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Dave Mustaine: Well, the reason that wasn't included was because that's sort of a self-aggrandizing type of thing, and I've had a pretty successful career as it is. I didn't need to have every single thing I did great put in there. That really didn't express who I was, it was more about "hey look at me!" I could have put that in there but it really didn't serve any purpose. Well it's a total fan-favorite; it has over a half million views on YouTube alone. You wiped the floor up with Moon Unit Zappa and George Clinton. That's nothing to laugh about. Was there any blowback at all from the Zappa or Clinton camps?
I didn't get any kind of blowback. I think that Moon Unit was very cool and funny and I thought that George was bizarre as usual.It's really up there with the Weird Al vs. James Brown and Little Richard playing as one contestant Celebrity Wheel of Fortune clip.
Oh my god, Little Richard and James Brown as one contestant? That seems like it would be kind of tough to beat.Yeah you're right, but those are like number one and two, for me at least. When you started Megadeth you claimed to have a distinct vision of what a heavy metal band should look like—long hair, leather, studs, muscles—and through 23 lineup changes you've more or less stuck with that vision, but do you still feel the same way? Specifically about the long hair thing.
I think if you're honest with your fans then whatever the initial ideas you had when you set out will have room to grow. If you're not and you try to do a Spinal Tap Mark II kind of thing it doesn't work--it backfires. There's been a lot of bands that have done that. We came close to making a serious career-ending mistake with Risk. I like that record, and a lot of other people do too, but our hardcore fans don't. They prefer more the heavier, faster stuff. Because the album said "Megadeth" they expected a certain type of thing and it wasn't what they expected.
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If I was still in the band and it was a band decision, I'm sure I would have.The book also barely touched on the evolution of Vic Rattlehead. Old Vic has seen a lot of changes over the years…
Vic was something that was germinated from an idea for a tattoo. As a kid I had seen those junkstore three monkeys with their hands over their ears and face and mouth; the whole "see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil" thing. That was one of the things I thought was really funny when I was getting ready to do the first album cover. I wanted to have that on the album cover, but I got the record back and it was totally not that.So where exactly does Vic stand in the pantheon of heavy metal mascots?
Oh I think he is definitely in the top five. I mean there's Eddie, there's Vic, the pinhead from the Ramones, the lips from the Stones…I mean, what else is there?Well Danzig has his skull and Motörhead have the snaggletooth but those are actually more just disembodied heads.
Yeah, those are just like two-dimensional things.So if there was a post-apocalyptic war and it came down to Vic and Eddie who would ultimately win?
Tipper Gore.The new memoir, Mustaine is out now via It! Books/Harper CollinsAaron Lefkove
