MEGADETH Frontman Dave Mustaine - "There Is A Whole Generation Of Nu-Metal Guitarists Who Don't Play Solos Because They Don't Know How To"
August 8, 2010, 13 years ago
Toronto Sun correspondent Mark Daniell recently caught up with MEGADETH frontman Dave Mustaine to discuss his new autobiography, Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir. An excerpt from the article is available below:
Throughout the 346-page book, he candidly takes readers inside his troubled childhood, repeated visits to rehab and an almost career-ending ailment before becoming a born-again Christian in 2002.
"There's some stuff in there I wish wasn't, but it's really necessary to paint the picture so people can see that I'm a survivor."He's watched musicians come and go – in its various incarnations Megadeth has had close to two dozen members in almost 25 years – and his marriage almost went up in smoke.
It's when a compressed nerve in his left arm almost ruined his ability to play the guitar in the early 2000s that he turned his life around.
Mustaine credits religion and his newly sober lifestyle with helping Megadeth stay relevant to a new generation of metal fans. But he sometimes thinks '80s rockers might have an unfair advantage.
"When it comes down to doing solos, new guys don't do them because they aren't any good. There is a whole generation of nu-metal guitarists who don't play solos because they don't know how to."There's nothing new that's made me go 'Wow,' like the first AC/DC record I ever heard. I know that people felt that way when they first heard METALLICA and Megadeth. We changed the world. People listened to us and said, 'Who's this band? Who's that on guitar?'"
Along with SLAYER and ANTHRAX, Metallica and Megadeth performed at the Big Four metal concerts in Europe last month and Mustaine has high hopes the tour will come to North America.
Proof, he says, that there's no more bad blood.
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