Mustaine joined the band last weekend for the final night of their 30th Anniversary shows at the Fillmore in San Francisco, rocking out tracks he first recorded with Metallica three decades ago.
In a new interview with Powerline, Mustaine shares his thoughts on the evening and revisiting some of his classic Metallica songs.
“You know, it felt fun to play them,” Dave explains. “I wish I would have had a little bit more opportunity to get prepared with the band. You know, because I'm a perfectionist. I would have liked to have had my sound just so and make sure when I did the solos they would jump up the volume and stuff like that that I'm used to, but we were at a club and playing at a club and playing like a club band. It was fun to take off all the rules and regulations and stuff and kind of shoot from the hip.”
Mustaine was asked why the group didn’t play “The Four Horsemen,” one of their early signature pieces.
“I think there's a reason for that. I think I know why we didn't play that song but I'm not going to go out on a limb on it,” Mustaine explains. “I think one of the things was because we [Megadeth] recorded ‘Mechanix’ and they recorded the other way, there's not really a need to do that. There were several other songs that were really important — like ‘Jump in the Fire’ was the first song I brought those guys. And ‘Phantom Lord’ and ‘Metal Militia’ were songs that I brought to them, too, and the only other song was ‘Mechanix,’ which later changed to ‘The Four Horsemen.’ And the rest of those songs were written by James [Hetfield] or by Hugh Tanner or Lloyd Grant and that's why those guys were there... and a little weird for me, too, you know, standing on stage. I thought it was cool to be just with Metallica, but Ron McGovney's up there and Lloyd Grant's up there. I was kind of like, ‘Alright, well, I'll bite the bullet. I'll be cool. This is not so terrible.’ I got up there and, you know what?! I didn't even notice them. I was having so much fun they weren't even there.”
“I was locked into Lars' [Ulrich] playing and James' playing,” continues the main Megadeth man. “Me and James, we were like the the Toxic Twins back when we played together and we were a very very dangerous duo. And for a moment I think I stirred some of those old feelings up. I saw one of the videos and it looked like he was having fun. I know I was having fun. I had a smile that I went to bed with.”
Check out the full Mustaine session at Powerline here.
To check out more videos of the Mustaine-Metallica reunion, click here.
Metallica Metallica – Phantom Lord / Jump In The Fire
With guest Dave Mustaine of Megadeth
The Fillmore – San Francisco, CA – December 10, 2011
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