Dave Mustaine on ‘Bitter’ Ex-Bandmates: “A Dog with No Teeth Barks the Loudest”
Since the band’s inception in the early 80s, Megadeth has had something of a revolving door at every position except Dave Mustaine‘s place as the band’s frontman. Personal clashes, business issues, or controversies have torpedoed some great players’ chances of remaining a member of the band. As such, some guys have been more vocal than others about how they view Megadeth and Mustaine.
Yet in a recent interview with Riff X‘s Metal XS (as transcribed by Blabbermouth), Mustaine spoke about his former bandmates and how their venom over the years hasn’t affected him or Megadeth as a whole over the years.
“I think you’ve gotta look at the whole story. People that get fired are very rarely happy that they got fired. Sometimes they’re happy they got fired because they didn’t want to have to quit but they don’t wanna work there anymore and they needed a reason to quit.
“We’ve had a lot of people that have been playing with us over the years and we’ve maintained our friendships, and there are a couple that are very bitter, and usually the story has been played out in the press from when it happens in reality and then how long a person will keep bringing up those old stories. Usually, they bring up stuff about me or about Megadeth whenever they’ve got a new project or they’ve got some concerts coming up or a new record, they’ll try and pick a fight with me. And I just figure, a dog with no teeth barks the loudest. So, I don’t really let people that complain about us or talk shit about our performance abilities or the songs that we write matter.”
While he’s not directly pointing to any acts or former members, it’s easy to name a few if you’ve been paying attention: David Ellefson and Jeff Young. Both of those dudes are working together on Kings of Thrash and while they’ve toured on the back of doing Megadeth covers for a while now, they’ve regularly been in the press panning the band and Mustaine himself.
Still, Mustaine says he’s able to maintain at least a cordial relationship with some of his former bandmates. So much so that they can talk about the less than happy times while in the band.
“The guys that we’ve been able to maintain friendships with, and there’s a lot of them, we’ve been able to discuss why things happened the way that they did. I miss Gar [Samuelson], I miss Nick [Menza]. Chris Poland and I, we settled things and there’s no problems there. The second lineup with Jeff [Young] and Chuck [Behler], Chuck and I are really close, and I’ve always said I thought that Jeff Young was a good performer. The ultimate lineup that everybody likes is the ‘Rust In Peace’ lineup with Nick and Marty [Friedman]. And you see how Marty and I [are]; we just played together. So, you have to look at the guys that are talking badly about me and say, ‘Okay, there’s more to this story.’ ‘Cause if you go up to Jimmy DeGrasso or to Al Pitrelli or any of those guys, I’m sure they’d say the same thing, that we had a good run together. I got a get-well message from Shawn Drover when I had made the announcement that I had cancer. I only know of maybe one or two people from our past that have any problems with our band. And usually they won’t say anything about the other guys; they’ll say it about me. And believe it or not, there are more people in the press that have a problem with me than any bands out there.”
Mustaine also opines that a lot of the hate he and his band get might be because of … you guessed it … his affiliation with Metallica.
“We just did a show recently, and I just got done saying that I had bronchitis. And we got a review, and the guy did a pretty fair review; I think that he gave us three and a half stars, and I think I probably should have got less for how my voice sounded because I was sick. Now, that wasn’t fair to the band, ’cause the band, they played great. And I think that was kind of one of the sheep that follows the other band, that just don’t like me because of who I played with before Megadeth, you know? And that’s sad sometimes because I don’t think it’s fair for the band guys to have to experience other people’s bitterness because they follow the other band. ‘Cause there’s a lot of people that don’t like Megadeth or don’t like me, and they don’t even know me. And that’s kind of funny to me, but it’s also sad ’cause I would hate to miss out on really great music.”
