MEGADETH Mainman: 'I've Never Told Any Of Our Fans How To Vote, I Just Say Do Vote'

Caustic Truth's Morley Seaver recently conducted an interview with MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine. A few excerpts follow:

On having political lyrics:

"Well, MEGADETH has had political records forever. All you need to do is look at the titles: 'Peace Sells, But Who's Buying?!', 'The System Has Failed', 'The World Needs a Hero'. The majority of the music has always been political in nature. And a while ago, there was something that had happened in New York where a Russian ambassador from the United Nations had driven through a stop sign, drunk as a skunk and killed a dude and got off because of diplomatic immunity.

"You know what? If that was MY kid, I don't know if I would be satisfied with that. I absolutely have to tell you, I don't know if I would be satisfied that a guy could kill my kid, driving drunk, and that just because he's a diplomat from another country that he would be exonerated.
"So that made me really start looking at what the UN was all about. And the more I would watch politics, I would see most people don't really give much credence to the UN. They just kind of think it's a figurehead. Well, it wasn't created to just be an empty figurehead. It was created to promote peace and keep people from going to war against one another. And there's a new movie coming out called 'You and Me' that I had a chance to participate in and when I saw the trailer for it I said I absolutely want to say something as a person that travels from country to country.

"You know, we went into Serbia, and I watched out the window of the bus as we drove from disaster area to disaster area, getting to the place that we stayed, and these kids were so poor, brother, we had to sell our t-shirts for I think five bucks that night, and they usually sell for like $25 to $30 just so that we could show them that we love them and we support them and that heavy metal knows no boundaries and it's color blind. You know, we went there as four musicians that don't really care about politics. All we care about is just bringing the music to them and them standing up for themselves. I myself find that a little bit incredulous after you take a swipe at the UN, to say that we don't, that we don't care about politics but that's my own particular feelings and my opinions and I'm not pushing that on anybody, I never have. Even though I got involved in Rock The Vote in America back in 1992 and I went to the White House, and I've shaken hands with the President. I've never told any of our fans how to vote. I just say do vote."

On the re-recorded version of "A Tout Le Monde":

"That particular song when it came out on 'Youthanasia', a song we did a video for, and MTV had said don't use this guy Wayne Isham. So I told my manager, look we can't do it with him, and he heard them too, and he said, we'll just turn it in under a fake name. And I knew that was a recipe for disaster. But he did it. MTV found out. Got pissed at me for something I didn't even do. And they banned the video. After that, because radio in America used to follow MTV, and still kind of does to a certain degree, radio wouldn't touch the single either. So 'A Tout Le Monde' is a fan favorite. It's a worldwide song that MEGADETH is known for, but the public doesn't know it. They haven't heard it. So a band has that one song that just says everything in a nutshell. I mean, I'm not going to say that 'Stairway to Heaven' is that for LED ZEPPELIN but that's what I certainly believe. I think every band needs to get that one shot at the public and unfortunately, how it was, we missed that. And I don't know if I would feel content if I wasn't able to address that failure because it was failure at the hands of some one else. If I did, and it failed, I would be able to accept it. I know winning and losing are both necessary to be able to experience either. But when the song kind fell like that, the fans totally embraced it and I just kind of knew that something needed to be done."

Read the entire interview at Caustic Truth.