The Rise Of Megadeth: 1983 - 2002 [Episode 310] - Booked On Rock with Eric Senich

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Coming up on this episode of Booked on Rock, it's
the story of Mega Death with author Greg Prato. We're
totally rock and roll.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
I mean gotta leave you. You're reading Little Hans says,
it's time to roll.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Up. We are totally booked. Welcome back to Booked on Rock,
the podcast for those about to read and rock. Emeric Senich.
Author Greg Prato back with a brand new book, this
one titled the World's State of the Art speed metal
Band The Mega Death Story nineteen eighty three to two
thousand and two. Greg, welcome back.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
All right, Hello, Now, I know I've asked this before,
but I have to have set the record for most
I mean the guests with most appearances right on Booked
on Rock.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
I think I gotta do an official count. But you
have to be you.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Is there like some kind of prize or something I'm
gonna receive you.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
There's a prize. You get a jacket. You get the
velvet jacket which you can't wear because it's too hot
where you are and it's too hot where I am.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
You're in the only time. This something that I know
we talked about last time, but I could really use
a pair of Davidly Groth's buttless leather chaps.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
Oh yeah with that, Yes, that would work very well,
that would actually, isn't Dave come around your way as solo?
He is?

Speaker 2 (01:09):
He is a little bit like sold out that show
sold out very very fast.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
Good good for him many and Dave still doing his thing,
still give his thing. So let's talk about Megadeth for
this book, a lot of interviews, some that you some
interviews from before, but there's some exclusive interviews just for
this book.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
Yes, exactly, exactly, yeah, yeah, what it is is I've
interviewed a lot of the members of Megadeth over the years,
for all the sites I write for and also for
some of the books I've done. I've indeed Dave Mustaine
several times. David Ellison I've spoken to the most. I
must have interviewed him like at least ten times over
the years. I've also interviewed Chris Poland, Marty Friedman, Mike

(01:50):
Klink who produced Rust in Peace, and of course also
Guns n' Roses Appetite for Destruction. But yeah, then I
did a bunch of brand new interviews for this as well.
I interviewed KK Downing of Judas Priest. I indeed Richard
Christi from The Howard Stern Show, who's also a great
drummer and he's a longtime fan of also Megadeth. I
also interviewed Ricky Rackman, the former host of the MTV

(02:11):
show called a Headbanger's Ball. Don Jamison. I also interviewed
generally in Paris Mayhew who was the guitarist for the
band the Cromags, and the Cromags played some shows on
a great bill. It was Motorhead, Megadeath, Cromags, and that
was when Motorhead, excuse me, that was when Megadeth was
touring in supportive p Cells, which is my favorite album
of there, So that would have been a fantastic bill

(02:33):
to a catch. But yeah, but those are There's probably
one or two people that I'm overlooking right now. But yeah,
I kind of merged kind of like archival interviews with
some of the interviews I've done over the years, with
also some brand new interviews and also some pretty cool
pictures I was able to get as well.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Yeah, a lot of great photos. Dave Mustain, of course,
is the guy when we talk about Megadeath. Chapter one
gets into his story. He had a pretty tough childhood,
but his dad was an alcoholic, could be rough on
him and his mom, and his life had a sad ending.
He went from being the West Coast branch manager of
Bank of America to working on cash registers because of

(03:10):
his alcoholism, and then he died at fifty six of
a brainanjurism, And sadly, Dave didn't learn from his father's
demise right at least not right away.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Yeah, which is sad. I mean you would think that
if you see what happened to your father, and just
how his father treated him so badly at certain points
as well due to I'm sure it was due to
his alcoholism and also the father that also his ex
to me, the way that his father was also treated
when his father was young too. He talks about that
he was also abused by his father as well. So yeah,

(03:40):
we just kind of passed down from generation. I mean,
not not the abuse, but just the I guess alcoholism,
because yeah, in the eighties, Dave himself got strung out
on heroin and he also had a drinking problem as well.
It actually wasn't just heroin he talks about in the book.
There's a quote where he makes like a long list
of all these drugs he was on when he I
guess when he finally was gonna get serious about getting clean.

(04:04):
When he checked into the rehab facility, they had him
make a list of all the drugs he was on.
It was like a laundry list. It was like, it's
insane that he was able to. I mean that he's
like still living pretty much from all the drugs he's done.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
And that did affect his status with Metallica, as we know.
That's the story that most people know about a lot
of drinking when he was in the band, and he
had a volatile temper. He got into fights defending his
bandmates but also with bandmates, right he punched James Hatfield.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
He did. Yeah, there's a famous story that Dave Mustaine
had a dog and because he was supposedly dealing drugs
at the time, and his dog would kind of he
was using for protection as like a watchdog. So the
dog I think was going on Ron McGovney's car and
maybe scratching it or something like that. And Ron McGovney's

(04:55):
metallic was original bassist and Ron and James I didn't
particularly care for that, and I think the story goes
that James may have kicked the dog and that really
pissed off Dave, so he wound up yet punching James
Headfield in the mouth, and I think they got into
a big fight. But that was not when Dave Mustaine
was thrown out. He actually stayed in the band for

(05:16):
a while longer after that, because that was before even
Cliff Burton was in the band, so that may have
been like maybe six months before he was kicked out.
But yeah, you know one thing that people don't really
talk about, and I talked a little bit about this
in the book, is you know, I'm a fan of
Metallica like everyone else's, but people tend to let them
off the hook the way that they mistreated Dave Mustaine.
If you think about it, they made him drive through

(05:38):
excuse me driving it. It was a U haul attached
to like it was a James Headfield's truck attached to
a U haul or something like that. Everyone the whole
band drove from West coast to East coast under horrible conditions.
They almost died in like when they hit some kind
of icy road or something like that. So and then

(05:59):
Dave Mustaane talks about that you had that some people
part of their group had to stay inside the U
haul and it was pitch black and not even heated.
So that's like a horrible existence. So they make Dave
Mustaane and everyone drive from the West coast to the
East coast, and then shortly after they get there they
fire him and send him back in a on a bus. Meanwhile,

(06:20):
they're flying Kirk Hammet through the air, through a you know,
to to New York. You would think maybe they shouldn't
have made Dave Mustaine come all the way out to
the East Coast just to fire him. And if you're
gonna fire him, maybe try to scrape up enough money
to at least fly him back. And I'd have to,
you know, because if you think about that must be
totally torturous to be in a bus for that long
thinking about how you fucked up and everything like that.

(06:43):
And you know, Dave Mustaine's famous quoat, which I talk
about in the book, is when they told him he
was fired, his first question was what no second chance?
Which I think is a pretty valid question on his part.

Speaker 1 (06:54):
The way they fired him was described by Lars as
almost being like execution style. Talk about the day they
fired how they went about that.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
Well, what it is behind Dave Mustaine's back. They already
had the They already had lined up that kirk Hamet
knew he was either trying at or maybe he already
had the gig, Like they were already scheming how he
was going to come out and everything like that, because
at the time, kirk Hammett was in the band Exodus,
which was obviously a very popular and also legendary thresh

(07:22):
mental band from also the Bay Area in San Francisco.
And yeah, so they had when so Dave Mustaine wakes
up one morning there the whole band is around him.
They're like, look, you're fired, pack up all your shit.
Your bus leaves in like an hour or something like that.
And then Dave Mustains his first question was what no
second chance, and they're like, no, you're out. So then

(07:44):
they just drove him to the bus terminal. And while
this is going on, I would imagine kirk Hammett's in
the air at that point, flying to New York. He lands,
they get to their rehearsal space in Queens, New York,
and he tries out and he gets the gig right away.
So that all happened within twenty four hours. If you
believe that.

