MEGADETH Bassist LOMENZO: 'DAVE MUSTAINE Is Not Dissimilar From DAVID LEE ROTH'

Charlie Steffens of KNAC.COM recently conducted an interview with new MEGADETH bassist James Lomenzo (ex-BLACK LABEL SOCIETY, WHITE LION). A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

KNAC.COM: How was your first MEGADETH gig in Dubai?

Lomenzo: "It was great, man. It was obscenely great, from beginning to end. Looking at all the bands up there — TESTAMENT, 3 DOORS DOWN … I mean, I thought it was kind of weird, starting out, but the Dubai crowd or these people that go to the Desert Fest …they're made up of people from all over the world. They kind of all go there to vacation or they're doing business there and stuff like that. It was an interesting mix that really worked better than I could have ever anticipated. Playing the gig with MEGADETH was priceless, obviously, kind of my first one with the guys. It was really exciting. A bit like heads-up football, you know, a lot of stuff coming on all at once. But, hey — pulled through it. Don't think I hit any bad notes, as far as I can recall."

KNAC.COM: As a musician, do you find that playing with MEGADETH is a bit tighter, more percussive, musically, than the projects you've been involved with in the past?

Lomenzo: "Yeah, for the most part … Let me put that into a thought or two. Dave was doing a lot of esoteric things — David Lee Roth. He was pulling out all kinds of things. We were doing 'Jango Rhinehart' — I was playing upright bass, you know, for all his different projects …video projects, the radio things we did. So, I think that's the closest I got to this accuracy in playing. In David Lee Roth's band — when we were doing VAN HALEN stuff, actually, that was loud and wide, just like it's supposed to be. But I think in this case, oddly enough, when I was playing with Dave, Ray Luzier, who played drums, and Toshi Hiketa played guitar — he was the second guitar player in Dave's band, as well — we put together a little three-piece rock fusion thing called THE HIDEOUS SUN DEMONS. And that was extraordinarily like what goes on in the MEGADETH stuff, maybe a little lighter and a little more rock and roll than metal …and you know how there are no accidents in life, you kind of roll through things and you go, 'Oh, that's strange, why is that happening?' I gotta tell ya, man, looking back at the SUN DEMONS, I think a good portion of that was to kind of mentally prepare me for MEGADETH right now. If you look at things that way (laughs). I do."

KNAC.COM: How about working with Dave Mustaine? What's he like?

Lomenzo: "Dave Mustaine is not dissimilar from David Lee Roth. I haven't known him forever, okay, but again — the same thing, man. MEGADETH is Dave. He's written so much of that music. I know a lot of people contribute to it, but if you look at the bulk of it, it's Dave Mustaine. You have to respect that. That stuff doesn't come along by accident, ever. There's something that drives these people … and again, Dave's not dissimilar from David Lee Roth in that he's a benevolent dictator, as far as I can tell. He's made every opportunity to contribute in every way possible; he's made me very comfortable being part of his band — a part of MEGADETH — and he just rolled that red carpet for me. I can't argue with that and I can't say anything negative about a person like that. It seems like their success is based on their willingness to be cooperative with other people and it seems like he has a lot of that."

Read the entire interview at KNAC.COM.