MEGADETH's MUSTAINE Says NICK MENZA Wasn't Prepared To Tour With The Band

In a brand new interview with Detroit's WRIF 101.1 FM, MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine spoke about the departure of drummer Nick Menza shortly prior to the start of the band's current "Blackmail the Universe" tour.

"I had Nick Menza come in and play drums [during the rehearsals for the tour], and he just wasn't prepared. It just didn't work out. We tried for two weeks to get everything to happen, and it just didn't click. Five days before the tour started, I had to send him home. And we got a guy named Shawn Drover, which is Glen's [guitar] brother — a fantastic drummer, very Bonham-esque. He can play Nick's parts, can play Gar Samuelson's parts… His favorite drummers are Neil Peart and Vinnie Colaiuta, so there you go. And I'm so excited to be playing right now."

Regarding the rest of MEGADETH's current lineup, Mustaine said, "Guitar player Glen [Drover is] a perfect fit. He knows Chris Poland's style to a tee, knows Marty's [Friedman] style to a tee, I had no problem adapting with him. I believe honestly — and this isn't just because he's in the band right now — I believe he's one of the best guitar players I've ever played with. I could have easily removed a couple of other people in the past and had him instead. Same thing with the bass player. It's a guy named James MacDonough from the group called ICED EARTH. James is a fantastic player, he's very aggressive. He's got the right personality to be around us — he's humble, he's an animal on stage, and it's really refreshing to have somebody playing with you in that position that wants to play. And it's not about business, it's about music."

During the same interview, Mustaine once again addressed the inclusion of a scene in METALLICA's "Some Kind of Monster" documentary in which METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich sits down with Mustaine for a one-on-one therapy session. Asked why he agreed to take part in the therapy session in the first place, Mustaine said, "I did it because I'm a different person today, and I'm not really as paranoid as one might think. I was forgiving them and hoping for some healing with the whole thing, and it didn't come down the way that I thought it would. But you know what?! I'm over it, and wish Lars the best. I know that his band is falling apart right now. To do a documentary on all the ugliness that goes on behind a band, that's pretty bold. I have no problems with James [Hetfield], Kirk [Hammett] I'm totally indifferent about, and I know Robert [Trujillo] from before, so Robert and me are cool. There are some things about the movie that just didn't come out the way that it went down. I mean, I know how to edit, too. The bottom line is, it was good for me to be in METALLICA, it was good for the band to have me in METALLICA. Looking back, I would probably do a few things different, but I wish them all the best, 'cause right now it kind of seems like they're going through the same thing I went through a few years ago — losing your way and kind of forgetting what is important."

Listen to the entire 19-minute interview in streaming Windows Media format at this location.