Speaker 1 (08:02):
There may be two sides to mustaines firing, but there's
no denying what his contributions were to Metallica.

Speaker 2 (08:09):
No, you're right, Yeah, you know.

Speaker 1 (08:10):
The thing is he's on the first album.

Speaker 2 (08:13):
He didn't play on the first album, but a bunch
of his songs he has co writes on the first album,
the second album, and he's claimed that he co wrote
at least one song on Master of Puppets, but he
did not receive proper credits for that. But he's never
took the best of my knowledge, he's never taken the
court over that. So that kind of leads me to
believe that it's either not true or there's no way

(08:34):
to prove if it was true or not. But yeah,
his thing when he got fired, his only request was
that he didn't want them to use any of his
music because I guess his thought was that he was
going to use it for whatever his next project was
going to be. But like I talk about in the book,
I mean, that's obviously a blessing in disguise that they
used his material because he obviously got paid over the
years for the sale, for the publishing or whatever from

(08:55):
Kill Them All. And also Ride the lighting that have
sold millions and millions of copies, so all of them.
I think it probably worked out probably for the best
for him.

Speaker 1 (09:02):
Yeah, I thought for some reason he might have been
on a track or two from that first one.

Speaker 2 (09:05):
No, no, no, no, yeah. See that's one of the big
you know what ifs are big like tragedies in rock?
Is that? For me? Personally? My favorite Metallica lineup was
the Headfield, Mustaine Burton Ulric lineup that to me was
like the American Black Sabbath right there, you know, that's
how you know, just totally amazing that lineup was, I think.

(09:28):
But yeah, no, they fired him like right before they
were going to go into the studio to record Kill
them All. In fact, they instructed Kirk Hammett to pretty
much just copy a lot of Dave Mustaine solos. If
you go back and listen to some of the early
Metallica demos, he's pretty much just copying what Dave Mustaine
is doing solo wise at that point.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
So Mega Death, David mits this was a way to
get revenge on his Metallica bandmates. Former Metallica bandmates. How
does Megadeth form? It's a short lived early lineup.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
Yeah, well, there's a famous story. So he comes home.
He's living in an apartment and one day he's hungover
and he's woken up by a gentleman upstairs, or let
me think the gentleman would have been directly below Dave Mustaine.
He hears him playing the he's a bassist, obviously, and

(10:20):
he's playing the opening rift to Van Helen's Running with
the Devil, but very very loud, and Dave Mustaine said,
that's the worst bass or if you could possibly hear
if you're hungover in the morning. So he hears that
at deafening volume, and he's probably yelling shut up, shut up.
He's not. The guy below him is oblivious. So Dave
Mustain grabs a potted plant and throws it down the

(10:40):
down the one level below, and it crashes on the
I guess the AC unit, the little like in a
metal fixture, and it crashes. So he finally gets so whoever's
playing it finally gets the idea right stop. Then shortly thereafter,
maybe like a few days later, he gets a knock
at the door and he opens it up, and he
didn't know at that point that it was the guy
playing the bass. And also another gent and they asked

(11:01):
Dave Mustaine, do you know where I can buy some cigarettes?
And Dave Mustaine says cigarettes, Just go down to the next,
like the closest fucking deli with bullshit. He just and
he just closes the door. Here's then here's a second
knock opens it up. It's the same guys like, can
you tell me where I could buy some beer? And
Dave Mustaine goes, now you're talking so then yeah, so

(11:24):
one of those gentlemen. The guy was playing the bass
below was no other than David Elifson, who we all
know went on to become a big part of the
whole Megadeth store. He was longtime bassist Cordial out of
the material, came out with some great iconic bass lines
and yes, that's pretty much. So they connect. They go
through a bunch of members over the next year or so,

(11:47):
including short Lit. It was a short lived lineup featuring
Kerry King of the band Slayer. He was briefly in
Megadeth early on. And they finally get the definitive lineup,
my favorite Megdeth lineup, which is Dave Mustaine on vocals
and get David Ellison on bass, Chris Poland on guitar
and Gar Samuelson on drums. Now Chris Poland and also

(12:08):
Gar Samuelson. Their background is jazz fusion, it's not metal,
and they add a whole interesting element to what makes
Megadeth totally unique. If you listen to p Cells or
even the first album, which is called Killing Is My Business,
compared to any of the other big four of thrash,
they have a totally different vibe. It's like a very like,

(12:28):
you know, speedy, fusiony type thing, which I absolutely love.
And to me, that's again it's one of those what
if tragedy type things. Because Dave Mustain was able to
catch lightning in a bottle twice, he got a lineup
together that was as good in my mind as Metallica.
But then they only lasted for just two albums because
after Pceells, Chris Poland and Gar Samuelson are excused due

(12:50):
to drug addiction and also some other stuff going on
behind the scenes.

Speaker 1 (12:54):
Booked on rock podcasts We'll be back after this and
the band named Megadeth that can be traced back to
that bus ride that Dave was on from these coasts
back to the West coast right after he's fired by Metallica.

Speaker 2 (13:12):
Yes, he comes across a pamphlet. I think it was
a governor. I believe his name was Alan Cranston or something.
Cranston definitely not Brian Cranston, the gentleman from Breaking Bad,
but uh yeah, And there was a pamphlet and I
believe the phrase said the arsenal of Megadeth can't be rid.
They say that was the quote, and Megadeth spelt, of

(13:34):
course at the time, was MG M E g A
d E A t H, but Dave Mustaine shortens it
to d E t H. That was their trademark with
with their band name. And yes, so ultimately they wound
up going with that because he Dave Mustain's quote is
like I was running in a band called Metallica, Like,
how am I gonna? It's impossible to get heavier than Metallica.

(13:56):
You know, you already have Iron Maiden Metallica, Like, you know,
what other kind of metal are you going to use?
And then you realized Megadeth is pretty bloody extreme if
you think about it.

Speaker 1 (14:06):
Oh that's a perfect name. That debut album came out
June twelfth, nineteen eighty five. Killing is My Business and
Business is Good. What kind of response did it get
from fans and critics at that point.

Speaker 2 (14:18):
Yeah, it was pretty popular in the metal underground at
the time. There was a lot of tape trading going on,
especially with thrash bands. Nineteen eighty five is just when
a lot of those bands started signing with major labels.
You had Anthrax signing with Island, Metallica signing to Electra.
That wasn't actually nineteen eighty four, but in Yeah, so
in nineteen eighty four they're signed to Electra. Slayer was

(14:39):
in the process of signing to I forget who they
were signed to, but they wound up getting dropped before
even their first album came out, and then they had
to sign They quickly signed to def Jam through a
Rick Rubin and Yeah, ultimately, because of the popularity of
Killing is My Business, which came out on the Combat label,
which was a metal indie label, through the popularity of that,

(15:01):
they got to deal with Capitol Records. So that's in
early eighty six, and that's later in eighty six is
when Peace Cells comes out.

Speaker 1 (15:09):
You see their ascent as the years go on. The
first album reached one sixty nine on Billboard, then we
see nineteen eighty six is peace cells, but who's buying?
Reached seventy six nineteen eighty eight. So far, so good.
So what reached twenty eight nineteen nineties? Rust in Peace
twenty three and their highest charting album is nineteen ninety

(15:30):
two's Countdown to Extinction?

Speaker 2 (15:32):
Do you know what album kept count Down to Extinction
out of the number one slot?

Speaker 1 (15:37):
This would have been nineteen ninety two?

Speaker 2 (15:38):
Was it? Four?

Speaker 1 (15:39):
Unlawful Carnal Knowledge?

Speaker 2 (15:40):
Close?

