MEGADETH's MUSTAINE: 'If I Don't Know About A Subject, I Won't Talk About It'

Chris A. of Hardrock Haven recently conducted an interview with MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Hardrock Haven: As MEGADETH's frontman, is the fact that you always keep the band stocked with incredible guitarists designed to give you the opportunity to "step out" a bit with your vocals or does it push you to be a better guitar player?

Dave Mustaine: Well, if it's afforded me the opportunity to step out as a vocalist, I haven't done it yet, 'cause I'm not a very confident with myself as a singer. I wasn't a singer when I started, I just liked playing the guitar, and in fact, in my last band that's all I did — play lead guitar. That's what my trade is. I remember one night on New Year's Eve, me and Dave Ellefson [MEGADETH bassist] were rehearsing and we had some guy come down and audition for the band and he walked in and had fucking eyeliner on. He did have a bunch of beer and me and Dave were living in Dave's van mooching off chicks at the time, so we drank all of his beer, and let him sing awhile as long as the beer lasted. After it was gone, we said "You're fired." I mean, I can't have a guy with eyeliner in MEGADETH, for Pete's sake! So Dave said, "Why don't you sing?" I tried it but it felt like I had a railroad spike going through my eyeballs because I didn't know how to breathe. When you sing, if you push all that air out of your body singing, no matter how cool you think you might look, you're doing down because you're gonna faint. I tried singing, I didn't like it but ended up doing it because we couldn't find anyone.

Hardrock Haven: Did you take any vocal lessons?

Dave Mustaine: I took two vocal lessons, but I won't tell you their names. One was a 70-year-old woman in Hollywood who stood behind me and stuck her hands down my pants. I thought, you know, this is fucked up. Then there was another one by a guy in Hollywood who asked me to unbutton my pants so he could examine my diaphragm. I said, "Dude, my diaphragm is up here. Diaphragms in pants belong in females." So I'm not sure what my private parts have to do with a vocal lesson but I guess it's got something to do with breathing. It was really too weird for me. I thought, if this is part of being a vocalist, I'll be a professional yeller.

Hardrock Haven: Your newest release, "Endgame", is a great metal disc, what was the inspiration behind your song "1320'"? Obviously, it's about drag racing but what prompted to you write the song?

Dave Mustaine: What happened was when I was a kid, I used to go to the Orange County International Raceway. I was an entrepreneur. My mom moved out when I was 13 so I had to learn how to live on the streets so I was sort of like Oliver Twist. I was a street urchin. I would go to the racetrack and buy a ticket. On the way to the track I would stop by the drugstore and I got a pack of those rainbow pens. I went inside and they stamped my hand, I went back outside into the parking lot and pan-handled tickets all day for all the booze and drugs and cash that I could possibly stuff in my little teenage pockets. Then I would go inside and watch the main event and watch the nitro cars. Ever since I was 13 I've been fascinated with racing. I would go to the fairgrounds and watch motocross, I love the smell of the motorcycles and the speedway. It's kind of a bummer now because you're so close to the track and people are fucking drunk off their butts and they want me to sign shit and take photos and I just wanna see the race. For me, if I go out to do something I'm going out to do something, not sign autographs. That's why I don't go out very much because I don't want people to think that I'm a snob. I don't want to be rude, I try to be fan-friendly because I know who gave me this fabulous lifestyle — the gift came from the Lord, but I wouldn't be here without the fan support.

Hardrock Haven: You've got an autobiography about to be published. What was it like for you to see the part of your life that your going to make public laid out in paper?

Dave Mustaine: It's been out there forever, because I've been very open about my career since I started. I don't think there's any reason to hide shit because people find out. And if you take the wind out of their sails they can't use it against you. It's not self-deprecation or anything like that, but for me, I think what it is this righteous transparency that when you people talk to me they know what they are getting. They know that I'm not a bullshitter and they know that I'm fairly intelligent on stuff I'm talking about because if I don't know about a subject, I won't talk about it.

Read the entire interview from Hardrock Haven.