Page 45 - Metal Hammer Issue 334 - UK (May 2020)

DAVE MUSTAINE
Megadeth (left to right): Dirk
Verbeuren, David Ellefson,
Dave Mustaine, Kiko Loureiro
direction. “It’s a great song that talks about
how it’s really not so hard to do something
nice for someone else. Help a stranger. Smile.
If you see a homeless person, give them
something to eat. I was homeless once. It was
the worst, man. Scrounging for food, living
in [bassist] David Ellefson’s van…”
Dave apologises for losing his train of
thought, blaming the lingering effects of
“chemo brain”. After a break, he switches
gears, discussing the positive changes that
have come from his battle with the disease.
“I WANTED TO GET
BACK AT THE PEOPLE
WHO HURT MY SISTER”
DAVE MUSTAINE
“My wife and I are getting along tremendously,
and things are really good with my son and
daughter right now, too. I’ve got a better
relationship with my band. The other day, Kiko
[Loureiro, guitarist] says to me, ‘I really like
this new Dave!’ What he was talking about, is
when you’re dealing with pain, you drink, you
smoke, you bitch, because you don’t know
what’s going on. But soon as I found out what
was wrong with me, I attacked it. Once I did,
I could feel myself getting happier too.
Support also came from outside Dave’s
immediate circle. His old band brother, James
Hetfield, reached out, as did KISS’s Paul Stanley
and Ozzy, who was at war with his own medical
demons in 2019.
“Everybody’s treatment is different, but
Bruce Dickinson had been through throat
cancer about five years ago, so he was able to
give me a lot of insight into what to expect. His
biggest advice was to listen to the doctors and
don’t rush to get back onstage. They told him
to hold off, but he went back out to perform
and nothing came out. Well, OK. I get it. Bruce
waited a month before his first show, so I held
off a little longer. My last treatment was in
September and I made plenty of time to rest,
exercise and eat right before we went back
out on tour. We did 22 dates overseas, and
I feel great now, except for the fatigue. But
I think a lot of that might be due to um,
extracurricular activities. Staying up late.
Not sleeping. Maybe a little, you know…”
Thumb and forefinger to his lips, Dave
inhales sharply, making the universal symbol
for partaking of the herb. Could he be referring
to the alleged medicinal benefits of CBD oil?
“Don’t screw around
with the oil, man,”
he growls in the
same gravel baritone
as his crushing
thrash classics.
Our eyes go wide
as the voice from
sixth grade
Headbangers Ball comes to life.
Dave cackles at our reaction, pushing back
a wayward strand of hair. “If you’re gonna
do it, get the good stuff. I think the world is
just now finding out the beauty of cannabis
and everything it can do for you. I hear
people talk how it’s good for cancer patients.
C’mon, it’s good for any fucking patient!
The radiation zapped my salivary glands so
I couldn’t make spit, which made it really
hard to swallow and get food down. They gave
me this crazy mouthwash to use that had
Benadryl and lidocaine in it, but I still couldn’t
eat. So cannabis helped with that, except I got
a terrible craving for kiddie cereal. I went to
the store and got, like, 20 boxes.”
The thought of the Tornado Of Souls singer
devouring countless bowls of cereal is a pretty
cool picture and we can’t help but inquire about
his favourite fix. “Trix with marshmallows.
Froot Loops with marshmallows. Frosted
Flakes. The kind with little marshmallows.
You get the idea. My cancer team told me to
try and watch the sugar intake, but they said,
‘Dave, if you can eat – then eat.’ The doctor
threatened to put a feeding tube in my gut if
I lost too much weight. Well, they scared the
shit out of me with that one, but it worked.”
ith Dave healthy and back
onstage, the follow-up to 2016’s
Grammy Award-winning
Dystopia is on every Megafan’s
brain. Late last year, Dave teased songs that
were “heavy as hell” with titles such as
Rattlehead, Part Two and The Dogs Of Chernobyl.
“I don’t know if any of those titles are still
holding up,” he says, revealing that the band
has been tracking at Nashville’s Sound Kitchen
with co-producer Chris Rakestraw at the
controls again. “Whenever I make a record,
the names of the songs change so many
times. I think we’ve got 14 songs for this
album and another folder with six. The songs
are constantly evolving and as they do, we
change the title to be more reflective of what
makes the song distinct.”
So, will we see a new Megadeth album
before 2020 ends? “I hope so, yeah,” says Dave.
“We’ll start back in a couple of days and keep
plowing until it’s done. Metal Tour Of The Year
starts this summer, but that should be fun and
easy. We’ve got a week’s vacation coming up
soon and I’m going to go rest up and get ready
to come back and make a brilliant record.”
Nashville traffic is anarchy these days and
Romeo looks like he needs to hike his leg. As
the sun sets over the Cumberland River, Dave
stands and slides an arm around our shoulder,
recruiting Metal Hammer to thank the fans
for all their thoughts and prayers. It strikes
us, how we expect legends to be carved from
granite. On one hand, we understand that our
heroes are human. But on the other, we never
want to see them frail, or sick, or down. And
that must be a hell of a burden sometimes. But
perhaps, it’s also what keeps them moving.
If our heroes can keep pushing, then that gives
us the courage to keep pushing too, through all
the shitstorms of life, disasters both natural
and manufactured, even the ones we bring
upon ourselves. Decades later, they still inspire
perseverance, hope, and the determination to
never let the bastards grind you down. Maybe
even a little 21st century metal up your ass.
Still, we have to ask one last thing. Dave’s
been on the road almost 40 years. Dues paid;
the mark has been made. Was he ever tempted
to call it a day, sit back on the farm and enjoy
a slow, simple life?
“Yeah, I guess I could do that,” he admits,
shrugging like it’s no big deal. “But I love what
I do, and I like helping the band and crew make
money. Playing music makes people happy.
A lot of times while we’re out there, they share
stuff with us, some good, some bad, but we
get to bring our own little brand of panacea to
people and somehow, that makes them feel
beautiful. Even if it’s for just one night.”
THE NEW MEGADETH ALBUM
IS EXPECTED LATER THIS YEAR.
SEE WWW.MEGADETH.COM AND
WWW.METALHAMMER.COM
METALHAMMER.COM 45