Speaker 1 (15:41):
Close?

Speaker 2 (15:41):
Colus the gentleman's name, Okay, I got it, Billy Ray Cyrus,
some gave all? Oh some game They're all or something
like that. Yeah, with that horrible achy breaky heart song,
Oh my god, I mean out of everything, you know,
it would be one thing if it was like led
Zeppelin four or like the first Van Helen album keeping
out of the number one spot. But that piece of

(16:03):
shit album keeps Mega Death's Mega Death's Contents Extinction out
of the top spot, So that I mean that just
I definitely feel for Dave Mustain with that one.

Speaker 1 (16:13):
Yeah, so it went all away to number two. Yeah,
But Dave and Megadeath they couldn't shake the media always
bringing up the whole Megadeath versus Metallica story they ran
with that. How did Dave handle that? In the comments
Metallica were making about him.

Speaker 2 (16:28):
Going through a lot of the old articles and quotes
like that, it's like almost every month or every year,
it was totally different. You had some errors where they're
getting along than other erarors where they hate each other,
some errors where Dave must Stan can't stand Kirk Hamet
and thinks he's a horrible guitarist. Other eras where he's
praising Kirk Hammett's playing. So you could just flip through

(16:53):
my book and whatever chapter you land on, it's probably
gonna be totally different at that point. It's a guess
as to who's on good terms at that point or not.
On both sides, they were kind of slinging mud back
and forth. It seemed like it was pretty much a
lot to do with the media though, from people that
I interviewed, and also from some of the past interviews,

(17:13):
even from like photos you'd see Lars Zelrich backstage at
Megadeth shows and things like that. In fact, David Elifson,
why he's somewhere on to you, I should have mentioned him.
He was one of the top interviews I did for
the book The Longtime Basis of Megadeth. He tells a
great story that shortly after Cliff Burton died, which would
have been this would have taken place in October eighty six,

(17:36):
because Cliff Burton died in late September eighty six, Megadeth
was playing a venue in the San Francisco area and
Metallica were now suddenly off the road because their tour
got postponed because it would happen, and Lars Zulrich comes
to the show. I think the bill was Exodus and
also Megadeth, and they're backstage and David Ellison's like, oh man,

(17:56):
like I'm sorry to hear what happened, Like you know
what's going on? And I think Lars Arrix, you know,
mentioned that you know, they're going to start trying people out,
and he turns to David Ellison and he's like, fuck, man,
do you want a gig? Meaning you know they were
going to possibly try him out, but that never took
place at that point, but David Ellison did mention it
to Dave Mustaine and that didn't sit very well Dave Mustayne,

(18:17):
you know, he's like, you know what the hell, are
you trying to steal my you know bassist? So so
that happened in eighty six. Then we talk about in
two thousand and one, when Jason Neustad left Metallica, they
reached out to Dave Mustaine and said, look, we're going
through we're trying out basis, can we can we reach
out to David Ellison At that point Dave Mustaine said yes,

(18:37):
but that tryout never took place either, So it was
two semi close calls for David Ellison and Metallica.

Speaker 1 (18:44):
Has there ever been an occasion where Mustaane was on
stage with Metallica?

Speaker 2 (18:50):
Yes, when they did the Big Four shows a few
years back, they had a jam at the end where
they played am I Evil? The diamond Head Classic and
he came out and yeah, they all jammed on that.
There's also I mean, like I said, there are photos
of them, like of Lars Ulrik backstage, like I know
when Megadeth played the Castle Donnington Monsters of Rock in

(19:14):
nineteen eighty eight, there's photos of David of excuse me,
Lars Alric backstage with Megadeth, and also members of Guns
and Roses because Guns and Roses was on that bill
and I could swear seeing photos at the time, maybe
in like metal Hammer or Kerrang of Lars Ulric on
stage during Megadeth set, maybe singing backup vocals or something

(19:39):
like that. It's kind of like a pase Hazy memory.
But to the best of my knowledge, I don't think
Dave Mustain ever jumped on stage with Metallica and jammed
or anything until those Big Four shows. That treatment at
probably ten years ago at this point.

Speaker 1 (19:52):
But nowadays it seems like they're pretty cool with each other.

Speaker 2 (19:54):
Now, you know, it's funny it was much older. Yeah, well,
you know, it's back all that it went down I
talk about in the book. I endued Dave Mustaine a
while back. I asked him how things are currently between
you and also the guy's Metallica, and he said he
pretty much said they were on speaking terms, because you
know how a few years back, Metallica reissued all their

(20:16):
albums as these huge mammoth deluxe box sets. Do you
remember that? Yep, they were going to issue one of
Dave Mustaine's demos that he did with Metallica, or maybe
all the demos he did with Metallica as a very
big box set. But the only thing is Dave Mustaine wanted.
His big beef with Metallica was he never got proper

(20:36):
credit or he was kind of cut out a little
bit for songs that he wrote, Like for instance, he claims,
I think it was him and James Hetfield wrote all
of the song Metal Militia, but when Kill Them All
came out, suddenly Kirk Hammett's name was on it. So
he's like, you know, what the fuck like hat Walk,
how is he getting part of my money that I'm

(20:56):
entitled to I wrote the song? Like what the hell?
So he then when they were talking about that putting
out that big deluxe box set, Dave Mustaine to was,
I think talking to James Headfield, He's like, yeah, look,
you know it would be great to do. It's a
great idea, but this is an opportunity now to finally
get everything you know corrected with who you know, the
songwriting and everything. And he was pretty much just told

(21:18):
now the deal is going to keep it the way
it is, just you know, and then Dave Mustaine was like,
you know, it can go fuck yourself. So that led
to them, Yes, that led to that, So that never
came out, that deluxe box set and that also at
that point where I spoke to Dave mus Staine, I
believe it was for the Consequence of Sound Sight I
was interviewing before he said that he was not on

(21:39):
speaking terms and with them. Then I spoke to him,
not even like a year later, I think, for the
same site, and he said, yeah, you know, everything's fine.
Now we're all you know, we're all on talking terms.
Everything's fine. So who knows, I mean right now, who
knows what if they're on good terms or bad terms.
It seems like whatever which way the wind blows, you know.

Speaker 1 (21:59):
Pretty much seems yeah, the same as same as it
was before. It depends on you know, the time, the
time you ask Dave what he thinks.

Speaker 2 (22:08):
Yeah, similar, I guess you could say to David Lee
Roth and also Van Halen. Right like in the late seventies,
early eighties, they were one for all, all for one,
and then they hate each other. Then they're trying to
get together. They can't get together. You know, who knows?

Speaker 1 (22:19):
And remember when they removed Michael Anthony's image from the
albums on Dan Hall on to the website.

Speaker 2 (22:28):
Yeah, similar, that's similar to when Sharon Osbourne deleted Bob
Daisley and Lee Kurzlake off those first two Assie albums.

Speaker 1 (22:35):
Yep, Yeah, I think I think.

Speaker 2 (22:37):
Deep Purple Mate they briefly did that with Richie Blackmore's
likeness on a either a shirt or something that had
the machine Head image on it. I remember like a
while back there, like I remember reading someplace on the
internet like there were fans that weren't very happy with that,
but I think that was just like a passing thing,
if that ever even happened at all. That seems like

(22:57):
I may have heard something like that.

Speaker 1 (22:59):
Well, one last quick thought on van Halen before we
get back to obviously Mega Death that's what we're talking about.
But I would love to see one day Dave, Mike
and Alex just get together, whether it be on stage
or not. It'd be just cool to see those three
guys at least Bury the Hatchet. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:18):
You know, the problem now, like what we saw at
the Aussie show, is that they're getting kind of old. So,
I mean, you know, Rothkins still cut it, Michael Anthony's
still out there, but I from what I could see,
it seems like Alex van Halen, I don't know if
he can really he's not going to be as powerful
as he once was.

