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Megadeth are rocking North America this month on their 2012 Gigantour, the festival they first founded in 2005, which makes its return for the first time since 2008.

The Gigantour bill will include Motorhead, Volbeat and Lacuna Coil, all personally picked by Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine.

The month-long tour kicked off January 26 in Camden, NJ, and wraps February 28 in Denver, CO, playing shows across the US and Canada.

Now that they’re out on the road, Megadeth’s label caught up with Dave for some interview time at the tour’s Madison Square Garden stop in New York.

Mustaine chats at length about the tour, the band’s new album, “TH1RT3EN,” his new Dave Mustaine: Guitar Prodigy app, and his recent surgery.

Last fall, the guitarist underwent neck surgery due to Dave’s specific health issue, stenosis, a neck and spine condition that is actually an abnormal narrowing of the blood vessel or organ; it’s a condition Mustaine attributes to “years of headbanging.”

“I’m learning that I can still play after the surgery,” says Dave. “As the pain continued to increase prior to the surgery it became harder and harder to play, and now that the surgery was completed and was successful and I’ve completely healed, now I’m just trying to get my hands to come back.”