MEGADETH Drummer: 'I Envision Next Year We'll Be Recording A New Record'

Crypt Magazine recently conducted an interview with MEGADETH drummer Shawn Drover. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Crypt Magazine: Do you have plans for the next record yet?

Drover: Yeah, we're certainly talking about it. Right now we're in tour mode, but we're starting to discuss our game plan for next year, and I envision next year we'll be recording a new record. So there's no end in sight as far as we're concerned. We're just going to keep rolling, and things are going really well for us right now, and we're just seizing every opportunity that we can.

Crypt Magazine: Right, now the "Big Four" shows you did (with METALLICA, SLAYER and ANTHRAX)… seems to me that'd be a gigantic-selling thing, so why has it just been seven shows in Europe so far?

Drover: Well, it's a good question. I mean, we can theorize about why and all that stuff… my theory is, maybe it was just to test the waters, see how everything went, see if it was going to be as successful as everyone hoped it would be. And, of course, it was. And we filmed a DVD which will be out November 2, "The Big Four" DVD. And once we did that in Europe, now everyone around the world's screaming for it. So hopefully we'll be able to do it next year, or whenever that's gonna be. But right now, we really don't know, y'know, there's talk, you hear things, people say things, but until it actually presents itself… We're all really hopeful that it will. We'll see what happens with it.

Crypt Magazine: I understand you brought out (MEGADETH mascot) Vic Rattlehead onstage for a couple shows. Is he going to be coming back more often?

Drover: We started doing that halfway through the last tour leg we did with SLAYER and TESTAMENT. We started doing it, and we've been doing it every night since. It went over so well, we incorporated it into the show. Yeah, it's a cool thing, it went over really well with the fans, so we don't see any reason not to continue it.

Crypt Magazine: Yeah, 'cause I always thought that MEGADETH should do the same thing with Vic that IRON MAIDEN does with Eddie. Now, I just discovered that you and I were born in the same year, so your influences as a drummer, would they be THIN LIZZY, BLACK SABBATH, bands like that?

Drover: Well, those two, certainly, yeah. Y'know, growing up in the '70s, I was exposed to a lot of different types of music, the rock stuff, DEEP PURPLE, RUSH, VAN HALEN, THIN LIZZY, all that stuff. But at the same time I was listening to a lot of jazz stuff. A lot of Al Dimeola, "Return To Forever", that stuff. There's so many great drummers in the jazz field. I got absorbed in all that stuff, so it was cool. And when I was growing up, it wasn't weird to listen to different types of music. Even on radio, you'd hear a DEEP PURPLE song, and then a FLEETWOOD MAC song, and no one would blink an eye. Now, I don't know if they even do that on rock radio now…but I was exposed to a lot of different styles of music. But certainly Neil (Peart) from RUSH was one of my main influences, certainly to this day.

Crypt Magazine: Is "Head Crusher" your favorite song to play? 'Cause you co-wrote that, I understand.

Drover: Yeah, I did co-write that song. Certainly, I love playing it, it's a fun song to play, but I like playing all the songs, to be honest with you. Like I said before, it's a challenging set to play, and you really gotta focus on what you're doing, but that's part of the fun, and I enjoy doing that. But yeah, "Head Crusher" is one of my favorites and I like playing it.

Read the entire interview from Crypt Magazine.