MEGADETH's DAVE MUSTAINE is glad that the genre nu metal went away
24-03-2025
LifeMinute was recently invited into the home of MEGADETH leader Dave Mustaine, his wife Pamela and their daughter Electra to hear all about their visionary wine brand House Of Mustaine which uniquely blends music, culture, and fine winemaking, get a fabulous tour of their beautiful house, and, of course, get the scoop on the latest MEGADETH news. Check out the full chat below.
Asked what music does for people, Mustaine said: “It depends. If you believe all of the colloquies about music, there’s all kinds of sayings and stuff. The one that comes to mind first with your question is music soothes the savage beast. And I don’t know who coined that phrase, but it’s pretty accurate, depending on the type of music. Now, if you play modern metal with the guys that can’t sing and they do the screaming bit, that’s really understandable to me, ’cause they can’t sing and they’re making the best of what they can do.”
Mustaine continued: “There was a period in 2000 where we had these bands called — I think it was ‘nu metal’, and they didn’t do any solos. Well, why didn’t they do any solos? They couldn’t do solos. And thank God that genre went away. People started to learn how to do solos. I would say, if you’re in a ‘nu metal’ band, you probably would be challenged even playing ‘Johnny B. Goode’ (1958 rock and roll classic by Chuck Berry). So I’m glad that went away.”
Asked if there are any newer bands that he particularly likes, Mustaine said: “Well, I like some of the older music because new stuff — I mean, all the good chords are taken. And if you think back when I started 40 years ago, the music playing field didn’t have millions of kids sitting at home doing guitar riffs into their computer and then posting it online. There’s good and bad with everything, and when people do things for their own art, that’s great. But when you start seeing these manufactured records that bandmembers didn’t play on, that’s fraud. So, I like bands that really play what they do.
“One of my favorite guitar players is one of the simplest guys in the world — it’s the guy from PINK FLOYD, David Gilmour,” Mustaine explained. “He could do more with one note than some of the guys playing nowadays can do with 12. And it’s just a matter of feeling — feeling. The guitar, you’re touching it, so it’s an extension of your spirit, your soul, and how you make it sound. If it’s like (makes farting noise), that kind of stuff, well, you probably haven’t bonded with the instrument yet. Playing a violin — violin has gotta be one of the most dreadful sounds ever when you’re learning it, because the sound of it and rosin the bow and all that stuff is almost as bad as having someone practice on a wind instrument, like a sax or a clarinet.”
Back in September 2022, Mustaine told the WSOU 89.5 FM radio station that he and his MEGADETH bandmates used to make fun of many of the nu metal bands that they were “forced” to tour with during the 1990s. “I can’t tell you how much we would laugh about the bands that we were forced to take out on tour with us, especially during the nu metal period that we went through years ago,” he said at the time. “You know, all these bands that wouldn’t play solos and stuff.”
One of the bands MEGADETH toured with three decades ago was KORN, whose singer, Jonathan Davis, told ExploreMusic in a 2011 interview that opening for the Mustaine-fronted act was a challenge. “It was hard touring with MEGADETH because at that time Dave Mustaine was really mean and just had attitude,” Jonathan recalled. “It was scary being on there. I was drinking at the time and I got him drinking again, which I shouldn’t have done, but that was Dave Mustaine and I was this young, little kid, and I’m like, ‘That’s Dave Mustaine and he wants to drink. I’ll give him a drink.’ I respected him and everything, but I kind of got my feelings hurt, because he was mean at times. I don’t have any ill will towards the guy now, ’cause you know how it is — now you’re older and you’re wiser — but at the time it was really scary.”
Mustaine previously gave his take on nu metal and how MEGADETH managed to survive the late 1990s in a 2011 interview with Metal Hammer magazine. When asked how he and his bandmates felt during those years, Mustaine replied: “Well, these days no one remembers about nu metal — all that shit that was out. No guitar solos. Everyone played with their pants down round their ankles, y’know? Most people in the music business, when something like that happens, they’re dead. They don’t have the capacity to reinvent themselves and if they do reinvent themselves and it doesn’t work they don’t have the catalog to rely on to pull them through. It was a bleak period, but we came through it.”
Last year, Mustaine invited cameras over to his Italian estate, where he and his family run a vineyard nowadays. Watch the footage below.
In September 2023, MEGADETH‘s latest album, “The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!”, debuted at the top of the charts during its first week of sales, taking the No. 3 spot on the Billboard 200 as well as number ones on Top Album Sales, Top Current Albums Sales, Top Rock & Alternative Albums, Top Rock Albums and Top Hard Rock Albums. “The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!” was the highest-charting MEGADETH album of all time around the world, notching No. 1 In Finland, No. 2 in Australia, Poland, Switzerland, and Scotland, No. 3 in the U.K., and more.
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