MEGADETH's DAVE MUSTAINE: 'I've Never Been This Happy Before'

Michelle J. Mills of the San Bernardino County Sun recently conducted an interview with MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

San Bernardino County Sun: To what do you attribute MEGADETH's continued success?

Mustaine: I think it's just determination to share my life . . . and to be able to talk about what it's like to see things through my eyes. There's a lot of really cool things that happen in my world, and I like to share that.

San Bernardino County Sun: What can fans expect at your concert?

Mustaine: We do three songs in the beginning to get everything ready, and then we go through the "Rust in Peace" record, and then we do four songs after that and say good night. We're contracted to only play 75 minutes and we play a lot longer than that. But because this is in small buildings and there's curfews everywhere and there's three bands, we have to adjust.

We're struggling with trying to give the fans as much we're trying to give them and to also keep within the limitations of how many shows we have to do. When you do 90-minute shows, you can do about four or five a week. When you do 75 (minutes),you can do five or six in a week. There's wear and tear on your vocal cords, but (the fans) don't see all that stuff; they see it's like, "Oh they didn't play very long." Well, we wanted to play longer, but we're doing tons of concerts and cutting it a little bit shorter.

San Bernardino County Sun: What's next for MEGADETH?

Mustaine: All we're concerned about right now is getting through this tour and giving our absolute best every night at these shows. It's been really cool to bring Dave Ellefson back into the fold. It's been a unique experience for a lot of the fans that discovered the band when he wasn't in it.

San Bernardino County Sun: Do you still write when you're on tour?

Mustaine: Yes, of course. You live life everywhere don't you? I enjoy who I am and what I'm doing. My career's going great; I've never been this happy before.

The whole goal for me is just to play MEGADETH music and to be happy doing it, and bringing as much happiness to people that I can during the course of the day.

I enjoy the fact that I can travel from city to city around the world and have friends wherever I go. I enjoy the fact that I can pick up an inanimate object called the guitar and play it and make people happy, that's the coolest thing in the world for me.

Read the entire interview from the San Bernardino County Sun.