Dave Mustaine Says These Are the Essential Factors for Any Successful Thrash Band

If anyone knows about creating a successful thrash band, it’s Dave Mustaine. As you are probably well aware since he never stops talking about it, Mustaine is one of the founding members of Metallica, though he got the boot before the recording for debut album Kill ‘Em All, which just turned 40 last week. Following his ousting from that band—who he literally created thrash metal with—Mustaine started Megadeth, who have spent their career making thrash metal staples.

In an interview with BBC Radio 4, Mustaine spoke about making a good thrash record and advice from legendary producer Quincy Jones.

“For me, what I’d like to leave for future generations is to know that melody is so critical to songs. Quincy Jones is a very famous producer here in America. We were making the ‘Rust In Peace’ record at the time and had gone to this party, and Quincy was there. And he had said to our engineer/producer that the key to successful songs was beat, melody and 10 simple words.”

Adding to that, Mustaine said:

“So I guess the most important thing I would like to leave to future generations is to echo what Quincy had said, but to make it my own, I would say in order to be successful in thrash, you need to have a heavy beat, melody and I’d say probably 20 simple words because we sing so much faster.”

If you’re going to take advice about thrash metal from someone, Dave Mustaine is far from your worst bet. Other than helping to launch the career of Metallica, we’re also talking about the guy who wrote and recorded Rust in Peace, which is the greatest guitar album ever put to tape. Just do yourself a favor and don’t ask him how he feels about George W. Bush when you ask for guitar advice.