DAVE MUSTAINE: Why MEGADETH Has Had So Many Lineup Changes

Jennifer Kessinger of CBS47 FOX30 Action News Jax conducted an interview with MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine at the Welcome To Rockville festival, which was held Saturday, April 30 and Sunday, May 1 at Jacksonville, Florida's Metropolitan Park. You can now watch the chat below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On MEGADETH's new lineup:

Mustaine: "We've had a lot of different lineups. A lot of bands have had changes; all the bands that are in the 'Big Four' have had changes. And I think sometimes people change so you've gotta either adapt and improvise or you become a fraud and you're not yourself and you're doing it for the wrong reasons, and I think that's why we've had some of those changes. Right now, with Chris [Adler, drums] and Kiko [Loureiro, guitar] and David [Ellefson, bass] and myself, I think we all kind of have the same kind of goals; we all are more similar with the music that we like. Because, in the past, we've had other bandmembers that were hardcore jazz buffs, which was great for helping create our style, but when you're trying to say, 'Hey, do you like that song by [the punk band] FEAR?' And they're, like, 'Who's FEAR?' It's just really weird — it's like you're talking two different languages — and I think that we have a really common language between all of us."

On social media:

Mustaine: "Well, the thing with social media is there's so much dishonesty about it out there and anonymity, so people will say stuff that they've met us, [that] they know us. I mean, there's something going around that the singer from PARAMORE is my niece or something like that, and it's like… I know the band PARAMORE, but I didn't know what he lady's name was. So when they'd said her name, I was, like, 'I don't know who that is.' And then I looked it up and I went, 'C'mon!' Real bright comparison there. But, you know, I think that social media can be used really for good too, if you know how to use it. You have to have a thick skin, you have to not worry about what the trolls are [saying], because, as funny as this sounds, trolls need love too, and you just kind of either ignore 'em or you just kind of love on 'em until they wake up or they go away. 'Cause if they see they're getting in your face and they're bugging you, they're gonna keep doing it. So I just look at it like this: I treat everybody with as much love and respect as I possibly would want."

MEGADETH filmed a video for the song "Post American World" late last month. The track is taken from the band's latest album, "Dystopia", which came out in January.

"Dystopia" shifted 49,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in its first week of release. In terms of pure album sales, "Dystopia" opened with 48,000 copies, marking MEGADETH's highest-charting album since 1992's "Countdown To Extinction" debuted and peaked at No. 2 on the chart dated August 1 of that year. "Dystopia" also logged the group's best sales week since 2007, when "United Abominations" landed at No. 8 with first-week sales of 54,000.