MEGADETH frontman Dave Mustaine recently spoke with Keith Carman at Exclaim.ca. An excerpt from the story is available below:

Earlier this month, heavy metal luminary/Megadeth founder Dave Mustaine released Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir, a new book that touches on the obvious (formative years as a virtual street kid and the over-discussed Metallica debacle), the private (personal relationships/religious beliefs) and a lot in between. It recounts thoughts, experiences and memories on a truly adventurous life, something Mustaine admits was quite purifying.

"It was really cathartic," he tells Exclaim! of the autobiography in a recent interview. "When you're putting your life down into a book, you wonder what you're gonna leave behind you. I want to leave a legacy of achievement but one that says you can overcome anything. I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I had to work my ass off to get what I have and I love what I have. I'm very grateful for it and I don't take it lightly."

More importantly however, thanks to living up to the ages-old adage of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll, Mustaine has a lot of stories, some that could land people in pretty hot water. He notes that the experience of personal documentation taught him a thing or two about some other judicious aspects that couldn't be glazed over.

"There were a lot of other things legally we had to look at because there were a lot of people in my life that, if I tell the story, they're going to jail," Mustaine says. "It's not about getting pissed off. They're going to jail. Nowadays when you tell a story... say there was a dude I had an encounter with [but] we don't know each other anymore. I [relate] the story and all of a sudden someone goes sniffing into that person's life. It's an invasion of privacy so there's that and there's the fact that there are ambulance chasers everywhere. We had to word it in a way that the information got out but still told the same story. Legally, the same thing being said one way is totally malicious another way. That's something I had to learn.

Click here.

As previously reported Mustaine’s autobiography recently landed at position #2 on Canada's The Globe and Mail Hardcover Nonfiction bestsellers list. The book, co-written by award-winning journalist and New York Times bestselling author Joe Layden, was released in the US on August 3 via HarperCollins' It Books imprint. The UK edition, Mustaine: A Life In Metal, will hit book stores in the UK on September 30. Dave Mustaine has scheduled 21-book-signing sessions across the US to promote the book.

For more information and to order the book online, click here.