Ultimate-Guitar.com: You alleged that you, Dave Ellefson [MEGADETH bassist] and Chuck [Behler, MEGADETH drummer at the time] had come to an agreement with the soundman on tours to bury Dave Mustaine's contributions in the mix, and that he had to be carried offstage each and every night.
Jeff: I like that you said his contributions, quote unquote. Well, it's just like when someone's fucked up; it makes their singing out of tune, and their playing sloppy. We wanted to sound good, right? We just told Louie, the soundman, "Dude, when he's sounding lame...", and many bands do this. If the singer's having a bad night, maybe they won't have him so loud in the mix. It wasn't like we paid the guy off. It wasn't a conspiracy, but he knew. You can hear live tapes, and you can go back and listen to bootlegs. You can hear it for yourself.
Ultimate-Guitar.com: And you allege that Dave Mustaine was that wasted on tour that he had to be carried offstage every night?
Jeff: Every night, and the worst night was... And this for me was one of my most embarassing moments in the band, and that I'm telling the story because it involves METALLICA. This night was on that DIO tour, on the "Dream Evil" tour, in Oakland, California which is right outside San Francisco, where METALLICA are from, of course. MEGADETH and DIO were playing the Coliseum, whatever the big arena there in Oakland was, and James Hetfield and Lars [Ulrich] came to the show. They were standing on the side of the stage for our set, and ya know, no-one needs to retell the story of what happened between Dave and METALLICA. MEGADETH was doing great right there; our album was twenty-eight on Billboard, and we were one of the first speed metal bands I think to crack the Top 30. We were ready to seize the moment right then, and Dave, in that moment on that night, had the chance to shove their noses right in it. He had the chance to go on that stage, and play the fucking show of his life. Remember that scene in "Some Kind of Monster" where Lars went to see Jason Newsted's new band, and Lars is like "Jason's the new thing man. METALLICA's washed up... Jason is the shit?" Dave Mustaine had the chance to make those guys feel that that night, but he could not for forty-five minutes stay sober, and get through that show. He ended up getting so wasted, exactly the thing that they fired him from METALLICA for doing getting drunk. He was so wasted on that stage, and when you open for a band, you know you got forty-five minutes. It's about going out, picking your best songs, and going out with guns blazing. You shove it down the audience's throat, and you get out of there without a lot of chitter chatter. You don't go on that stage, and put on some kind of a drunken rant for like eight to ten minutes of a forty-five minute set. I don't even know what he was saying. You're in an arena, so it's echoing like crazy. People can't even hear or understand what you're saying. He talked out of his ass, and Junior was over on the other side of the stage flailing his arms furiously. I was standing on the side of the stage playing the Oakland Coliseum, and James Hetfield and Lars were there. That was the first time in MEGADETH where I said "I am so ashamed to be here. I did not work my whole life, and practice fourteen hours a day... but here I am. How is it possible? That I'm playing in front of thirteen thousand people a night, and I'm ashamed?". I could see Junior ashamed. Finally he stopped, and we got through the show. All of us then had to walk right by Lars and James with our heads down because our singer made an ass out of all of us. So that's Dave onstage with MEGADETH. That moment was his moment, where he could've shown them, and then all this drama he's had all these years with METALLICA never would've happened. That night he could've put a lid on it, and said "I just took the helm, babe." He had that chance that night.
