MEGADETH's DAVE MUSTAINE: 'We Pray Every Night Before We Go On Stage'

MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine was interviewed for the "Primetime Nightline: Beyond Belief" "Battle With The Devil" special, which aired earlier tonight (Wednesday, July 20) on the ABC television network. You can now watch the segment below.

On the existence of the devil:

Mustaine: "The greatest he's ever told was convincing people he doesn't exist. And you see people that think he's red and he's got a goatee and a pointy tail and stuff like that. He doesn't. He's very beautiful. He's an angel. Why would he look like some monster? He's capable of looking just like you. He could in this room right now. You wouldn't know it . . . It's a very scary thought."

On whether people are right when they say heavy metal music is infused with the power of the devil:

Mustaine: "In some cases, yes. But not in all cases. Because you've got great heavy metal bands that believe in God and glorify Him. We pray every night before we go on stage."

On how he wasn't always a Christian:

Mustaine: "My mom was a Jehovah's Witness. I was brought up as a Witness and I revolted into the witchcraft because I hated going out and knocking on people's doors."

On how he, as a teenager, cast two hexes, including one on a bully who suckerpunched him:

Mustaine: "From what I heard, he got in a car accident and something happened to a part of his body that I had targeted in a hex, and that showed me that it was real."

On his second hex, which was on a girl he was in a class with:

Mustaine: "Everybody wanted her, including me, but she was so out of my batting average and just totally out of my league. And I did it, and the next day she was in my apartment.

"I was [convinced that these hexes, or spells, that I was casting worked]. And I do believe in the dark side. Most people think that black magic and witchcraft and stuff like that isn't real or it doesn't work. And I know that it works."

On how his fascination with the occult continued into his adulthood:

Mustaine: "I was doing a lot of blood pacts with people. This was before we found out about AIDS. It was real simple stuff where you cut your thumb and you rub it with someone else and you become blood brothers. I don't wanna make a spiritual covenant and mix my life with somebody else who I don't know who they are and how they are. The Bible said that blood is life."

On whether his abuse of alcohol was related to the Satanic influences that he had been dabbling in:

Mustaine: "I'll say this: Every time I drank, I did not always do activities that were Satanic, but anytime I had been doing anything that was Satanic, I had been drinking. [So there] absolutely [was a relationship between the two]."

On how he will no longer sing some songs, like MEGADETH's cover of the SEX PISTOLS' "Anarchy In The U.K.", and how he believes he's better for it:

Mustaine: "I think that I'm more dangerous now that I've become a Christian than I ever was before when I was trying to go the opposite route, because I'm armed with the truth now."

In "Beyond Belief: Battle With The Devil", "Nightline" co-anchor Terry Moran set out to discover how the battle against Satan is being carried out in America, for those who believe that the Prince of Darkness and Author of All Lies is a real presence in the world, a real threat in their lives.

From the Agape church in New York to an exorcism conducted in California, from a Christian ministry attempting to rescue women from the sex trade in Las Vegas to a training class for exorcists in Rome, from Times Square in New York to the "Amityville Horror" house Moran met people who sincerely believe they are locked in combat with the devil.

State the "Beyond Belief: Battle With The Devil" producers: "We don't set out to prove or disprove the existence of Satan; we simply want to respect the authenticity of the beliefs of the people we met. What we hope we've done is shine a light into a world of spiritual warfare that goes on all around us, and report the amazing experiences of people who are convinced they have struggled not just with the moral reality of evil in their lives, but with a powerful and terrifying supernatural being who promotes and generates that evil: The devil."