Speaker 1 (23:35):
And well that's why I say, even if it's not
on stage, just just for the three to get together
again before it's too late. Yeah, give Michael some closure
because Michael.

Speaker 2 (23:44):
Anthony No, you're right, you're right, And it's like weird too.
How when Alex van Helen was doing all the publicity
for when his book came out, he was saying, oh,
you know, the first person that called me after a
news brook of you know, Adie van Halen dying was
actually Dave or No, the first person he called was
But then you hear see hear that, it's like all right, good,
so now they're like on good terms. And then you
hear Alex van Allen saying, you know, we tried to

(24:07):
do a tribute toward Eddie and David Lee Roth refused
to even mention Eddie and we almost got into a fight. So,
you know, I don't know which the guys would just
never get along.

Speaker 1 (24:15):
Whichever way the wind blows. Yeah, just like The Mega
Death the World state of the Art speed metal band
The Mega Death Story nineteen eighty three to two thousand
and two is the name of the book. Greg Prado
is the author did your wife do that cover?

Speaker 2 (24:27):
She did the legendary Yeah. She is very talented. She's
a art teacher and she has she's very fluent with
photoshop and all that stuff. So yeah, she's always a great,
big help with designing the covers.

Speaker 1 (24:42):
Yeah, always does a great job. So you note that
the noticeable artistic leap forward for Mega Death is between
that first and second album. What do you attribute that to?

Speaker 2 (24:54):
Well, I mean when you go from a indie that's
on a that doesn't have that much money, then to
you suddenly on a major label which has a lot
of money you can spend money on like either remixing
or mix or making it sound better. What's funny enough
is the PCE Cells album was later recorded. It was
gonna come out on Combat, but once they stung with

(25:14):
Capital Capital liked it so much, which you know, obviously
it is. It's gone to be considered a classic out
classic metal album. I totally understand why they would want
to put it out, so I believe they hired someone
to remix it, and just the remixing alone definitely sounds
like a much much better album than their first one.
But material wise, they it was just a quantum leap forward.

(25:35):
Just it just they sound tighter. They toured obviously in
that interim period. They obviously totally jumped over the whole
sophomore slump thing because their second album blows away the
first one. And yeah, Dave Mustain sings better. They're playing better,
the tempos are tighter, the material is great. We have

(25:56):
one of the all time classic bass intros to of
course the title track PCE Cells, which not too many people.
Some people know this, but to confirm it, Dave Mustaine
wrote that bass a little part. It wasn't David Ellison,
although of course it was David Ellison that played it.
Yeah cool, but yeah, that, yeah, that was David Ellison
talks about in the book. They were at I think

(26:17):
rehearsal one day and Mustaine picked up his base, which
is like noodling around. He's like, hey, what do you
think of this? Please do do do do Do Do
Do Do Do do do do do do do do So, Yeah,
it's great.

Speaker 1 (26:27):
Do you remember MTV used that right for their talking
about that?

Speaker 2 (26:30):
Of course it is in the book and we talk
about how I asked Dave mus Stane, I said, so
have you ever seen any money from that? He says,
not a penny because MTV, what they realized is if
you play something for I'm just making up a number,
but say for four seconds, you don't have to pay.
If it was five seconds, they would have had to pay.

Speaker 1 (26:48):
Wow. See that's interesting because copyright is something I really
study quite a bit. It's why I don't play any
music on this podcast because I kept getting pulled down
for copy right on my old podcast, and there was
always that theory that if you played just five seconds
of a song, it's okay. But I talked to a
copyright Laurie and he's like, no, today that ain't happen,

(27:10):
but that that could be different with what that situation
was for television. I'm not sure.

Speaker 2 (27:14):
You know, it's an interesting situation just to because now
we're just totally jumping around, jumping around. Here is the
theme song for the old hit TV show Jackass was
a song called Corona by the punk band called Minute Men. Okay,
and I remember once reading you would think that since
that and they used almost not the whole song like
that song, not too many people will know. Not to

(27:36):
many people know there's a whole other half of that
song actually has singing and also lyrics to it, but
Jackass just used the first half of that song. But
I always assume that the surviving members, because the singer
of the Mini Men died with the bassist and the
drummer is still around, I always assume that they probably
had a pretty big payday from that being used. But
I think I read once that they haven't seen anything

(27:56):
because either publishing. I don't know if they signed away
the publishing or what the hell the story was, but
I don't think those guys ever saw money from that,
which is robbery if you ask me, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (28:05):
That could be it. Publishing whoever has it? Yeah, book
on rock Podcasts. We'll be back after this.

Speaker 2 (28:12):
I think you'd be glad later if you weren't here now.

Speaker 1 (28:16):
The song in My Darkest Style was written about Cliff
Burton after his untimely death, Mustaine picked up the guitar
wrote the song in one fell Swoop as he said it.
You mentioned in the book that you were semi responsible
for causing a bit of an uproar amongst metal heads
concerning Cliff Burton's passing. What the hell did you do?

Speaker 2 (28:34):
Yes? That is true. Well, I just wanted just to
back up a little bit that song. Cliff Burton's passing
inspired the music. The lyrics are not about Cliff Burton's passing. Okay, yeah,
but no, you know, but it is correct what you
just said that Dave Mustain gets the horrible phone call
that you know your old friend Cliff Burton, because he
was still friendly with Cliff Burton even after the split.
They they're still on good terms. Phone call, Cliff is

(28:57):
dead and he just hung up the phone, and Shock
picks up his good and writes one of Megadeth's all
time classic songs, which is of course in my darkest hour.
But yeah, so I did create a bit of a
bruhaha in the whole metal press. About maybe ten years
ago or fifteen years ago, I was interviewing Scott Ian,
guitarist of the ban Anthrax, and I just happened to

(29:19):
I was watching, I believe on YouTube. Dave Navarro from
the band Jane's Addiction had like a short lived podcast
or a TV show or something, and he had Dave
Mustaine on and there was a passing mention of that
they were going to fire Lars Ulrich on the tour

(29:39):
that Cliff Burton died. Prior to Cliff Burton dying like
that was the plan that so like I heard that
and I was like, what is that about? And then
I found out a while later, Oh, I have the
opportunity to interview Dave Mustayne. So this was for Rolling Stone.
This is what this is definitely for Rolling Stone. Okay,
I've been doing Dave Mustaine for Rolling Stone. I'm like, Dave,

(30:00):
if I heard this one thing, maybe you can clarify it.
And I asked him about it and he's like, wait
a second, how the hell did you hear about that?
I'm like, oh, well, I told him I was listening
to this Dave Navarro thing. He mentioned it. He's like, oh, okay, okay,
and then he just spills his guts and he's like, yeah,
what happened? Was Scottie and told me he was on
tour with Metallic because Anthrax was opening up for Metallic

(30:22):
on that tour. That say the Cliff Burton died, he said,
James headfielder Cliff, I think I forget which one told
Scottie and like, yay, look, you know, don't don't tell
anybody because they were all very close with Scotty and
they went way back with Scottie and They're like, look,
don't tell anybody, but when this tour is over, we're
going to go home. We're firing Lars Aulric. We you know,

(30:43):
it's just over between us and him. You know, even
if we can't, even if we can't retain the Metallica name,
who cares what, It's just gonna be us three carrying on.
It's over for Lars Alric. Then of course Cliff Burton dies,
and I remember when scott Ian saw James that may
have been at Cliff Burton's funeral or wake or whenever

(31:07):
he saw James Headfield. Next he's like, so, what's going
on with that thing? You told me? He's like, oh no,
and now that's just over you. We can't, you know,
we're just going to go on with what we have.
And that's when they got Jason Newstad and they just
carried on. But yeah, but for like a week, I remember,
that was like the talk of the metal press on,
like Blabbermouth and Brave Words and all those sites, and
in fact, so much so that scott Ian put out

(31:28):
a book I think it's called I'm the Man, and
he even talks about it. He doesn't mention me by name,
but he's like yeah, and then like I did, there
was an interview and blah blah blah, and like you know,
all this stuff, and like I get dragged into it
because you know scott Ian, because the thing was scott
Ian told me this, so then scott Ian gets dragged
into it.

