MUSTAINE: 'When A Band Makes The Same Record Over And Over Again, They Kind Of Limit Themselves'

The Rock Pit recently conducted an interview with MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

The Rock Pit: Your latest album, "Super Collider", is doing well and the band is on a new label, things seem to be going really good for MEGADETH right now. How's the feeling within the band?

Dave: Pretty strongly. I think if you ask any of us, they will all tell you this is their favorite period and the great thing is with Chris Broderick (guitar) being around for a while it's pretty significant with him. and Shawn Drover (drums) has been around longer — he's seen more — but when we got David Ellefson (bass) coming back in and he's saying this is the best that he's ever seen it and he's the one that's seen some pretty big successes among us in MEGADETH so for him to say that just shows you that things are on the rise for MEGADETH again. I'm totally excited.

The Rock Pit: Your latest release is a live DVD which contains a performance of the entire "Countdown To Extinction" album. Last year you put out a remastered version for the 20th anniversary. Why do you think there has been so much focus on this particular album and the reasons for celebrating this album?

Dave: I think "Countdown To Extinction" was a highly successful record in the States. It was also one of those records that really changed people's perspective on heavy metal in the United States. When "Countdown" came out, it was No. 2 on the charts and there was a record by a country guy named Billy Ray Cyrus who was at No. 1 and he had that stupid song "Achey Breaky Heart"… It was like a novelty song so you couldn't shake it so basically we had a No. 1 record, but because of that dumb song, we never got to realize it. So that, for all intents and purposes, was our biggest record we ever had.

The Rock Pit: How do you view that album now 21 years later?

Dave: I love it, I think it's a great record. It's one of those records to me which has certain significance and meaning. They all have that relevance and time and place in your life, but there's also your experience from the success level. It's kind of like when you're a parent, you have your kids and each kid you love specially, you love them a certain way, and there's a way they love you back but there's also what that kid accomplishes in life and at the end of the day, you can look at them and say, "Wow, this is my one special kid." There's some records that we've had everything that we could ever imagine that happened.

The Rock Pit: That album also marked a bit of a change in direction for the band. Was that a conscious decision or was it a natural progression?

Dave: We didn't really want to change direction, and honestly, I didn't think that we had changed direction. It was just us, we were just kinda doing what we do. I think when a band makes the same record over and over again, they kind of limit themselves and we were not trying to limit ourselves or not trying to make ourselves sound different from anybody else, but I do see where you would say it sounded like we made a decision to make a change in direction.

Read the entire interview at The Rock Pit.