Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine is not your typical metalhead

<p>TORONTO – The stereotypical metalhead has long hair, wears mostly jeans and black T-shirts – usually adorned with a skull, ghoul or satanic imagery – and lives to thrash around violently when the tunes are cranked.</p> <p>Of course, it’s just a generalization, and many heavy metal fans are total softies, even if they do love giving and getting bruises in a wild mosh pit.</p> <p>Dave Mustaine is one of those guys.</p> <p>Yes, he named his band Megadeth and chose a ghoulish skeleton named Vic Rattlehead as its mascot. But he’s also a born-again Christian, a proud, doting father who gushes about his kids, and he passionately speaks out against the escalating violence in hockey.</p> <p>And these days, he’s more interested in writing about his feelings on politics, not the really dark subject matter that’s typical of metal lyrics.</p> <p>”When you start to talk about things that are really intense in nature or even fantasy-related you really narrow your audience down,” an articulate Mustaine said in a recent interview, explaining his recent approach to songwriting.</p> <p>”I’ve tried to sing about something that everybody experiences – and that’s feelings.”</p> <p>And today, Mustaine is increasingly playing the part of a businessman – although he’s clearly not a suit and tie guy – paying a lot more attention to the money behind his mega-selling band, and even managing some other acts on the side, include Baptized in Blood from London, Ont.</p> <p>It’s a far cry from the reckless Mustaine who nearly derailed his career with alcohol and drugs. As documented in his candid book, “Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir,” Mustaine was a founding member of Metallica but was kicked out before the bestselling act took off.</p> <p>It took a little longer for Mustaine’s band to soar to the top of the metal world, although they’re now mentioned in the same breath as Metallica. In fact, the two bands make up half of metal’s so-called “Big Four,” along with Slayer and Anthrax, which are playing some gigs together this summer.</p> <p>Megadeth has picked up numerous Grammy Award nominations and has sold more than 125 million records worldwide. Still, Mustaine thought the band could’ve been bigger, although he’s quick to insist that he’s more than content with where his life has taken him.</p> <p>His autobiography, released last summer, details how drinking, heroin and cocaine use nearly cost him everything, including his marriage. In 2002, after suffering a serious arm injury that crippled his ability to play guitar, he declared that Megadeth was no more. It was around that time that he also found religion, which he credits with turning his life around, and a couple years later, Megadeth was back together.</p> <p>”We’re not as big as I’d hoped to be right now, but there were some decisions I’d made while I was growing up, not only in my own personal life but as a band leader and as a businessman, there were some decisions I made that would’ve probably been better if I decided to make the opposite choice of what I did,” he said.</p> <p>”But I’m absolutely 100 per cent content with who and what I am right now. I don’t want to come off like a sour grape, dude. I’m not discontent with anything right now, I’m so happy I can’t even imagine what life was like before this.</p> <p>”I don’t wish I was in a bigger band right now, I’m totally happy with who I am.”</p> <p>Mustaine is hoping to pick up some new fans this summer as Megadeth tours with a metal festival that stops in Toronto and Montreal next month (although Megadeth is not playing at the Montreal event).</p> <p>In the U.S., Megadeth will be sharing a stage with more mainstream acts such as Godsmack and Disturbed, which have had more commercial radio success. Mustaine doesn’t expect to get on the radio any time soon but hopes fans of mainstream hard rock will dig his stuff.</p> <p>”The average (person) doesn’t want to hear about killing or savagery or brutality or most of the things people in metal bands sing about – AC/DC gets played on the radio because they’re a rock ‘n’ roll band,” Mustaine said.</p> <p>”So the potential to play to a new audience is just really interesting for me, to be able to get exposure in different genres.</p> <p>”The intent of both Disturbed and Godsmack is to be popular and heavy at the same time, and those are two things we are.”</p> <p>Megadeth is nearing the end of its contract with Roadrunner Records and Mustaine is excited about charting the future for the band. But he isn’t planning on anything experimental and won’t be self-releasing albums like Radiohead has done.</p> <p>”I think the record business is just like anything else, it’s going to regulate itself, it’s going to correct itself, the problem is that all the pigs were in there with their hands on the steering wheel and they got what they deserved,” said Mustaine, who has no interest in going strictly digital with future releases, given piracy concerns.</p> <p>”Musicians that say they don’t care, that they’d give it away for free are stupid, they’ve never been hungry,” Mustaine said.</p> <p>”If you’re just going out there and being reckless and careless and just letting your songs be downloaded for free and not caring it’s probably going to be reflected in your longevity.”</p> <p>Mustaine, who’s in the process of wrapping up the recording of the band’s new album, expected in the fall, said he popped out of the studio every chance he could during the Stanley Cup finals to watch bits and pieces of the games.</p> <p>An avid hockey fan, Mustaine said he’s disappointed with the direction the game is going in.</p> <p>”My son’s playing hockey and I’m worried for him,” he said.</p> <p>”I know the game is very physical and I love the physical part of it, but I also love the finesse part that a lot of the European players have brought to the game. Every once in a while there’s something that happens that you just ask yourself, ‘Why did he do that?'</p> <p>”Now the game is so fast and players hit so hard and it seems that has taken over the game, the physical part of it, instead of the sportsmanship part of it.”</p> <p>—</p> <p>Heavy T.O. festival – http://www.heavyto.com/</p&gt; <p>Heavy Montreal festival – http://www.heavymtl.com/</p&gt;