Speaker 1 (31:47):
So that was a whole Yeah, your name comes up
a lot. I think I emailed you, I don't know.
Three weeks ago, four weeks ago, I was watching something
on YouTube. It was a great documentary on Alison Chains
and they were they were getting into those sad last
months years of Lane Staley's life. Yeah, yeah, and your

(32:08):
name came up in there somewhere that the hoe said
something about. According to Greg Prato.

Speaker 2 (32:13):
Yeah, it was probably from my earlier book called Grunges Dead,
because there was a whole section in that. And you
know what, I don't mind people quoting my books and stuff,
you know, but just my only request is please just
credit me. It's all because there's been like times, there's
been times on YouTube where it just quotes from things
that I've done. And I remember one guy to get

(32:33):
in contact with, I'm like, you know, hey, I don't
care that you're quoting me. But at least mentioned where
the hell you got the you know, quote from, and
he said, oh, I'm sorry, and then he did and
I was like, all right, good, I'm glad you you know,
I mean.

Speaker 1 (32:43):
Yeah, well you did the interview.

Speaker 2 (32:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (32:45):
The other thing is sometimes they say Greg Pratto and
I want to email the person like, no, it's Preto.

Speaker 2 (32:52):
Well you know what I'm gonna you know, I got
to give you an exclusive for this podcast.

Speaker 1 (32:56):
Oh, here we go.

Speaker 2 (32:57):
Something that I've never shared is I believe thet correct
pronunciation of my last name is actually Prato because it
was from it because it's from I think a town
in Italy which my great great grandparents came from, or
something like that, similar to how Vito Corleone took his
last name Coraleone from a city or town in Italy.

(33:19):
But yeah, so it's I believe it's it's it's correctly
pronounced Prato, which, interestingly enough, I was once interviewing Ollie
John Roth from the Scorpions and I told him my
name and he's like, is your last name pronounced Prato
after the town in Italy. I was like, oh, I
guess yeah, and then yeah, but I'm just gonna stick
with Predo because you've been.

Speaker 1 (33:37):
Going with Predo. Yes, I've heard you yourself say it.

Speaker 2 (33:40):
So Megadeth is right there. So that right there is
an exclusive.

Speaker 1 (33:43):
You got an exclusive right there, man. I love it.
You always provide the exclusives everything.

Speaker 2 (33:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (33:49):
So Megadeth's most commercially successful song is Symphony of Destruction
from Countdown to Extinct count on the extension number seventy
one on Billboard ninety two. Tell us about the making
of this song, this is great bassis. Dave Ellison talks
about it being written in between shooting hoops at the
band's rehearsal spot.

Speaker 2 (34:08):
Yeah. So, David Ellison mentions how when they were they
were I don't think they're even recording the album. They
were just rehearsing for the album that became a Countoid
to Extinction. They would take breaks, and they were doing
this in Phoenix, Arizona, which is very hot so you
can't stay outside for very long. But they would be
jamming working on something and they would say, oh, let's
go outside and just take a break. We'll just shoot

(34:30):
some hoops. They go out shoot some hoops. Then Dave
Mustain would be like, all right, you guys, I go inside,
I have something in my head. I'm gonna work on
some I'll be back, and you go inside, come up
with symphony for symphony for destruction. Then he'd go out
and be playing a little bit. Then he'd say, you know, guys,
hang on a second, I have an idea for another song.
Hang on a second, and go back in, and he
would come up with, you know something else, sweating sweating bullets,

(34:50):
you'd come up with so like all So, it's if
you think about how it's I've always found it fascinating
how certain people they just can channel the music just
is almost like channeled through them. I mean, obviously Eddie
Van Hallen is a great example of that. Jimi Hendrix,
Randy Rhodes, all these great great musicians. It's just like
this music, it's it's almost like a faucet turn on,

(35:12):
turn off, tournto.

Speaker 1 (35:13):
That's fascinating and fascinated by that. It's like they're superhuman.
I mean, just because I could never do it.

Speaker 2 (35:19):
So I just wondered, I'm so glad you said that,
because something that I find fascinating too is like, now
you take Dave Mustayne, he just he's he looks like
a regularly normal guy, right, but yet he comes up
with all these great riffs. Now, how many times have
you gone and seen like a local band that sucks,
that has horrible musicianship and every schlubs like zillions of

(35:39):
guitarists that that can't do that, you know, but there's
just that one in a million that you know is
just that gifted, you know, whether it be like I
said Randy Rhodes, Eddie Van Halen, Jimmy Hendrix, and Dave Mustaine.
I'm telling you, I was recently interviewed on David Elvison's
podcast and something I said, which and I felt, I
felt like this for even the recent death of also

(36:01):
Ozzy Osbourne in this whole onslaught of you know, which
I agree. Ozzy os One was fantastic. He deserves all
the accolades and everything. But I think it's gonna take
Dave Mustain sadly passing away. When he passes away, and
then suddenly they're gonna be like, oh, he was genius,
the one of the greatest metal guitarists ever, one of
the greatest riff writers ever, underrated lyricist songwriter. That's sadly

(36:24):
what it seems like it takes nowadays for people to
finally give people their due, which is kind of sad.
You should be able to give people their due while
they can, whether they're still with us, and you can
enjoy it. But that's just the way I guess it
works out.

Speaker 1 (36:36):
With this genre of music to be able to have
that type of success commercially without selling yourself out. You know,
these songs are still genuine, there's still mega death songs.
It's not like he was looking to get on the.

Speaker 2 (36:47):
Charts, right, And I mean and not only megad I
think I think that he wrote a lot of those
Metallica riffs on the first two albums and a lot
of the yeah, I mean those like the song the
Four Horsemen, which is considered a Metallica classic. I believe
he wrote the riff. He wrote everything, and that's that's
widely considered one of Metallica's top riffs too. But that

(37:08):
was Dave Mustain.

Speaker 1 (37:09):
One quote I was going to read I'd forgot to,
but I'll read it now. This is great. It talks
about just how quickly Megadeth's popularity increased. You'd say, here
quote to give you an idea how quickly Megadeth's popularity increased.
On October eleven, nineteen eighty six, they were opening for
Motorhead at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. On June thirteenth,
nineteen eighty seven, they were headlining the same venue themselves.

Speaker 2 (37:33):
People tend to forget, I would say, in early eighty seven,
mid eighty seven, Megadeth and Metallica were just about equal.
Metallica had, you know, had the top thirty album with
Master of Puppets. It had just gone gold or maybe platinum.
But see, the thing is, Metallica did not use MTV

(37:54):
to their advantage they which I always thought was very
You gotta give Metallic a lot of respect. They did
not put out a single video, did not do a
single video for their first three albums. It was on
the Justice album, the fourth album that they did the
video for one.

Speaker 1 (38:09):
Yeah, I remember that that. That was the big story.
No videos up until then exactly.

