DAVE MUSTAINE Slams Former Bandmates, Defends His Current 'Boys'

MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine has posted the following message in the "Forums" section of the band's official web site:

"I was in the dressing room tonight and the guys told me some of you have been conducting lame polls about former members compared to my new bandmates.

"Let me remind you:

"Comparing James [MacDonough, bass] to Junior [David Ellefson]. . . James wins. Junior sued me for $18.5 million and lost, dragged me, my band, and family through the mud.

"James only wants to rock and please y'all. How could you be so stupid?

"Comparing Glen [Drover, guitar] to Al [Pitrelli]. . . Glen wins. Al was good, very good in fact, but his heart was elsewhere. And I have seen Al purposely sign his name over my face on albums and photos, talk poorly about me when I have gone out of my way to say how good he was.

"Comparing Glen to Marty [Friedman]. . . Glen wins. Marty quit to be a guitarist for a chick in Japan and play pop, he wears kimonos, and high-heel platform shoes now. I told him after 'Risk' that we had to go back to our roots and play metal and he quit.

"Comparing Glen to Jeff [Young]. . . Glen wins. Jeff was a great guitarist but was disinteresed in matching previous guitar solos by Chris, and he allegedly hit on Diana [Mustaine's fiancée at the time — Ed.]. Jeff was also much more suited to do his own thing and in a different type of music.

"Comparing Glen to Chris [Poland] . . . Glen wins. Chris plays jazz, always has, and never played the same solo two nights in a row. I must say that Glen borderline worships Chris though.

"Glen only wants to rock and please y'all. How could you be so stupid?

"Comparing Shawn [Drover, drums] to Jimmy [DeGrasso] . . . Shawn wins. Jimmy was not very happy around MEGADETH, and that made it hard to be around him. Compare any studio album to 'Rude Awakening' and you will see he did not care to play the songs the way they were recorded.

"Comparing Shawn to Nick [Menza] . . . Shawn wins. I tried to work things out again with Nick but he is not here for a reason; he was sent home becuase he was not prepared and he can't play MEGADETH songs anymore.

"Comparing Shawn to Gar [Samuelson]. . . now this is hard, and I will say it's a tie. They are both fantastic.

"Otherwise Shawn only wants to rock and please y'all. How could you be so stupid?

"And although this does not apply to everyone, you offend me when you post polls on my site about who wants to see who back in MEGADETH.

"These are my boys, love 'em or leave.

"And I am not kidding."

In a later posting, Mustaine writes:

"Just for clarification . . .this is my site. You are offending my boys. Now you tell me you don't agree with me defending my guys?

"Bye-bye! There will be plenty of vacation time for you to think about it.

"And while your at it, get in a band and once you've have accomplished what these guys have and then have people talk garbage about you, then, and only then will I consider your opinion.

"This place is one of the best places in all of cyberspace. You know why? Because we are fair, we treat people right, we tolerate a myriad of BS.

"I am fed up with this and it is over. You don't like it? Go someplace else. And you will go someplace else because you will be banned immediately if you have a problem with how I feel about the incessant insults from pukes who don't know these guys, who have never seen them live, and ARE TOO FRIGGING STUPID TO KNOW THAT I WAS HERE TO SEE WHAT THESE OTHER GUYS DID AND YOU WERE NOT!

"No one is without guilt and you of all people should know that I copped to making mistakes over the years, but I will not put up with this crap.

"End of story. I can just shut the whole site down, I don't give a shit!"