Mustaine and Politics

J.

Old Fart
Jul 24, 2001
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The Woodlands
It's being talked about elsewhere, so I thought we might as well talk about Mustaine's dumbassedness since we have a bunch of Megadeth fans 'round here.

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MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine recently spoke to Pit Magazine about the group's comeback effort, "The System Has Failed", and the upcoming presidential elections, among other topics. Several excerpts from the interview follow:

Pit Magazine: The cover painting [on the new album] is very striking. It marks the return of band mascot Vic Rattlehead who is accepting payoffs from politicians. Where did the idea come from and weren't you going to use longtime MEGADETH artist Ed Repka to do the cover?

Dave Mustaine: "That was my idea. I talked to Repka, but he got weird with me. We talked about a price, but he is another ingrate. He was a college kid who I put on the map. He wasn't doing anything, we had him do one record cover and then every record cover after that he used the same exact paint that he did 'Peace Sells' with. He must’ve bought too much paint. THE CIRCLE JERKS record was done in the same colors. We talked and we had everything worked out and then he started jacking the price up. Then I said goodbye and this time it's forever. I got a guy named Mike Lerner to do it. A lot of people see Bush up front and think that I'm anti-Bush. But everybody is there. The Clintons, Arafat and Blair, the Arabs; nobody is guilt-free. Even though Bush is waving his finger at Vic, what Vic stands for is so much deeper than anybody is on the cover. And the point of the cover is that you can get away with murder in America. You can buy your way out of it."

Pit Magazine: Speaking of politicians, it is an election year in the United States and that has many famous people endorsing presidential candidates. You did the opposite because you recently said, "musicians should shut the fuck up and play music because they don’t know anything about running a country."

Dave Mustaine: "You see Al Jourgensen of MINISTRY going around saying 'Fuck Bush.' And I've always liked MINISTRY but I know that guy has a legendary drug problem so you can't really take what he is saying seriously. The United States is the strongest country in the world for a reason. Now I'm gonna vote for Bush. I voted for Clinton, but I don't give a fuck because I vote for the lesser of two evils. Kerry is a mistake. He will ruin our country. But the fact that people would vote based on who a celebrity endorses is just stupid. Don't vote for Bush because I'm voting for him. Don't vote for Kerry because you hate me."

Pit Magazine: More celebrities should take your stance, but they don’t.

Dave Mustaine: "Yeah you've got Tom Morello from AUDIOSLAVE walking around talking about freeing the people in South America while he is walking around in his fucking Gucci silk suits. Spare me, what do you know about that? Talk about hypocrisy. Natalie Maines from the DIXIE CHICKS said that she is ashamed to be from the state of Texas; well I'm ashamed that you are fucking from America. I saw her at a Nashville Predators game, talk about somebody who needs to go on a diet. I don't know if she was pregnant at the time, but she sure looked it. But the fact is unless you are a politician, shut up. What do they know about politics? (With a southern accent) Oh well I'm gonna vote for a guy that gonna raise taxes on the fucking rich. You stupid twat. You are in the upper income bracket in America, you are gonna get taxed. And when small business owners get taxed, jobs are lost. How stupid is that? You don’t know what the fuck you are talking about, shut up.

Pit Magazine: I know you weren’t happy with the footage of yourself in the METALICA documentary "Some Kind Of Monster", but I was wondering how you felt as a musician of METALLICA’s current musical direction?

Dave Mustaine: "I don’t listen to them anymore and I haven't listened to them for a very long time. I wouldn't even know what they are doing. I heard their last song on the radio and I was pretty surprised that it was them. I would have listened closer if I knew it was.

"I've talked about the movie enough. I wasn't happy about it. They know it. They used my footage and I told them not to. I'm not going to be talking to Lars ever again. That's basically the long and the short of it. After a while, you just kind of ask yourself if I was so unimportant and such a temporary, shitty guitar player for so many years and with them ignoring the fact that I even existed, why is it so important that I’m in the movie?"
 
and like I posted elsewhere:

Mustaine said:
You see Al Jourgensen of MINISTRY going around saying 'Fuck Bush.' And I've always liked MINISTRY but I know that guy has a legendary drug problem so you can't really take what he is saying seriously.

yeah, like he has the ability to judge people's mental capacity by their drug problems. :rolleyes:
 
Dave "Heroin Addict of the Century" Mustaine said:
I know that guy has a legendary drug problem
Haha.

I'm surprised he would say musicians don't know shit about politics since Megadeth has always been highly political.
 
The thing is, a bunch of bands are political. On one hand you have bands like Pearl Jam, Bruce Springsteen, Dixie Chicks, and REM having anti-Bush tours. Not to mention tons of -core bands like Biohazard and BoySetsFire with anti-Bush/anti-Government messges.

On the other, you have redneck country artists like Toby Keith spouting off how the US will "kick your ass", and also that Billy Milano idiot. Not to mention that stupid lughead Ted Nugent.

Politics in music is hardly something new. Look at the 60's.

Besides, since this is a democracy, aren't civilians suppose to be involved in politics? You know, since we "elect" our officials?
 
I personally don't care one bit if celebrities get all political but I appreciated Springsteen basically saying, "geez I've tried to stay out of it but this is just too incredible to remain silent about any longer."

Mustaine is still a dick, plain and simple, sober or fucked up. His arrogance just oozes out of everything he says.
 
"Industry standards, as defined by WebWasher, have deemed this site inappropriate in a business setting."

I'll watch 'em when I get home.
 
Haha, now I understand the term, "Buttstain". What a knob - I mean, all his life he's always made himself out to be the victim, and it could never ever be anyone else's fault for all the things that went wrong...Metallica, boo hoo....Risk, it was the other band members wanting to go pop....I slept on my arm wrong so I better sell all my guitars....blah blah.

And then he makes statements like these, and still wants people in his corner. That Dixie Chicks comment is so childish - yeah, she's fat or pregnant, but what does that have to do with anything? And why would he want to be quoted with something like that? He wants the music world to take him seriously....?

I think he shoots his mouth off now just to get attention, and plus, that's what people have come to expect. He's become a charicature of his ownself. A friggin' spoof.

Plus, I saw the video to "Die Dead Enough" on MTV last saturday. The wife and I couldn't stop laughing...I've seen better Rhapsody videos. The video for "Hangar 18" was a mini-movie shot on 35mm, won a grammy, and now he's doing wedding videos on Betamax.

Still, if he's voting for Bush then he's alright by me. :loco:
 
heh. If he plays Peace Sells... when I see them (which he probably will) I'll probably remember these comments and roll my eyes, bathed in sarcasm.