Speaker 2 (38:14):
But Megadeth they did make videos for pceells. They had
one for the PCells title track and also a great
song called a Wake Up Dead, and both those songs
got played heavily on not on regular MTV regular hours
so much, but on MTV's heavy metal specialty shows. They
were heavily played.

Speaker 1 (38:34):
Head Banger's Ball was that out at that time?

Speaker 2 (38:36):
Yeah, even before that, in late eighty six, there was
a Forgotten show. It was because I remember coming back
from high school and at three thirty or three o'clock
there was a half hour show every afternoon called the
heavy Metal half Hour or something, and they would just
show you a half hour of just strickly metal videos.
That was before head Banger's Ball, so that was a

(38:57):
precursor kind of too head Banger's But yeah, but p
Cells was played heavily on that half hour show. That's
how I really got into Megadeth was through seeing that video.
And then later in early eighty seven or spring of
eighty seven, which was that was when a Wake Up
Dead came out as the video. But yeah, so by
like spring summer of eighty seven, Megadeth and also Metallic
were pretty much pretty much neck and neet because then

(39:19):
also in early eighty eight, Megodeth put out another album,
so Far, So Good, So what. They even had a
third video which was for Anarchy in the UK, So
they were they were definitely using MTV more to their
advantage at that point than you could say Metallic or
even Slayer was at that point, and.

Speaker 1 (39:35):
The Symphony of Destruction video was on all the time.

Speaker 2 (39:38):
Yes, yeah, yeah, that was in summer of ninety That
was one of the most heavily played videos in the
summer of ninety two. I remember that being on all
the time in the summer of nineteen ninety two.

Speaker 1 (39:46):
Yeah, what are the lyrics about?

Speaker 2 (39:48):
I think I think what Dave Mustain says is it
has to do a little bit with like we put
people up on pedestals. But it's just like we're all
pretty much glorified apes. You know, like if you look
at it, if you listen to the lyrics, we put,
you know, presidents up on high pedestals or even like
celebrities up on high pedestals. But I mean, again, what's
the difference between a president or someone else? I mean,

(40:12):
I guess luck has a lot. Luck has a lot
to do with it. You also have to have some
pizzazz and also have some smarts and stuff. But who's
to say who's better than someone else? You know what
I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (40:21):
Yeah, booked on Rock Podcast. We'll be back after this.
There will be an end omission. Hey, guys, thanks so
much for checking out the Booked on Rock podcast. If
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(40:45):
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at Booked on Rock. Thanks again for listening. Now back

(41:07):
to the show. Mega Death certainly survived the grunge era
countdown to extinsion was big in ninety two. Nineteen ninety
four's Youth in Asia reached number four on Billboard. Two
more albums ninety seven's Cryptic Writings, which reached number ten,
and then in nineteen ninety nine they released Risk, which
hit number sixteen. Chapter twenty three, titled those Troublesome mid nineties.

(41:30):
What was the state of Mega Death during that period.

Speaker 2 (41:33):
Well, it wasn't just megadath what happened was after grunge
and also alternative rock hit a lot of the metal
bands just I don't know why they felt they had
to change what they were doing. I would imagine it
had to have been pressure for management and also their
record companies. Suddenly, now you see Megadeth wearing flannel shirts

(41:53):
and videos Metallica, it feels like they have to dress
up like you two for their load and also reload
record words. Yeah, Anthrax switched singers at that point. Slayer.
You gotta give Slayer credit. They'd never really bowed down
to alt rock or also grunge. You know, they pretty
much stood the course, So you gotta give Slayer credit.

(42:16):
Megadeth also Megadeth never like they they never like I
forget who it was that I spoke to for the books. Oh,
it's actually Richard Christie. So you know, you gotta give
Dave mustein credit. Like there was no Megodeth song where
he's like crooning, like you know, like what's his name,
Eddie Vedder, you know, yep, you know, And like there's
no Megodeth song with Dave mustein rapping. You know, it's

(42:37):
like nothing like that. You know, they at least stayed
pretty pretty true. The only thing that Megadeth did similar
to Metallica is suddenly their speedy tempos get slowed down,
so it's kind of like a mid tempo Black Sabbath
Soundgarden type thing, which you know, I mean, that's not
really them being totally true to themselves. But that said,
I'll be honest, I lost interest in, uh, actually, Metallica

(43:01):
Megadeth even those years, they at least had some songs
that I can hear now and I still enjoy and
I think that they're worthwhile and they still hold up well.
Whereas Metallica, I really honestly after Master of Puppets, I
just bow out. I mean, I liked in Justice for
All when I was younger. That was the first tour
I ever saw them live. I loved it at the time.
With the Black album, I remember like trying to like

(43:23):
it and I just couldn't like it. Load and Reload
I never liked. Yeah, it's just.

Speaker 1 (43:26):
They tried some risky stuff. Speaking of risk the Lulu
album with lou Reed.

Speaker 2 (43:32):
Yeah, yeah, and yeah, I'll tell you what. They came
under immense fire for that. And like, although I'll be honest,
I've never heard the whole thing. I'm a huge Lou
Reed fan. I love Velvet Underground, I love lou Reid's
early seventies solo material. And you know, I can that,
at least I can respect that they're in a room
with Lou Reed. They're just coming up with stuff. It's

(43:53):
not so much forced. I mean what came out was
like a huge, giant nut filled turd. Yeah, but uh no,
but yeah, you know, I mean, at least I give
them credit that. Yeah, but you give them credit that
it wasn't like a force thing like for instance, Load
and also the album Reload was where if you're not
familiar with that album, if you have did you actually
have that album?

Speaker 1 (44:13):
Or I have Load? I don't think I have. I
may have Reload. I know I have Load.

Speaker 2 (44:18):
This okay, well, do yourself a favor. Take a look
at the booklet of a Load and it's the most embarrassing.
Like what it is is they hooked up with Anton Corbin,
who did the Nirvana Heart Shaped box video and he
also worked a lot with also you two in the past,

(44:39):
and suddenly they felt like they had to be like
Bono doing like, you know, a whole vegacy like there
they have eyeliner on, they cut their hair, they're wearing
all these all these like silver pans. It was so
forced and so just just bloody embarrassing. But it's you know,
something I took about in the book that you got
to give Metallic a credit because the worst well, I mean,

(45:01):
I'm gonna say the worst they got me mean, like
I'm saying that. Meanwhile, no one gives a shit with Like,
I think Metallica is still selling out stadiums, so they
obviously did the right thing. But I'm just saying for me,
as like a once Metallica fan, it's interesting how the
worst they got, the bigger they became.

Speaker 1 (45:17):
You know.

Speaker 2 (45:17):
Yeah, that so so they're almost like you could see
Metallic or almost like magicians.

Speaker 1 (45:26):
They lost a lot of fans, but they gained a
lot more with the change of sound, they gained more
mainstream fans.

Speaker 2 (45:31):
I think something I talk about in the book, I love.

Speaker 1 (45:34):
It Until It sleeps Hero of the Day, and those
songs were great for rock radio.

Speaker 2 (45:39):
Yeah. See, it's just at that point I'm onto, you know,
I'm listening to Soundgarden Faith no more. Then later I'm
into like Jeff Buckley, I'm just not into and the
thing too. Like for me, those Metallica songs, I think
they're just trying to sound like sound Garden, you know,
So I'd rather just hear sound Garden or they're just
doing a slow plotting things that right, other hear Black
Sabbath Volume four. At least that's authentic and it's you know,

(46:01):
the real thing, you know.

Speaker 1 (46:02):
Which is I get what you're saying, which is why
you appreciate Lulu more because it's they just did something.

Speaker 2 (46:07):
Yeah, I mean, from.

