CHRIS ADLER Says His First Show With MEGADETH Was 'Incredible'

LAMB OF GOD and MEGADETH drummer Chris Adler was recently interviewed on "Elliot In The Morning", the morning radio talk show hosted by DJ Elliot Segal. You can listen to the chat in two parts below. A few excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On playing his first show with MEGADETH:

"Yeah, we just got back. We just did Quebec City last Saturday night [July 18 at the Festival D'été De Québec]. And [it was] just an incredible show. I think we had seventy or eighty thousand people at this [event]. It was my first show with the band — first of many — and it was great. I loved every bit of it. It was a stressful period of time getting that together, because LAMB was on tour, and I was trying to learn the MEGADETH set. But I did the album with [MEGADETH mainman] Dave [Mustaine] and the guys earlier this year — the [new] MEGADETH album, that is — and, so, we definitely get along. Dave wants me in the band. I've let him know that LAMB is the priority, but anything and everything I can do… [MEGADETH] has been my favorite band since I was a kid, so I wanna be there."

On whether it was difficult telling Dave Mustaine that some of the MEGADETH mainman's early musical ideas for the band's new album were not up to par:

"For me especially, because I really am such an 'über fan.' To me, this [Dave Mustaine] is the guy… he changed the whole world of rock with a guitar. So, for me, he's kind of the father of this whole thing. So, for me to get in there and say, 'I don't really like the ideas,' it's almost like a suicidal kind of thing. But I really had to feel good being able to contribute and really feeling like I was there for a reason. I think he chose me to play drums 'cause we've toured together in the past, we've kept up here and there. I think he's familiar with what I do, he likes the energy that I bring into LAMB OF GOD, and I think he wanted that. I don't think he wanted me to come in and just say, 'Okay, whatever you want.' Because he could get anybody to do that and probably pay 'em a lot less than what he offered me. So I think he expected me to come in and have some constructive criticism of what was going on. And it was tough, because I'm a fan of him first, but for me to feel good about it, I felt like… And it was very… at the top of the process. I came in and said, 'Thank you for sending me all this stuff. I really like some of it. This is why I like it. But there's some of it that, as a fan of MEGADETH, this is why I feel like the band is starting to fall off, and I think we can do something better than this, now that we have this new team of people that's bring a lot of energy into the songwriting.' And he agreed. So we just kind of took it from there. 'Cause he had been doing all this stuff on his own, by himself, without really anybody there. He had these hired guns come in and record at the studio, but never on the writing process; he didn't really have any help. So, at this point, he's on record fifteen, and at some point, you say, working with other people might reinvigorate the process, and I think it did."

On whether it was weird having to negotiate to be an employee with MEGADETH after being in a five-way partnership with LAMB OF GOD:

"I think the weirdest… To me… Like you said, LAMB OF GOD is a full partnership, so all of us in LAMB OF GOD are responsible for everything that LAMB OF GOD does — for every second of music, for every tour we say 'yes' to, for every show we say 'no' to; we're all very responsible for that. The weird thing for me is not negotiating a fee — we both have management companies that kind of sort that thing out — but the weird thing for me is not being a part, so I know when I go and, even if I contribute three songs, as soon as I'm done playing the drums, I've gotta walk away — they're gonna drop me off at the airport, and that's it. They can go with replacement drums, they can hire somebody else, they can change the songs around a hundred times and I'm no longer involved. So it's hard to give yourself to a process like that and then know that it's just over. I worked with a band called PROTEST THE HERO in Canada, where I said, 'I'm never doing a session gig again,' because I just feel like I'm so attached to it by the time I leave, and it's just… There's no… The guitars are going on, there's vocals going on… I don't get to be involved. And that, to me, is tough. So I said, 'I'm never doing another session again.' But then, of course, when Dave Mustaine calls, you show up."

On pulling double duty during MEGADETH's upcoming U.K. tour with LAMB OF GOD in November:

"Certainly one of the most exciting parts about that is we're doing Wembley Arena, which LAMB has never done before, and I got word last night, even though the show is November 15, there's only two thousand tickets left out of… I don't know what it is… fifteen thousand or something. So they're considering possibly [adding] a second night. And I might be the only person to play two gigs at a sold-out gig at the Wembley Arena the same night. So, yes, I'm very excited to do that, and we're talking about shows together in 2016 as well — in the U.S. and Canada — and possibly bringing that same tour around. So we'll see where it goes."