DAVE MUSTAINE On Performing With METALLICA Again: 'I Had A Smile That I Went To Bed With'

On December 13, Patrick Prince of Powerline conducted an interview with MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Powerline: As far as spirituality in the lyrics, as a born-again Christian, the less challenging creative road would have been to write songs like STRYPER. But you do a pretty good job at being provocative.

Mustaine: Music is something that we listen to give us a change in our mood, to help us get out of a bad mood or continue to perpetuate a good mood. And I think if you put on music and someone's condemning you and making you sad or making you cry … that ain't my gig. Somebody else can give that. You know, I like listening to stuff that's sentimental and emotional and stuff, too, but I don't want to be the guy who does that. I'm good at beating my guitar until it throws up and I think people got a good look at that this weekend when I went up and played with METALLICA again. That was really fun. I know a lot of people were really surprised because they never saw me play with the band.

Powerline: It must have been a great feeling going up there onstage again with them.

Mustaine: I had some mood swings. There was some ups and downs and stuff. And, you know, got excited, and kind of got impatient, "Let's go. I'm okay. Well, lets go!" and this kind of thing and that's just the artist in me. I'm just squirrely like that.

Powerline: Playing some of those old METALLICA songs — did you have favorites or are there still favorites now?

Mustaine: You know, it felt fun to play them. I wish I would have had a little bit more opportunity to get prepared with the band. You know, because I'm a perfectionist. I would have liked to have had my sound just so and make sure when I did the solos they would jump up the volume and stuff like that that I'm used to, but we were at a club and playing at a club and playing like a club band. It was fun to take off all the rules and regulations and stuff and kind of shoot from the hip.

Powerline: I was surprised you didn't play "The Four Horsemen".

Mustaine: I think there's a reason for that. I think I know why we didn't play that song but I'm not going to go out on a limb on it. I think one of the things was because we recorded "Mechanix" and they recorded the other way, there's not really a need to do that. There were several other songs that were really important — like "Jump in the Fire" was the first song I brought those guys. And "Phantom Lord" and "Metal Militia" were songs that I brought to them, too, and the only other song was "Mechanix", which later changed to "The Four Horsemen". And the rest of those songs were written by James [Hetfield] or by Hugh Tanner or Lloyd Grant and that's why those guys were there... and a little weird for me, too, you know, standing on stage. I thought it was cool to be just with METALLICA, but Ron McGovney's up there and Lloyd Grant's up there. I was kind of like, "Alright, well, I'll bite the bullet. I'll be cool. This is not so terrible." I got up there and, you know what?! I didn't even notice them. I was having so much fun they weren't even there.

Powerline: Well, you mentioned mood swings. You should have had flashbacks with McGovney…

Mustaine: Actually, you know what?! I didn't even see him the whole time I was up there. It was cool that he was there. He was pretty nervous, too. Ron's a good guy. I was locked into Lars' [Ulrich] playing and James' playing. Me and James, we were like the the Toxic Twins back when we played together and we were a very very dangerous duo. And for a moment I think I stirred some of those old feelings up. I saw one of the videos and it looked like he was having fun. I know I was having fun. I had a smile that I went to bed with.

Read the entire interview from Powerline.

Photos below courtesy of Metallica.com