Dave Mustaine: “Thrash metal is better than drugs”

The frontman of Megadeth Dave Mustaine believes that thrash metal is better than both drugs and alcohol. In a recent interview with Rock Hard Greece, the 62-year-old American guitarist described the musical genre as “one of those things that makes you feel alive inside.”

During the meeting Mustaine also said that he was happy to still be able to play without problems: “It's extraordinary that I can still play. I'm happy to play again. I don't want to play if the fans think I shouldn't play. If we started making music that wasn't heavy and wasn't thrash, I probably wouldn't want to do it anymore.”

He then went on to say that nothing is as good as thrash metal: “Thrash metal music is one of those things that makes you feel alive inside.

I can't remember anything I've experienced that makes me feel as good as thrash metal: not a drug, not a drink, not a person, not a thing.”

In a chat on BBC Radio 4's Saturday Live, Dave Mustaine talked about what he thinks makes a thrash song work. He has cited him among his influences “Johnny B. Goode” Of Chuck Berry of 1958 and “All the Young Dudes” of the Mott the Hoople of 1970. According to him, “All the Young Dudes” it had a simple but beautiful melody and, in his opinion, this is the key not only to a metal song, but to any song. “Quincy Jones is a very famous producer here in America, we were recording “Rust in Peace” at the time, we went to a party and Quincy was there. He told our engineer and producer that the key to successful songs was rhythm, melody and ten simple words.”

Mustaine then closed his thought: “So I guess the most important thing I would like to leave for future generations is to echo what Quincy said. But for mine, I would say to be successful in thrash, you have to have a heavy beat, a melody and, I would say, twenty simple words because we sing a lot faster.”

Dave Mustaine hey Megadeth they will perform in the only concert in Italy next June 17th at Alcatraz in Milan.