Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine insists he doesn’t walk around with a chip on his shoulder and that he’s not a bad guy.
The comments came during an appearance on Dean Delray’s Let There Be Talk podcast while reflecting on his performance at Metallica’s 30th anniversary residency at San Francisco’s Fillmore in 2011, where Mustaine reunited with his old band after being ousted from metal act back in 1983.
When asked about his initial thoughts on being asked to perform as part of the residency, Mustaine said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth), “I don’t remember clearly, but probably a little bit of ‘no,’ a little bit of ‘yes,’ a little bit of ‘why’d you take so long,’ a little bit of ‘shouldn’t we have done this a long time ago?’ Think about all the kids that wish they could have seen me play [with Metallica]. That part’s sad.”
Mustaine elaborated further on his point, saying, “I just saw something from Marty Friedman — I don’t know if you saw it or not — where he was talking about how he left [Megadeth] and how he mishandled it, and I thought that was really great. I thought it was really cool, because when Marty left, I became the bad guy. And I’m not a bad guy. I’m not a bad guy.”
He continued, “If you piss me off, you know what? There’s a 50/50 chance I’m gonna react bad, but generally, during the day, I don’t walk around with a chip on my shoulder. And when Marty left, everybody thought, ‘Dave wasn’t using his songs’, ‘Dave’s a bad band leader’. And it’s real easy — you get two guys to say the same thing, and then it looks like it’s true. I’m not a bad band leader. Look where Megadeth is right now after almost 45 years. We’re the biggest we’ve ever been. The band guys are the happiest they’ve ever been.”
Megadeth are set to tour the UK and Europe starting in March 2027 as part of their ongoing farewell tour in support of their self-titled final studio album. Get tickets here.
Listen to Dave Mustaine’s appearance on Dean Delray’s Let There Be Talk below.