MEGADETH Contemplates Playing Older Songs On Tour

Keith Carman of ChartAttack.com recently conducted an interview with MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

On the band's new album, "Endgame", and upcoming tour:

"I'm quite happy. The chemistry in the band is really working. I'm particularly excited because James [Lomenzo, bass] just came over and I said that since we have such a varied catalogue, we should just pick our most mind-blowing songs (for our upcoming tour with SLAYER)."

"We couldn't perform some [of the] songs [from the band's early catalog] for the big arenas because (they're) so fast, by the time we start the song and the intro hits the back of the room, the song's over on the stage.

"We want to make sure the shows are as great sounding as possible, so we've had to forego songs we want to play in order to give a better example of how we sound, what our songs are like, 'cause this is the only chance we get to show people what MEGADETH is about.

"We're gonna be adding a lot of old songs to the set; stuff you haven't seen for a long time. To me, that kind of stuff is really fun. We might add, 'These Boots Are Made For Walkin''. It's simple but there's so much haulin' ass at the end that you really have to be prepared to do it. You gotta come ready to work."

On the possibility of MEGADETH performing a medley of covers during their set:

"James thought the idea was great. He thought it would be interesting to do 'I Ain't Superstitious'. He said, 'At the end of a set, it's always great to do a cover song.' I'm like, 'Well, yeah... if you're not playing a 60-minute set with SLAYER and trying to squeeze every second of space to get a song in! Why do I want to do a song by JEFF BECK and a song by WILLIE DIXON when I could be doing a song by me? Know what I'm saying?'"