One of the top & most successful bands of metal, MEGADETH returns to Greece 8 years after their last appearance in Athens, this time as part of Release Athens 2024, on Friday, June 14.
There are few opportunities to talk live with their creator himself, so RockOverdose seized the opportunity, Angelos Katsouras prepared the questions and Zisis Petkanas spoke with the MEGA-boss himself - DAVE MUSTAINE.
Read below our nice chat and prepare for a show full of songs from their rich discography and also many surprises!
Megadeth, Blind Guardian, Grand Magus + more tba @ Πλατεία Νερού, 14/6/24
Εισιτήρια / Προσφορές: https://bit.ly/megadeth-24
RockOverdose: First of all we would like to know your thoughts on “The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!” almost 2 years after its release. Did you expect it to be embraced so warmly by the fans?
DAVE MUSTAINE (MEGADETH): I hoped it would be, so yeah!
RockOverdose: You have always been nothing less but a winner, but after what you went through, beating the hell out of cancer, could we say the last album is the sound of your personal redemption in the end?
DAVE MUSTAINE (MEGADETH): That's a great way to put it, thank you! I didn't think of it like that but that's a great way to look at it.
RockOverdose: Last year marked the 40th anniversary of the band. Did you expect things to last that long when you started? Despite the ups and downs you could go through, would you do things the same way again if you had the chance?
DAVE MUSTAINE (MEGADETH): I did not expect things to last this long. I'm excited about it and I think we've made friends with people that listen to our music. We've adjusted our outlook towards the music business that we continue to make our music, regardless of what format they're being recorded in, or regardless of how many stupid fights have been made between artists, labels or attorneys and stuff.
Would I do anything different? Probably a few things, but, it's really a whole bunch more that I wont do over again.
RockOverdose: We have a major change after the album was released with Teemu Mäntysaari standing next to you on the stage. What was the challenge to choose him and what special did you see to him as a player and person? Also, what new elements does Teemu bring to Megadeth on stage? He could easily be your or James’ son, how quickly did he adapt to the needs of the band and how much of a fresh air did he bring with him?
DAVE MUSTAINE (MEGADETH): Well. Kiko had recomend Teemu and he is wonderfull. He brings a lot of stuff, he's a great quitar player and has an amazing talent. I hope that there are lot of people who would look at his talent and see how much he looks like me. I think he's got a lot of things that he brings to the concerts that we've been missing for a long time and added a lot of songs, old stuff that we haven't played for many years. We've added a lot of old songs that we didn't even concidered playing anymore. So that's really great. We have a lot of stuff from our new album that we're playing live, and that's fun too. Also I recently heard that in one of the festivals we're doing over in Europe, that Ice - T is going to be there too, so in my brain thought would ask if he wants to do together "Nightstalkers"together somewhere... hopefully.
RockOverdose: That would be great. 40+ years, 16 albums, over 2.500 gigs, member changes, countess hours of showing how its done, what keeps you motivated to go on all these years? What does someone have to give it to last that long and what would be your advice to anyone out there?
DAVE MUSTAINE (MEGADETH): What keeps me going? Well, meeting new people like you, who come and watch us and have fun!
You know, it's cool to sit around and talk about music history, recordings or songs, lyrics etch but that's totally different when you watch the song being played live when you're at a venue. Also another thing that lot of bands when they go into a concert they can't do their stuff live and that shows that they are a studio band. I like playing what we do at the studio live, and I think if I did something in the studio that I can't do it live I shouldn't record it.
RockOverdose: Of course! This year marks the 30th anniversary of “Youthanasia”, in my opinion one of the more loose and direct albums you made, with your best vocal performance ever and went straight platinum. Would you have any thoughts about playing it on its whole to celebrate it?
DAVE MUSTAINE (MEGADETH): I don't see any reason now, I think we've done that before with albums like 'Countdown ..." and "Rust In Peace". It's a matter of planning that out. There are so many albums that have an anniversary every year. We have 16 albums, we could do that but better thing we can do right now is to keep taking in new songs and puting them to the setlist. You know, there's about 6-7 songs we've got to play every night and the rest we can add some of our different catalogs and let the rest of the songs to be a variety. We got to do songs like "Symphony ..." or "Holy Wars" 'cause people would be upset if we don't do it. There are other songs that we play and I think we can do it one night and change it another day, e.g. "Dread and the Fugitive Mind" and then change it o "Skin o' My Teeth", sometimes we do it sometimes we don't. So, we have a whole bunch of different plans for those songs on the set.
I remember when we recorded "A tout le monde", we had a french guy who came and helped me do it. And when I asked "How was that?", he said "Very bad", and I thought "I'm gonna kill you!" but then we worked very hard till I got it and the song was formed.
RockOverdose: You return to Greece after 8 years. You know how much we love you, we’ve seen in your eyes how much you love us too. How do you explain this bond even if it took years to come and visits are not so often inbetween? What should we expect this time from Megadeth?
DAVE MUSTAINE (MEGADETH): Well, I'm glad that you recognize how much we love our fan base there. Even people that haven't seen us before it's exciting for us to come and enjoy ourselves in Greece. The history, the food and people of Greece are amazing, your kindness and celebration. It almost always feels like a festival there, even when its a small concert. I know that we're doing just one show but it means a lot to me to come and play there. When we're looking Europe we always try and come to Greece and the deeper side of Europe, it's so sad we can't visit more frequently year. I would love to visit every two years really! But unfortunatelly it's a bit hard for us to travel so far often.
RockOverdose: You can close the interview with what you consider is important. It has been a tremendous honor and I’m grateful for the time you gave us. Take care and stay safe.
DAVE MUSTAINE (MEGADETH): It's been great talking with you and we're looking forward to see all of our greek fans! It's going to be fun! I can't wait. Thank you!
On behalf of RockOverdose.gr
Zisis Petkanas
Questions: Aggelos Katsouras
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