Speaker 1 (46:08):
An artistic standpoint, let's just try this and see what happens.
It feels right.

Speaker 2 (46:13):
I'll be the first one. I'll be the first one
to say that Lulu to me is like that's like
probably musical kryptonite to me. But I can I mean,
but I mean, at least I can listen to and
not listen to it. At least I can say, well, look,
they didn't they got in a room they you know,
hashed it out, whereas you know, the other stuff, I
don't know what the hell they were thinking.

Speaker 1 (46:34):
Yeah, your original plan was to cut the book off
after the Risk album in ninety nine. What changed your mind?

Speaker 2 (46:39):
Because the Risk album is their load or it's their
music from the Elder or it's there Van Hallen three. Okay,
it is an album that should be deleted. It should
be erased, it should be forgotten. Put it in a
bottle and throw it out in the ocean. Let just
float away.

Speaker 1 (46:54):
Yeah. Yeah, that's that was the end of the period
that you say is their their best period.

Speaker 2 (46:59):
Well, I see, that's the thing is in the late
nineties al right. So people widely consider the rust In
Peace limp to be their definitive lineup, which is Dave
Mustaine on vocals guitar, David Ellison on bass, Marty Friedman
on guitar, and the late great Nick Menza on drums. Now,
I personally think that's a phenomenal lineup. Greg Prato's choice

(47:21):
for greatest Mega to lineup is the p CELS lineup.
I'm sorry, I'll say that till absolute day I die.
But yeah, So the rust in Peace lineup comes in
nineteen ninety then by the late nineties it's kind of
the band's fracturing. Nick Menza leaves in nineteen ninety seven,
they do oz Fest, they carry on with I think

(47:45):
his name is Jimmy DeGrasso, who was in Wyan t
and Suicidal Tendencies. Yeah, yeah, and they carry on for
a bit. Then for the Risk album, that's Marty Friedman's
last hurrah because he was going a whole different direction.
He was more into not just like alternative rock, but
he was into like pop. He was in like pop music,

(48:06):
which is kind of weird because he clearly wasn't always
into pop music because if you hear what he was
doing with Cacophony before Megadeth and the early Megadeth work,
it's not pop music at all. So but anyway, you know,
we all change, we get older. He wanted to do
more of a pop thing. It rubs off on Risk
a bit, but then in the middle of the tour
for Risk, he has like what's called like a nervous
breakdown where he has horrible anxiety attacks and he feels

(48:29):
like he's gonna have to just like drop off the tour,
but he's able to pull it together barely, so he
finishes the tour, but he gives notices like I'm gonna leave,
you know, but find somebody. So they get al Patrelli,
formerly of Alice Cooper's band, to come in but yes,
So in nineteen ninety nine is I believe when or
two thousand, either ninety ninety two thousand is when Marty

(48:51):
Freeman leaves, and that to me is just the end
of the Rust and Peace lineup. People refer to that
as the Rust in Peace lineup. So yes, now you
no longer have Nick Men's and or Marty Friedman in
lineup anymore at that point.

Speaker 1 (49:02):
Yeah, then there was a hiatus thereafter.

Speaker 2 (49:05):
After the world needs a hero. Dave Mustaine. Yeah, through
the course of Magadeth, he relapses every so often and
has to go to rehab every so often, which I
give him a world of credit that he is still
with us. He was able to do that. I mean
that I always tip my hat to people if they
have problems. It's very hard to meet you have a

(49:25):
problem and to go do something about it. And to
Dave Mustaine's credit, he's done at numerous times. So you
got to give him a lot of credit that he
has done that. And sure, yeah, so one of the
many times he has fallen off the wagon, but he
does the right thing, goes to rehab. He claims that
he fell asleep, he had his hand or something behind

(49:46):
or I don't know how he had maybe behind his back.
He fell asleep on a chair with like a metal
rim or something like that, and it cut off the
circulation to his hand and he woke up. He did
some kind of nerve damage. The same thing happened as Slash.
I remember reading sl Ash his book, and he had
a problem where it could be so extreme that sometimes
they have to actually amputate your hand, if you could

(50:06):
believe that it's like that extreme. Yeah, So, but it
wasn't I guess that severe with Dave Mustaine. But they
did say that they didn't think he was going to
ever use his hand, and it was out of the
question that he was ever going to be able to
play guitar again. But to Dave mus Daine's credit, he's
a pretty stubborn gentleman, and he just took it, didn't
take no for an answer, and he slowly would surely
taught himself how to play guitar again. But yeah, at

(50:28):
that point, he just ended. Uh, he just ended Megadeth abruptly.
He says, now I'm proa not gonna able to play again,
so I'm just gonna focus on family, maybe get into
the management side of music business. But Megadath is over.
But they came back and oh four yeah, but that
but within a year he's back and he and what's
weird and he does not have David Ellison anymore. He
has a whole new lineup. It was kind of weird

(50:50):
that he just he retained the Megadeth name. He had
a whole lawsuit thing going back and forth with all
so David Ellison at the time they have a falling
at but I don't even talk about in this book,
as only goes up to two thousand and three.

Speaker 1 (51:02):
So Booked on Rock podcasts, We'll be back after this.
Well well waity. Find the bookdown rock website at booked
on Rock dot com. There you can find all the
back episodes of the show, the latest episode in video
and audio, links to all of the platforms where you
can listen to the podcast, plus all the social media

(51:24):
platforms were on Blue Sky, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and x.
Also check out the Booked on rockblog. Find your local
independent bookstore, find out all the latest hot rockbook releases,
and before you go, check out the Booked on Rock
online store. Pick up some Booked on Rock merch. It's
all at booked on Rock dot com. The World State

(51:45):
of the art speed metal band The Megadeth Story nineteen
eighty three to two thousand and two. It's out now.
Find it wherever books are sold. Look for at your
nearest bookstore. You can go to booked on rock dot
com to find your nearest independent bookstore and if they
don't have a copy there, beat the shit out of
them and oh no, I'm sorry, just ask them politely
to you.

Speaker 2 (52:02):
Yes, hey, we have it available to paperback hard It's
available as paperback hardcover, kindle and also with most of
my books audio version narrated by me.

Speaker 1 (52:14):
You are hooked on that, man. You love it.

Speaker 2 (52:16):
You love all that paying the bills. You know I'm saying,
I have to pay my bills, I pay my mortgage.

Speaker 1 (52:20):
We have to do it, telling you man, So let's
talk about what's coming next, because we've got something really
cool coming in The fall.

Speaker 2 (52:27):
Is called alternative for the masses, the nineties alt rock
Revolution and oral histories. That means I'm going back to
my roots in oral history, which is what my first
few books were set up as, which is, we have
a subject and then all the interviews I've done, we
have a gentleman's name, and then he talks, we have
someone else's name, he talks, You're getting the words straight
from the horse's mouth with people that were there. I

(52:49):
describe it as a documentary, but in book form it's
about all those great nineties alternative rock bands, which I'll
be honest doing this book, I'm gonna go on record
that was probably my favorite era of music ever.

Speaker 1 (53:01):
Because yeah, I could tell you love that, because.

Speaker 2 (53:03):
Because I because me like you, we were living it
at the time. I was going to the shows. I
was there the day that Soundgarden super A None comes out.
I'm there the day Blind Melon Soup comes out, the
day Faith in the Mora Angel Dust comes out, and
I'm blown away now Smashing Pumpkin, Siamese Dream.

Speaker 1 (53:19):
It was an amazing time.

Speaker 2 (53:21):
Yeah, all these albums that I still listen to this
day hold up wonderfully. Bands that I could relate to.
You know, they were just like me. They just look,
you know, there's like regular people. They're they're on stage,
they're not doing this over affected, you know, rock star thing.
But yet I'd go see them live and they were
just it was some of the best shows I've ever seen.

