Megadeth have pulled out of Australia’s Soundwave festival and cancelled their dates in the country following a dispute with the festival promoter.
Things began to unravel recently when Soundwave promoter AJ Maddah announced that former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted’s new band, Newsted, were being kicked off the bill for Megadeth’s headlining shows outside of the festival at the request of the band.
Dave Mustaine has denied Maddah’s claims and has now pulled Megadeth out of all Australian shows, including Soundwave’s 5-city event, which starts February 22 in Brisbane.
“Due to circumstances beyond its control, unfortunately Megadeth has to cancel their Australian dates,” posted Mustaine on Sunday. “Megadeth's decision is unrelated to the fact that Jason Newsted is performing at Soundwave. Jason and I spoke recently and continue to be friends.”
On a second post, Mustaine explained the situation further, writing, “All I asked for was an apology for blaming me for something I didn't do. I am still willing to play, but the promoter would rather not apologize and prefers to say I asked him to lie, which I didn't. Am I the only one that sees how easy it is to fix this? The AJ Maddah that I know is a wise and caring man, and I don't know what has happened to my old friend. My bags are packed Aussie fans.”
Since Mustaine’s postings, Maddah has been reaching out to the guitarist via Twitter, saying that the guitarist isn’t taking his calls while insisting that Megadeth’s representatives issued the instructions regarding Newsted.
“We took instructions from your representatives and we acted on those instructions as we would with any other artist,” wrote Maddah in a series of tweets. “I realise that you fired your agent and manager and appointed new ones during the process... And that there may have been misunderstandings or miscommunications but none of those were at our end. Despite of this, I sent you a statement regarding possible misunderstandings/miscommunications, apologising to fans, etc, ..even though my people did everything by the book and correct protocol was undertaken getting approvals for supports. There are strings of emails supporting this, including ones forwarded with instructions to remove certain artists. I am not sure where and how you believe you are owed an apology. And if you are, it should be from your own reps!”
Stay tuned…
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