DAVE MUSTAINE Discusses Possibility Of Re-Recording 'Killing Is My Business' With Current MEGADETH Lineup

Patryk Pigeon of MusikUniverse.mu recently conducted an interview with MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine. You can now listen to the chat in the YouTube clip below.

On who will sit behind the kit for MEGADETH when Chris Adler (LAMB OF GOD) is unable to make the shows:

Mustaine: "Well, I think Chris would tell you he wants to play every show, so that's what we're trying to do. If there are shows that he can't play, he's already recommended a protégé of his… not protégé, but somebody who he picked, a handpicked selection. It's a guy named Tony Laureano, who played with NILE and DIMMU BORGIR; he's one of the top ten extreme-metal drummers. So, yeah, it'll be equally as exciting. I think Chris brings something a little different than Tony does, but the songs are the songs."

On whether he has asked Chris Adler to quit LAMB OF GOD and join MEGADETH full-time:

Mustaine: "Well, I think that's what I want, but I don't want to cause any problems with LAMB OF GOD at all, because I respect the band; that's his band. And it's working out right now. So I think the best thing is to kind of let the chips fall where they may. You know, there may be a time where they take a break for a little while, maybe, and he has more time to work with us. A good thing for us being in MEGADETH right now is that we don't have to tour all the time. We're fortunately… By the grace of the fans' support, we can be a little bit more selective with the tours that we do and so on, and that, to me, it makes it all worthwhile. Because you wanna work your ass off and play everywhere that you can, but you wanna make sure that you're not being peddled around like a piece of meat out there. There were some tours we did that were so bad for the band, and so bad for the fans, because it was… I mean, in the very beginning, it was really, really fun, but that kind of stuff, the places that we were playing didn't feel good during the years after 'Risk', when we were doing 'The World Needs A Hero' and stuff like that; those were some hard years. After the period where [bassists] James MacDonough was around and James Lomenzo, yeah, those were difficult times. Not because of them at all — they're great guys — but it was just hard."

On the possibility of re-recording MEGADETH's debut album, "Killing Is My Business... And Business Is Good!", with the current lineup:

Mustaine: "See, that's the funny thing. I shake my head sometimes. Because I'll say stuff… Like if you and I were sitting down having a beer and some poutine or something, and we were talking, and I say, 'You know, it would be interesting to hear what some of those old songs would be like to record 'em with Kiko [Loureiro, guitar] and Chris,' and somebody is sitting next to me in another booth, and they go, 'Yeah, I just heard Dave Mustaine say they're gonna re-record 'Killing Is My Business'.' Yeah, I said it. Did I mean it? Well, there's a lot involved with doing something like that. So I don't know that I would wanna go back in time and do that. If I did go back and record any old songs, it would probably be like a brand new interpretation of our greatest hits, because I think that focusing on any one record and showing an interpretation of all of our great songs by a new lineup would be more exciting. You never know. We might do that."

MEGADETH's new album, "Dystopia", debuted at No. 3 on The Billboard 200, having shifted 49,000 equivalent album units in the week ending January 28.

In terms of pure album sales, "Dystopia" opened with 48,000 copies, marking MEGADETH's highest-charting album since 1992's "Countdown To Extinction" debuted and peaked at No. 2 on the chart dated August 1 of that year. "Dystopia" also logged the group's best sales week since 2007, when "United Abominations" landed at No. 8 with first-week sales of 54,000.