, as a political writer, as a songwriter, that, you know, I can do something that matters.
So when we did the Rock the Vote thing, there was also the Motor Voter Bill that got passed in California.
It may be in other states around the nation right now, I don't know, but it made it simple for people who had a driver's license to be able to register to vote.
You know, voting is a huge part of the democratic process.
I mean, you watch them vote on cooking shows, stuff like that.
So I thought it was important to get involved with that.
Dwight Yoakam was in on that.
A lot of other really cool people were in on that.
And when it got passed, we all got invited up to the White House.
And we went up there with the dudes from Living Color and stuff.
And I kept thinking about Willie Nelson, Spoken Dope, on the top of the White House.
And I wonder if they still do that, you know, that kind of stuff.
And I had my little coin at the time, because I was in a 12-step program at the time, and I walked up to President Clinton, and I said, hello Mr. Clinton, I said, this is my coin here, and he took it from me, and he stuck it in his pocket, and I said, no, no, no, that's not for you, I just wanted you to hold it and give me some mojo, you know, and so he goes, oh, I'm sorry, and he handed it back to me, And yeah, that was my moment with the President.
I thought it was pretty cool.
I think that it's something that everybody should aspire to do, to make a contribution to this great nation for the good of everybody.
And if you don't know the difference between what's right and what's wrong, Just open your mind up.
There are great outlets like you here.
Some people may not agree with everything that you say.
That's what makes us individuals.
But there are a lot of people who are people like you that believe in country and God and family and stuff like that.
I know you as my friend.
And you know, you just got to kind of look for the good in No, it's right there hidden right in front of your face.
The answers to everything that's going on with us, our health, our economy, our government, our foreign policy.
If you want to get involved, just get involved.
That's what I did.
I didn't know anything about the Rock the Vote movement or about the Motor Voter Bill, but I got involved.
And now, I mean, although it's not a big deal, most people equate the Department of Motor Vehicles in California as like, you know, just a sweatshop for people to go in there and sit it out when they get called to do their license.
But, you know, at the end of the day, I did something.
It mattered and it made it easier for other people.
It's about empowering humanity And that's what matters.
Dave Mustaine, incredible interview.
Megadeath.com.
Thank you so much for spending time with us.
You're welcome.
Wow.
Well, that's it, folks.
In-depth interview.
Just amazing.
I think that's one of the most in-depth interviews I've ever seen with Dave Mustaine.
We're right here in the InfoWars compound.
We appreciate all you out there supporting us and spreading the word.
This is one for the record books.
Ward Willem, we'll see you back here tomorrow night.
Stay tuned.
Ask yourselves, what are you doing in this time of great challenge?
What are you doing to unlock mine?
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