Chaos is in the US and spoke to Megadeth mainman Dave Mustaine, who talked of the pitfalls of the music business, adding that “The record industry is finally getting what it deserves.” Does he have nice things to say? Not really…

I could see a spark in Dave’s eyes when I asked about what’s next for Megadeth.
“What ‘Endgame’ was to ‘United Abominations’ is what the next record will be to ‘Endgame’. I have some unresolved anger issues that have popped up recently regarding business stuff. It’s great to be able to channel that into music, plus I’m learning not to let what people say about me, get to me as much. It used to really bother me but as you get older you realize that half of the people that say stuff about you won’t say it to your face and the other half that do will stand there and plead for you to punch them in the face so they can sue you. If it was back in cowboy days where you could shoot someone for being a dumb-ass, there would be a wake of dead men behind me.”

Maybe ‘A Wake Of dead Men Behind Me’ could be the name of the next Megadeth album…
“Could be, Could be!” he laughs. “’A Tidal Wave Of Dumb-Shits’!'”

I address what seems to be the next pertinent issue… what’s going on between he and Road Runner?
“Frankly, I don’t know what’s going on there. I’m just going to be as righteous as I can about this whole process, because it’s a bummer. I’m going to complete my contract with them as quickly as I can, then move on. It has nothing to do with the people that work at Road Runner, there are a lot of people who work at Road Runner around the rest of the world who are decent, really wonderful people. I already told my manager to tell the owner of Road Runner that I want off the American label and I would stay with them after my contract is up if they would let me off the US label, he said no and that they would sue me if I did anything, so I said OK. They also threatened me and said that if I didn’t negotiate a longer contract with them that they would stop selling this record [‘Endgame’], so I figured alright, you’re not selling it now anyways so it doesn’t matter… you can’t threaten me. The record industry is finally getting what it deserves. I have many other things that I can do that have nothing to do with recording. They think they own me, but they don’t. That’s why I created Gigantour, and to give something back to the younger bands.”

Read the news on the Big Four rumours here

At this juncture I mention that there’s more than one way to skin a cat…
“YES! Actually there is a great phenomenon that is occurring with us at the end of the shows: for reasons that a person would have for not putting records in a store, which is beyond the scope of my little brain, we sell a couple of hundred every night. So people out there that are saying that it’s tough out there and you can’t sell records… psssh, we’re selling records, and I think if we were playing in bigger places it would be exponential.”

We all know what Mr.Ulrich’s stand is on downloading, dare I ask Mr Mustaine his? Hell yes.
“My perspective is that we’ve always given out songs for the fans to listen to on our website, we’ve given things through our fanclub, we’ve given away things through Gigantour, through the live line, all kinds of crazy stuff. We make our stuff accessible to our fans, but somehow I just don’t believe someone when they tell me they have to download my whole catalogue to decide if they’re going to buy these records. To me that’s like saying, I have to buy everything in the fucking store to make lunch. I’m not going to go after anybody for that, I think it’s a matter of the heart. I’ve been taught through my faith that if somebody steals from you because they truly need it… more power to em’. When I was listening to music when I was younger did I steal the music? No. Did I make a tape of the music? Yes I did. Did I make the tape to take money from the band? No. I had a tape-deck in my car, I didn’t have a frigging’ turntable in my car. That’s how things were back then man, you had an eight-track or a cassette. We’ve made things really available for our fans, and we’ve encouraged it, but the people in question…they know who they are. They’re the same kind of people who steal your drugs, and then help you look for them!