Jon Wiederhorn from Noisecreep.com spoke with MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine about reuniting with his old band mate Dave Ellefson, the power of forgiveness, the departure of bassist James Lomenzo and the future of Megadeth. Here are a few excerpts from the chat:

Noisecreep.com: A lot of people thought Hell would freeze over before you played with Dave Ellefson again. How did you two bury the hatchet?

Mustaine: "When I became a Christian, my life really changed. Unlike a lot of people who say that they're Christian and really are hypoChristians, I'm not a guy that goes around, tells people how to live their life and then lives a double life behind closed doors. So, when I was forgiven I realized I needed to forgive. We had that incident with the lawsuit, and I forgave Dave for that. Several years ago when I went out to Phoenix on a business trip, I asked him if we could go out to dinner. He said, "Yeah." And we sat down at California Pizza Kitchen and had some food and talked a little bit. I told him, "I still love you." And he said, "I love you, too." And I put that behind me, because he's a little brother to me. So I'm looking at this as an opportunity to do the right thing for Dave and show him that I am a good leader and we are a great band, and we do belong playing together."

Noisecreep.com: Are there any lingering animosities?

Mustaine: "No, I can't stay mad at him. He's one of my best friends. Sometimes we do things in the heat of the moment. And trust me, I have done more things that were wrong that affected him than anything that he did to affect me. And again, like I said, I was forgiven, so I needed to forgive. And I wanted to really, really do what I say I'm gonna do. I mean, if anybody needed to change their life you know I did, man. I was going down a very bad path. And people make fun of me a lot right now and it still doesn't feel good, but I don't care. I'm a much happier person when I think about who I used to be and now what I am. And just by the way that I'm trying to live my life differently right now, I've gotten my best friend back and we're back to being one of the greatest bands in the world."

Noisecreep.com: What triggered your decision to ask him to rejoin?

Mustaine: "We were at the NAMM show, and Dean [guitars] had a party and asked if I would play, and I never do those things. So I said, 'Well, I'll think about it,' and then I went home, because I wanted to surprise them by coming back later. But everybody thought I wasn't gonna play, so they all kind of f---ed off. And once I did say, 'Oh, yeah, I'm playing,' they were scrambling around going, 'Oh, my God, what are we gonna do now?' So I kind of shot myself in the foot with that one.

We couldn't find [bassist] James [LoMenzo] or [guitarist] Chris [Broderick], and we were trying to find a bass player. James finally showed up, but my guitar tech approached David Ellefson, and he said yeah, he would love to do it. So that really opened the door. And since I had still looked at Dave with respect and appreciation for what he'd done for me and Megadeth and our fans all around the world, and I still had tremendous respect for his talent, it made the decision pretty easy.

So a couple days ago I asked him to come back. Now, I know a lot of haters are gonna say, 'How could [Ellefson] do that?' But anybody that really sees how hard I'm trying to live my life differently right now - and I'm really trying hard - this is just another one of the little things that you get. It's a perk for me to have one of my best friends back."

Read more here.