DAVE MUSTAINE On CHRIS BRODERICK: 'I Feel Like OZZY Felt When He Discovered RANDY RHOADS'

Phil Freeman of Metal Edge magazine recently conducted an interview with MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine. An excerpt from the chat follows:

Metal Edge: You recently went through another lineup change [the departure of guitarist Glen Drover]. How do you hire a team of brothers and then get rid of one of them without tension?

Mustaine: I didn't get rid of him. He left. He's a good guy, and his playing is remarkable, and he made a great record with us. I had no problem with him. When you have a brother in the band, like AC/DC, it didn't hurt them. And you think about how many times Malcolm [Young] came and went I don't see Glen ever returning, but I think it's really neat that if it wasn't for Glen, I wouldn't have found Shawn [Drover, MEGADETH drummer], and Shawn is such a remarkable drummer. I mean, you've got a guy who'd played two concerts in his life before he joined MEGADETH. So he's been my drummer ever since the beginning of his career. And I think that's great. We're able to introduce this guy to the music business and see what kind of commitment and dedication he has to really push things. See what he's made of, and see if he's as great as I believe as I believe he is.

Metal Edge: What can you tell me about the new guitarist, Chris Broderick?

Mustaine: Chris is a phenomenal player. He's really aggressive, he's got strong hands, the solos sound remarkably like Marty Friedman and remarkably like Chris Poland, and those are areas that every one of the predecessors had difficulty with. I told Chris last night, he was down here at our studio, and I told him, "I feel kinda like Ozzy felt when he discovered Randy [Rhoads]." I feel that kind of excitement right now, like the next record is gonna have that kind of dynamic, explosive music on it, because I've always had guitar players who were my equals; in their own right, as a lead guitar player, they should be the equal to any other member in their band, but I feel that Chris has so many other things he's gonna be able to bring to me to dig from, because being a classical and jazz guitar player, those are things that MEGADETH really has influences from but doesn't have any formal training in. So I keep thinking, "Oh my God, is it possible that we're gonna go back to the formidable years with jazz and classical influences, and maybe sound like we did when we did 'Peace Sells' and those more heavily jazz- and classical-influenced thrash technical records that everyone loved and would kill to have another one of?"

Metal Edge's entire interview with Dave Mustaine appears in the magazine's April 2008 issue, available on newsstands now.

Watch footage of Chris Broderick playing Lagnani on the classical guitar: