Dave Mustaine Won’t Rule Out a Solo Album When Megadeth’s Done
With their final studio effort out now and their farewell tour off in the not-to-far distance, Megadeth mastermind Dave Mustaine is looking to what his life will be after four decades as a thrash metal pioneer. If you thought that meant he’d sit back at home, taking it easy and not making anymore music for a while, you might be surprised to learn you might be wrong — dude is once again thinking about trying his hand at a solo record.
During a recent interview with Teraz Rock (as transcribed by Blabbermouth), the red-headed shredder discussed the possibility of him writing a solo record. And while he wasn’t exactly committal about it, he wasn’t exactly saying no…
“I might. I don’t think so. I might. I might. Right now, things are going so great for us, we’re not even really thinking about the end. We’re thinking about the beginning of this, this campaign [in support of Megadeth’s just-released self-titled album], and heading out and, and showing this [new] music to our fans. And we’ve been looking at the tours that we’ve got on our schedule, and everything’s doing really well ticket-wise. Dates are selling out way in advance, and that’s good for us too because in many of the places that we booked, we’ve had to go to a different configuration. Some places will be set up for, say, for example, 7,000 seats and they’ve got some seats up in the top that they’ve blocked off. And a band comes in and they keep selling tickets, they’ll open up those areas. ‘Cause a lot of times they don’t open those areas up because it looks bad for bands that don’t sell out the venue. And we’ve had a lot of concerts already that has — it’s gone to a bigger-size venue.”
For those that don’t remember, the last time Mustaine considered a solo record was when he was initially injured his arm after the whole The System Has Failed cycle in 2004. At the time, the band was disbanded by Mustaine because he simply couldn’t play anymore. However, he got better the rest is history.
“So some time went by and my arm started to heal, and my godfather Alice Cooper contacted me and asked if I would do a benefit for somebody that worked for him and that also worked for me, who had just died and left his wife and a daughter with nothing. So, I hadn’t touched a guitar for 17 months — not even pick it up and set it down. I just didn’t touch it. And so I said, ‘Look, I can barely play guitar right now. And I’ll come and I’ll do something, but it’s not gonna be great.’ So I went and we played and somehow the pilot light was reignited and the fire inside of me started burning again and I wanted to play. And when I called up Marty [Friedman, former Megadeth guitarist] and Nick [Menza, former Megadeth drummer] and David [Ellefson, former Megadeth bassist] and talked to them, it was non-negotiable. We were not meant to get back together again. And I’ll leave all the nasty details out, but that’s when I went into the studio with some other people — [drummer] Vinnie Colaiuta, who is amazing, and this guy named Jimmie Sloas who played bass on the record, and he was really good too.”
So yeah, a solo effort might not be in the works right now. But who knows after Megadeth hangs it up for good? If you’d like to catch Megadeth live, you can do so at any of the dates below and get your tickets today.
Megadeth Farewell Tour Dates
2/15 Victoria, BC Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre
2/17 Abbotsford, BC Rogers Forum
2/18 Kelowna, BC Prospera Place
2/20 Calgary, AB Scotiabank Saddledome
2/21 Edmonton, AB Rogers Place
2/24 Saskatoon, SK SaskTel Centre
2/25 Winnipeg, MB Canada Life Centre
2/28 London, ON Canada Life Place
3/1 Ottawa, ON Canadian Tire Centre
3/3 Halifax, NS Scotiabank Centre
3/4 Moncton, NB Avenir Centre
3/6 Québec City, QC Videotron Centre
4/23 Lima, Peru Costa 21
4/26 Bogotá, Colombia Movistar Arena
4/27 Bogotá, Colombia Movistar Arena
4/30 Buenos Aires, Argentina Tecnópolis
5/2 São Paulo, Brazil Espaco Unimed
5/4 Santiago, Chile Movistar Arena
5/5 Santiago, Chile Movistar Arena
5/8 Monterrey, Mexico Arena Monterrey
5/10 Mexico City, Mexico Arena Ciudad de Mexico
5/11 Mexico City, Mexico Arena Ciudad de Mexico
5/13 Guadalajara, Mexico Arena Guadalajara
5/25 Valencia, Spain Roig Arena
5/27 A Coruña, Spain Coliseum
5/29 Bilbao, Spain Bizkaia Arena BEC!
6/2 Hanover, Germany Heinz von Heiden Arena
6/6 Maastricht, Netherlands South of Heaven
6/7 Gelsenkirchen, Germany Amphitheater
6/10 Hradec Králové, Czechia Rock For People – Park 360
6/11 Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg Rockhal
6/14 Ferrara, Italy Ferrara Summer Festival – Piazza Ariostea
6/15 Zurich, Switzerland Halle 622
6/16 Vienna, Austria Gasometer
6/18 Dessel, Belgium Graspop Metal Meeting
6/20 Clisson, France Hellfest
6/23 Istanbul, Türkiye Kucukciftlik Park
6/26 Helsinki, Finland Suvilahti – TUSKA
6/28 Almaty, Kazakhstan Spartak Stadium
8/8 Sturgis, SD Sturgis Buffalo Chip
8/29 Toronto, ON Scotiabank Arena
8/30 Toronto, ON Scotiabank Arena
9/3 Montréal, QC Parc Jean Drapeau
9/5 Harrison, NJ Sports Illustrated Stadium
9/6 Harrison, NJ Sports Illustrated Stadium
9/9 Boston, MA TD Garden
9/11 Bristow, VA Jiffy Lube Live
9/12 Charlotte, NC PNC Music Pavilion
9/15 Hershey, PA Hersheypark Stadium
9/19 Shakopee, MN Mystic Lake Amphitheater
9/22 Tinley Park, IL Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre
9/25 Los Angeles, CA BMO Stadium
9/26 Los Angeles, CA BMO Stadium
9/29 San Antonio, TX Alamodome
