DAVE MUSTAINE On METALLICA, Religion And Rock And Roll Excesses

CTV.ca recently conducted an interview with MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine about his soon-to-be-published autobiography, "Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir". A few excerpts from the chat follow below.

On his journey from a neglect-filled childhood, to the dangerous excesses of his rock n' roll lifestyle, to today's more sobering existence as a family man who has found God — a persona that doesn't quite jive with the typical metal archetype:

"I think in the beginning there were a lot of people who were very angry because they'd lost their guitar player, their singer, their frontman, their Dave Mustaine. (But) if you go back and look at all my lyrics now, there's a lot of God in it."

On METALLICA, the band he was booted from in 1983 due to his excessive drug and alcohol use:

[quote from book] "Without my songs and my solos — without my energy — I don't know that METALLICA ever would have become the band that it was."

On suffering through many problems, including a near career-ending arm-injury, the near-disintegration of his marriage, and several stints in rehab:

"Heroin was a terrible experience for us. It was part of my life for 13 years."

On how MEGADETH's back catalogue offers clues to the progress of their downward spiral:

"You can see where the different types of drugs changed, where the band changed. The heroin and the cocaine use, and the debauchery, and the fighting and the theft and stealing and robbing."

On how religion saved his life, protected his family and kept him going as a member of MEGADETH:

"When I got saved it wasn't about getting me saved. It was about me getting my life right with God, getting my family out of what looked liked extremely dire straits ... and just making a really good decision for once in my life."

On how he has no plans for stopping:

"I think that I'll be a musician for the rest of my days."

Read the entire report from CTV.ca.