Ex-MEGADETH Drummer SHAWN DROVER On NICK MENZA's Death: 'It's Tragic'

The Entertainment Outlet recently conducted an interview with former MEGADETH and current ACT OF DEFIANCE drummer Shawn Drover. You can now watch the chat below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On his "side-by-side" jam with ex-MEGADETH drummer Nick Menza in January at the Soultone booth at this year's NAMM show in Anaheim, California:

Drover: "That's the first time I met Nick. We kept in touch, certainly later on, after I left [MEGADETH]. We kind of reached out to each other a little bit, and we corresponded through Facebook and stuff. And I was at NAMM and he was at the Soultone cymbal booth, which I think he was part owner of; I'm not sure, though. I just walked over there, and he was there. I said, 'Hey, dude.' And that's the first time I'd actually met him face to face, and we just talked for a while. And he was just, like, 'Hey, you wanna jump on the drum kit and play.' It was just an impromptu thing; it wasn't a 'drum duel' or that kind of crap. But Nick was very nice, and we had a good talk. And he seemed in great spirits and was in good shape — he looked good — so it was nice to see. So it obviously came as a great shock to me [to hear about Nick's death in late May], seeing him at the NAMM show, being in such great shape and stuff and so clear-headed and all that. I mean, what can you say? It's tragic. It's tragic on a humanistic level. Never mind all the MEGADETH stuff. I mean, he had two kids, and that's a horrible thing. I can't imagine what his… I'm sure his kids are struggling with that one. It's horrible."

On ACT OF DEFIANCE's plans for the coming months:

Drover: "I think we're gonna mix it up. I've already got a bunch of ideas for the next record. We're gonna start gathering ideas, but as well, we still wanna tour for this record. I think we're gonna take a month or two off to kind of get our heads together with creating new music and getting ideas together, formulating songs and stuff. But we also wanna… Again, we wanna do some more touring for [ACT OF DEFIANCE's debut album] 'Birth And The Burial'. You can do both nowadays. The only thing that we record in a [real] studio are my drum tracks. Chris [Broderick, former MEGADETH and current ACT OF DEFIANCE guitarist] records guitars and vocals at his studio, Matt [Bachand, ACT OF DEFIANCE bassist] records bass at his studio; they both have home studios. But I'm old school; I wanna go in a studio and record drum tracks in a real studio. I like the vibe of it and the creative process of that. But once I do my drum tracks, those guys can… It's not like you have to go in a studio for these two weeks. We can do stuff and then, 'Okay, take a month off. We're gonna go tour.' Nowadays, it's kind of easy to be able to do both. So wanna utilize both. We still wanna promote the record, 'Birth And The Burial', but we wanna get going on the next one. We don't wanna wait too long. People have a tendency to forget things quick. The record's been out now for almost a year, so it's time to get going on the next one."

Drover quit MEGADETH in November 2014 "to pursue [his] own musical interests." Broderick announced his departure from MEGADETH a few hours later, saying that he was exiting the group "due to artistic and musical differences." The duo has since launched ACT OF DEFIANCE with ex-SCAR THE MARTYR singer Henry Derek Bonner and Bachand.

"Birth And The Burial" was released last August via Metal Blade Records.