Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine was a special guest on the February 24th - 26th edition of the nationally syndicated Full Metal Jackie Radio Show. You can now listen to the interview via the Podbean widget below. A couple of excerpts have been transcribed.

Full Metal Jackie: In what ways will the overall experience of making Dystopia and its positive reception be a springboard or serve a starting point for another Megadeth album?

Dave Mustaine: "The creation process for Dystopia was really invigorating, because going into the studio this time, it wasn't like there was a preconceived notion of what the song should sound like or how many (songs) should be on the record or who should do what solo, where or anything like that. And before, a lot of the records were pre-thought out from beginning to end prior to us even going into the studio, so I think it was really liberating, the way that we did this record. And I believe that that's gonna continue on when we go in the studio next time because knowing now… See, the whole thing was going in to do Dystopia, I pretty much was at the point where I figured I don't care anymore about trying to write stuff for radio because it just backfires. Whenever you try and do something for somebody, it usually doesn't work, it ends up being something that's hit-or-miss. At this stage in my life, I don't want to be taking any chances. I want to have fun, I want to write music that I love listening to, and I think that's what we did with Dystopia. So I'm really looking forward to the next time in the studio."

Full Metal Jackie: Creatively and in terms of attitude, how has maturity changed the way you think about songwriting and your path as a musician?

Dave Mustaine: "Well, the things that mattered to me when I was first starting out, some of them don't matter anymore. Because, you know, the hardships and the struggles that you go through, once you have a place to live, you have something to eat, or something to… transportation, how to get you around… In the beginning, when we were homeless and living in cars and squatting in people's houses and stuff like that, that really affected the music, because we were scratching and clawing to just survive, let alone make ends meet. So I think now, with going in to write the records, you have a much bigger opportunity to choose from — topics for songs and so on and so forth. Plus, I like to read a lot, and I think that the stuff that interested me when I was younger reading, there was a lot of stuff that I liked that was fictional. And I've kind of gravitated more towards looking at real-life stuff, like biographies of people, or autobiographies and a lot of history stuff. History really fascinates me, especially when you look at world history with the different countries and everything that they've done to one another."

In live news, Megadeth's next concert is April 29th in Quezon City, Philippines; to view the complete live itinerary, click here.