DAVE MUSTAINE Says He Won't Play PISTOLS' 'Anarchy' Because Of 'Anti-Christ' Reference

Jeff Kerby of KNAC.COM recently conducted an interview with MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

KNAC.COM: Your convictions are obviously strong, and that's admirable...you cancelled a couple tour dates overseas because you had a problem with a couple of bands...on that theme, are there any MEGADETH songs you won't do now?

Dave Mustaine: "Well, no. I mean, the ones that I did that I'm not doing anymore that to me is just wrong is SEX PISTOLS' 'Anarchy' 'cause it says I'm an anti-Christ. I'm not really anti anybody so I had to kind of take a look at that. You know, I mean, I am sure if I wanted to I could do 'Black Friday' or 'The Conjuring' because they don't really mean anything anymore, because the lyrics from 'Bad Omen' I had to jumble up because it was a bona fide hex, so it was kind of like gobbledygook, unless you get lucky and you know something about witchcraft you're not going to be able to deduce what that spell is. And 'Black Friday', you know, it's just gratuitous violence which, that's cool to a point, but there's so many death metal fans that do it better than I did."

KNAC.COM: MEGADETH has taken many shapes over the years...your new band Glen Drover (KING DIAMOND) on guitars, James MacDonough (ICED EARTH) on bass, and Shawn Drover (EIDOLON) on drums...these guys definitely have a metal pedigree, do you think people get the impression Dave Mustaine is MEGADETH and the other parts are interchangeable...or is that perception unavoidable?

Dave Mustaine: "I don't know what the public at large thinks. I wish I could read minds or something. But I think the people are aware, when I left METALLICA and came home on a bus, I did not stop off and pick up a bass player. I went home and started it on my own and had a first bass player named Matt Kisselstein. Then came Junior. and the other different line-ups which went through a lot of (metamorphosing) over the years, but you know, it's just for me, part of trying to achieve greatness. You know, loyalty is one thing, but there comes a time when you have to pitch something over board when it's not worth anything."

KNAC.COM: Yeah, there's a big difference between doing business and having friendships and having a good time. Do you miss guys like Dave Ellefson?

Dave Mustaine: "Uh, no, I don't. There's some guys we're still friends with and there's some that we're not. I'd rather not get into who I'm friends with and not because I think it's disrespectful, but as you probably can imagine because of the lawsuit, the relationship between me and (Ellefson) was pretty much strained and over. I do respect them all, even (Ellefson) and I thank them for what they did, I wish them well in their careers."

KNAC.COM: Any new MEGADETH music coming?

Dave Mustaine: "Actually, you know what? When I set up to record 'The System Has Failed', I was gonna do two records back to back, like Ozzy did with 'Diary of a Madman' and 'Blizzard of Oz' and then see if the public even liked me anymore, if they wanted to hear from me, do some live shows, kind of build and then if things were going in the right direction, do another record release at some point and be prepared to tour again. But um, half way through the process, I heard from the publishing company that I owed them another MEGADETH record and until then I pretty much was bound to them. And I love being an EMI artist but I also liked the fact that I was a free agent. So, having said that I stopped doing the two and only did one, and it came down to pretty simple, you just do your thing."

KNAC.COM: So you owed music to EMI, or Sanctuary, the deal with Sanctuary is done, right?

Dave Mustaine: "Yeah. We're out of our contract with Sanctuary and I've fulfilled my contract with both them and EMI. You know, there was one time when I asked to be out of a record label and that was with Capitol. And I feel kind of bad about that because I've never broken a contract. My name means a lot to me. If I sign a piece of paper, it's important for me to honor it. I find it detestable when people sign things and they try and weasel their way out of it. I just think, you know what? Your name doesn't mean anything. Why even sign in the first place, you have no integrity."

Read the entire interview at KNAC.COM.