Speaker 1 (53:43):
Yeah, I never thought about it at the time. But
just just to look back now and clearly clearly remembering
watching videos by Warrent, Winger and Slaughter one day and
then slowly but surely they're just working these videos in
like Nirvana and Pearl Jammy. You just you're seeing it
take over so quickly.

Speaker 2 (54:02):
Yeah, you are.

Speaker 1 (54:03):
It was really wild to just to see the shift
in in rock and roll culture. Yeah, pop culture too.
I mean it became mainstream.

Speaker 2 (54:14):
But but you know, it's funny some people tend to
forget it. Did the change did a car But it
was a little it was a little bit. I even
remember it being very like one day we were watching
videos by Poison and Warrant, the next day it's Nirvana
and Pearl jam But it was a little bit of
a phasing out period because because because if you think back,
there's a period in nineteen ninety two where a lot

(54:35):
of hair metal bands are scoring big hits still with
like acoustic ballads. I'm thinking, I will try to be yeah,
exactly with you, mister, with you, I remember that, Yes,
I gon kick and also even what's the other band that? Oh,

(54:55):
the band Firehouse even had a yeah. And also I
mean steel Hart had a hit that may have been
nineteen ninety one though that I don't know.

Speaker 1 (55:06):
Tricks around ninety one there were Trickster.

Speaker 2 (55:10):
Oh wait, it's really also also Ugly Kid, Ugly Kid,
Joe Cats in the Cradle.

Speaker 1 (55:15):
Yep, yep. I distinctly remember, distinctly remember listening to the
local radio station, new Haven Radio Station ninety nine Rock WPLR,
and they were playing to Be with You by Mister
Big and then it was followed by Nirvana. Smells like
teen Spirit.

Speaker 2 (55:32):
Yeah, I mean, sadly, I'd like to think one day
we'll see another kind of revolution type thing. But and
in my lifetime so far, I've never experienced anything like that.

Speaker 1 (55:44):
That.

Speaker 2 (55:45):
It was from ninety one through about ninety four, almost
every month there is a classic album that came out,
and sometimes just a few weeks apart. Wasn't even every month,
it was like every few weeks. Yeah, So time it
just I mean what I talk, what I tend to
compare it to. I was too young to have or
not even born yet with some of these errors. But

(56:06):
I liken it to the mid to late sixties psychedelic
period where you had Jimi Hendrix, you had Sergeant Pepper's Cream.
Janis Joplin, The Doors, like Stooges, all these legendary bands
coming out, putting out all these great albums like every month.
And then in the mid to late seventies you had
a lot of the punk bands, you the Ramones, Sex Pistols, Clash,

(56:27):
I mean, I guess you could say too. The early
late seventies or more early eighties. Some of the best
metal albums came out in that period. Had Van Halen One.
Then you had the Aussie stuff Black Sabbath with Maiden
Well yeah, yeah, I mean you had yeah. So there's
certain errors where there's just like a you know, they
we just kind of get spoiled. We just take it

(56:48):
for granted that we think we're just gonna be assaulted
with this great music. And then when then you find
out a few years later when you get these like
fourth rate Iron Maidens and fifth rate Nirvana's and you know,
seventh rate you know, you know whatever, like psychedelic band
you think of the Yeah, then like then then you
realize we had it pretty good for a while.

Speaker 1 (57:09):
But hopefully it's it's a cyclical thing and eventually we'll
come back around to it.

Speaker 2 (57:14):
But it's been yeah, I mean, it will you know,
so I forgot who I talked to for this book.
But actually, maybe we shouldn't talk too much about this book.
So it's gonna come back and talk about this book.

Speaker 1 (57:22):
Right, We'll tease it.

Speaker 2 (57:23):
But you know, one thing, I'll actually give you one
little taster. The one thing that someone said which is
pretty good is I asked a lot of these people
out injured for the book, like do you think this
could ever happen again? And one person it was either
Lou Barlow from Sebado or Corey Glover from the band
A Living Color into both of them for the book.
They said both said, yes, it will happen again. But

(57:44):
it's not gonna sound anything. It's not going to resemble
grunge at all. It's not gonna be like that. It's
gonna be like something that you don't even that you
can't even think of. It'll be like a guy from
hip hop merging his stuff with like shoegaze music. You know,
it's gonna be something that original. And I'm like, that's
totally that totally makes sense to me. It's not gonna

(58:05):
be someone ripping off Nirvana. It's not gonna be someone
ripping off sound Guard and ripping off nine inch nails.
It's gonna be someone that we don't even we can't
even fathom what you know, what it is. Yeah, hopefully
one day soon.

Speaker 1 (58:18):
And it's usually it takes that one band or maybe
a solo artist, but a band that breaks through and
opens the door and the rest come in.

Speaker 2 (58:28):
I mean, look at also Van Helen's first album. After
that comes out, how many people now are copying David
Lee growth, copying at Evan Helen. That was like a
Van Helen bomb that went off that suddenly, you know,
everyone just was kind of them. You could say the
same Nirvana, the Beatles, the Ramones. There's always these bands
every decade or every so often that just breaks down

(58:49):
the doors and then everyone either follows or they just copy.

Speaker 1 (58:53):
Well, I'm looking forward to we'll talk about that book
some more when we get closer to the release. Now
that's through our friends and Motor Books, right.

Speaker 2 (58:59):
It is okay, it is yeah, they they did a
great job. We we worked this book has been I
mean I probably began work on this book about two
years ago. It was completed about a year ago. We
you know, took our time getting pictures and formatting it
and everything. But yeah, I'm really happy with Wake came out.
It's going to come out as a hardcover, also a

(59:20):
kindle or digital and also again a audio version with
me narrating.

Speaker 1 (59:24):
Excellent. Yeah, shout out to Steve Roth, a friend of
the podcast from great They do a phenomenal job, but
they do so happy for you that you're going to
be teaming up with them. So and by the way,
thank you also for the support on Ultimate Guitar. We
should also plug Ultimate Guitar's website. Oh sure if you
want to, because we're we're the podcast is mentioned they're often,

(59:46):
so that's very cool. Check out Ultimate guitar dot com.

Speaker 2 (59:50):
Yeah, for people who don't know, I'm a writer for
Ultimate Guitar, and we sometimes do news articles from your podcast, right.

Speaker 1 (59:58):
Absolutely often sometimes, Man, it's it's much appreciated.

Speaker 2 (01:00:03):
So I wasn't keep the grade a content coming, is
all I'm gonna say.

Speaker 1 (01:00:06):
That's and you've got you can keep the lights on here,
so you know. And you didn't make fun of me
for having Aaron Rodgers because I teased about being a
Jets fan about having Aaron Rodgers. I wished you the
best of luck. Now I'm stuck with him with the Steelers.

Speaker 2 (01:00:22):
You know, I'm telling you you can make fun of
the Jets all you want because you have to laugh
from What's the thing you have to laugh to keep
from crying? Is that the Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:00:32):
But here I am with Aaron Rodgers. I don't know.
I'm not too excited about it. But we'll see, we
shall see.

Speaker 2 (01:00:38):
We'll see I break, I break. The Steelers will do
batter than the Jets.

Speaker 1 (01:00:41):
At least, we'll see, all right, Greg, Thanks.

Speaker 2 (01:00:43):
Man, Okay, thanks again. That's it.

Speaker 1 (01:00:53):
It's in the books.

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The Rise Of Megadeth: 1983 - 2002 [Episode 310]

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}The Rise Of Megadeth: 1983 - 2002 [Episode 310]