DAVE MUSTAINE: Me And JAMES HETFIELD Are Like The 'Big Daddies' Of This Whole Thing

Austria's Stormbringer.at webzine conducted an interview with MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine when the band played in Vienna on July 1, 2010. Watch the chat below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On whether "Big Four" tour [featuring METALLICA, MEGADETH, SLAYER and ANTHRAX] is something special for him or if it's just "another MEGADETH tour":

Mustaine: "Of course it's special. It's historical. It's life-changing for a lot of people that were there. And I think the bragging rights for people who actually witnessed it versus somebody who saw it on YouTube or saw it in a movie theater or is gonna see it on the DVD that's coming up… they weren't there. So to actually watch it was a fantastic thing. Standing up on stage where I was [during the 'Big Four' jam at the Sonisphere festival in Sofia, Bulgaria on June 22], being able to look next to me, on either side being flanked by so much tremendous talent, it was great. It's just one of those things where in the moment it doesn't seem as enormous as it really is. After the fact, you look back and you're like… You know like when you survive a car crash, you don't think it's such a big deal until you watch it in slow motion, you're thinking, 'Oh, my god, I can't believe I survived.' So going up on stage was really, really amazing. Especially when I looked back and saw how everybody was embracing everyone and how I think that… If you were there, you would have heard when, through all the goodbyes and everything at the end, when James [Hetfield, METALLICA frontman] and I embraced, the whole audience went [wild], 'cause it's what they've been waiting for. It's what I think James and I both have been waiting for, too, so it's a good thing."

On whether the "Big Four" tour will hit the U.S.:

Mustaine: "That's up to METALLICA and their camp, because I think it's fairly obvious, for myself… it doesn't need to be the 'Big Four' for me to wanna play with James and Lars [Ulrich, METALLICA drummer]. I think if the 'Big Four' [tour in the U.S.] doesn't happen, certainly a MEGADETH/METALLICA tour would be great — whether it's just the two of us or if we have a support group or something like that. But yeah, I think it was really fun because of what we stand for in heavy metal. Me and James are like the 'big daddies' of this whole thing — we were the two guitar players that set the wheels in motion when the first tapes were made of METALLICA. I think it's exciting now to look back and see all the millions of bands that have been created off what me and James did sitting in a room in Norwalk [California]."

According to Billboard.com, a DVD of the Sonisphere concert in Sofia, Bulgaria — which was beamed via satellite in HD to cinemas and was seen by more than 100,000 fans globally — is set to be released later this year. TV deals have also been struck for sets from Sonisphere and in Britain ITV2 will screen highlights from the U.K. festival. VH1 will show Sonisphere in the U.S.

In the U.K. it was screened in 79 cinemas. "At the Odeon in Leicester Square in London there was a mosh pit, and at the end of the show they had a stage invasion, which is just phenomenal to even think about," says promoter Stuart Galbraith. "Not only are we hitting the territories that we're playing with this tour, [with the cinecast] we've taken the 'Big Four' and Sonisphere into countries we haven't been able to get to this year."

METALLICA, SLAYER, MEGADETH and ANTHRAX — the so-called "Big Four" of 1980s thrash metal — played together for the first time in history on June 16 in front of 81,000 fans in Warsaw, Poland.