MEGADE
MEGADETH
MIKE GITTER TALKS
WITH DAVE MUSTAINE
PHOTO: RICK LIKONG
Metal intellectuals? Well, to be honest, the members of Megadeth
just aren't the types to frequent my upper-division political
science class. Still, why sell these jokers short? Since their for-
mation in 1983, the four-piece ensemble led by axeman/vocalist
Dave Mustaine (ex of Metallica), bassist David Ellefson, drum-
mer Gar Samuelson and rhythm-grinder Chris Poland, has always
been a few steps ahead of the pack musically and lyrically.
Over the course of two Lp's, Killing is My Business... And
Business is Good (Combat) and Peace Sells...But Who's Buy-
ing?, Megadeth has stuck primarily to speed metal trappings but
manage to inject elements of early 70s rock, funk and reggae
into their musical barrage. Lyrically, world politics seem to be
the concern (especially on the title track of Peace Sells), as
songwriter Mustaine forsakes traditional metal themes such as
Satanism, hacking, slashing, killing and bashing, for the very
real concern of global annihilation. Megadeth also stands as one
of metal's most pragmatic and down to earth groups. Mustaine
cries out a working man's credo of supporting the system, pay-
ing taxes, going to church and making the U.S. strong,
again...Archie Bunker with a Marshall stack? Hmmm.
Gitter: Seems that Megadeth has more to say that the average
metal band.
Mustaine: That's because we have more brains than the average
metal band. I use words that have conviction to them. I look up
words to find another synonym that will elaborate on the idea
that I have. I want people to utilize their educations. Curiosity
is a waste and if you don't tap it, you're just screwing around.
Why write songs about "baby, baby" or drugs or any of that crap
when you can parlay a message to someone? One word can mean
the difference between life and death. For example in "Skull
Beneath the Skin," malevolent putrefaction...that's the kind of
thing I like to lay on the audience, so they'll look things up and
start thinking. We are an intellectual thrash band. We're not into
talking about the same three letter words like dog, cat, hit, tit....
G: Okay, so what do you think of your audience?
M: (With the rattlehead look o' death in his eye) What do you
think of our audience????
G: Not much...Singing along doesn't hint to much head work.
M: (He's gonna kill me now) Do you hear them singing?
G: Yeah, so what?
M: (Always a witty intellectual) Do you want to watch them give
you head or do you want to watch 'em sing? (Who sez Davey
ain't an intooolectoooal?)
M: We care about our audience. Don't you think it would have
taken a half-hour to push your way through a bunch of sweaty
kids after the gig tonight? I don't want to horse around with the
audience since they're wild enough as is. I don't want there to
be a big barrier between us with me going. "Are you ready to
party?!?. Screw that stuff, I want to talk about life and death
because without death there is no life. There's topics, concepts
and issues, and you can deal with all three of those. When you
start getting into egotistical, self-centered crap and start telling
people how neat-o you are, that's when you start losing it. We
have an audience that follows us so hard. They're so dedicated
and that's the most gratifying thing in the whole world.
G: That's a pretty down to earth outlook.
M: I'm from the streets, and from the time I was sixteen I've been
on my own. I don't want to say how I made my money since I
don't want to promote bad habits. I was hustling, middle-manning
deals, and to me, my whole life was to make music. That's why
I think a lot of street kids can relate to what we're doing. They're
looking for an unsung hero and there are so many facetious bands
up there with their little outfits going. "Bang your
head!"...Yeeuuch!!!
G: How do you relate that to some of your songs?
M: Well, look at "Devil's Island" from the new album. That's about
some guy who was blinded by some girl who manipulated him
into doing her dirty work. He got busted and got locked up.
Sometimes when you're in love with someone, you lose control.
My girlfriend flew out from L.A. the other day, and I was all drunk
one night and thought she was in our road manager's room and
she had dumped me. I freaked. It's the animal instinct, which
is something I want to tap in the audience. Almost like putting
the jumper cables on them.
G: Tell me about some of your political views (this should be
interesting), especially with Peace Sells.
M: I look at it this way: every single line of Peace Sells is about
you and me. They point at someone with long hair and say that
they don't believe in God. Who are they to say that I don't believe
in the almighty creator? Every time I get a ticket, I pay my fines
and my money does support the system. I get to work on
time...I'm always on stage when I have to be. If they say that
I don't pay my taxes, they should look at the blue jeans I'm wear-
ing. I'm from the earth, I don't want to get all fashioned out like
Duran Duran. That's not my style. When I announced "Peace
Sells" tonight, I asked why are we letting this prune-faced idiot
run our country when I won't let my own grandfather touch the
remote control on my T.V.? As far as I'm concerned, Reagan
should be impeached. I should be president. We'll get rid of the
illegal aliens and we'll be partying every night. We'll get rid of
all the bomb trades to Iran and put up big old walls around the
coasts and just party it down all the time.
G: Seriously?
M: I have nothing against foreigners, but I think the fact that old
red Ronnie can lose a couple of nuke bombs is pretty scary. This
is our life he's playing with and I don't dig the fact that this feeble-
minded idiot is running our country. It takes him three weeks
to admit that the bombs are missing. He knew about that and,
in fact, he probably traded them in for a new hair-do for Nancy.
That's ridiculous. We are the youth of America and this moron
is playing with our lives. I don't know if we can make a difference.
but I want our fans to know what is going on and that we certain-
ly don't like it.
I tell ya, that's what I like about Mustaine, the good old boy
he is. He may contradict himself constantly, but brutal musician-
ship is the rule when Megadeth hits the stage. As some bozo
in the PR department once said, "Live for metal, die for
Megadeth." Manly stuff, indeed.