DAVE MUSTAINE: One Of The Devil's Greatest Tricks Is Convincing People He Doesn't Exist

Pat Prince of Goldmine magazine recently conducted an interview with MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Goldmine: How did it feel getting [bassist] Dave Ellefson back in the band?

Mustaine: Yeah, it felt pretty good. He's a good guy. We had our falling out, obviously, when my arm got hurt I had to break the band up and he didn't really like that too much. Then the lawsuit happened. It was dismissed and he lost. And we met and he apologized and I figured how can I not forgive him. He's my little brother and he made a dumb decision and I love him, and he's my friend, so … You know, I don't know if he won what would have happened, but he lost, and I'm Christian and I've been forgiven so I have to forgive him. There's just no way that I can think that I deserve to be forgiven if I'm not going to do the same. And that set up the whole feeling of what's going on here, right now. There's just such a great feeling of camaraderie. Now I'm not saying it's the Christian forgiveness that I experienced with Dave Ellefson that has permeated the whole tour but I will say this: everybody is getting along really well and we are getting along better than we did when we did "Clash of the Titans" (90-91). And if you can remember, we did "Clash" with SLAYER and TESTAMENT overseas in Europe. So this is like the European version of "Clash of the Titans" if we had SUICIDAL TENDENCIES on here.

Goldmine: Sharing the tour with SLAYER … Do any of the Satanic themes of SLAYER bother you?

Mustaine: No. I'm not really really familiar with SLAYER's stuff, so it doesn't really bother me. I like the guys in the band and their music is really aggressive. Their live show is really happening and it's just one of those shows you gotta see. Tom (Araya) had an injury that kind of set him back a little but the band still has enough adrenaline going for them that even with his adjustment after his surgery they're still a force to be reckoned with. And I'm proud to be touring with them. And then TESTAMENT has two really great guitar players, with Eric Peterson and Alex Skolnick.

Goldmine: And soon there will be the addition of ANTHRAX.

Mustaine: Yeah. That's another one of the "Big Four." And a lot of people have said that TESTAMENT should have been one of the "Big Four." And, of course, I can add, that would have made it the "Big Five." Plus I think it would have been awesome if ANTHRAX could have been on the tour when TESTAMENT's on here. I'm not sure if TESTAMENT is still going to be on here when ANTHRAX comes on. I hope they do, it'll be really great, but I'm not sure that they're going to.

Goldmine: Anyway, back in the '80s, people probably took the Satanic stuff seriously. No one really cares as much now. Back then, it was a huge thing.

Mustaine: See, that's the scary thing, too.

Goldmine: That no one cares?

Mustaine: Yeah, that no one cares. Well, I do. One of the greatest tricks that the devil has ever done is convincing people he doesn't exist.

Read the entire interview from Goldmine magazine.