Dave Mustaine says every Megadeth lineup change happened for a “legitimate reason”
Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine has reflected on the band’s many lineup changes over the years, saying they all happened for a “legitimate reason”.
While Mustaine has remained the driving force and sole consistent member of Megadeth through its near four-decade history, the thrash metal outfit has seen a revolving door of over 20 official members come and go – from the early days of David Ellefson on bass, Gar Samuelson on drums and Chris Poland on guitars to its current iteration featuring bassist James LoMenzo, drummer Dirk Verbeuren, and guitarist Teemu Mäntysaari.
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In a recent chat with The Big Takeover, Mustaine shares how Megadeth’s success and longevity came as a surprise to him, especially given the capriciousness of things in rock’s early days.
“In my heart, I had hoped that I could continue playing for as long as I live,” he says. “The question was, how long was I going to live? We were all in this [L.A.] scene at the time that everybody was living super fast and dangerous. People like [Mötley Crüe singer] Vince Neil getting in a car crash and the drummer for Hanoi Rocks losing his life, that whole period around then – everybody was just dangerous. We had to get away from that.”
“All I wanted to do was just play my guitar. I didn’t want to hang. I was not one of those guys that would go over to people’s houses and party all night. If I was doing anything, I would do it by myself in the house and play guitar. Not that I was alone in my house, but you know.”
Mustaine continues, “For me, I didn’t have a Plan B. And I didn’t want to have a Plan B because my Plan A was all that mattered. And I wasn’t going to take no for an answer. Growing up homeless, growing up a poor kid, that does something to you. So yeah, being a poor kid and going from house to house to house, and wearing hand-me-down clothes all the time, and living in a car for as long as I did, that changed me.”
“And that’s what I think drove me to want to be successful because I didn’t want to be that guy. I didn’t want to be stuck in a situation of being homeless and living in a car. I was not going to settle for that. So that’s why I worked as hard as I did.”
The musician adds that some of the decisions he made might not be popular among fans, but they were all done with good reason.
“Some people will say I was callous with the lineup changes and stuff like that, but with every one of the lineup changes we had, there was a really legitimate reason that we made a change,” says Mustaine.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
