MEGADETH Mainman Checks In From Paris

MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine has issued the following update from the "Priest Feast" European tour, also featuring JUDAS PRIEST and TESTAMENT:

"Well, we are within a week of ending the tour for the 'Priest Feast'. Oddly enough, I have not spent any time with the guys from JUDAS PRIEST, whereas Shawn [Drover; MEGADETH drummer] has been hanging with them almost every day. It is so amusing to me to see my guys, guys that I really admire, get excited again about being out on the road or meeting someone. I guess I have just gotten to the point where people like Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing are my peers and contemporaries, and we tip our hats to each other.

"I would never in my life think that as a kid looking at the back of a record cover, some 30-plus years ago, I would have a friend that would actually be one of the pictures on the back of a record I had once held in my sweaty teen-age mitts. I also had the pleasure of re-telling the story about how my brother-in-law, Bob Wilkie (R.I.P. and may God have mercy on his soul) who was a 6'4" Scottish man, that was the chief of police in Stanton, California, had walked in on his son and I listening to 'Sad Wings of Destiny' and felt it necessary to double up his fist, rear back and punch me in the face. Of course, I was just 15 and probably a total of 100 pounds. This is the way that the Jehovah's Witnesses in my family dealt with things around my house and family growing up.

"Although it didn't soften the blow, it sure felt empowering to stand up and say, 'I am fucking metal!' I have been metal since the first time I got punched in the face by my brother-in-law, and you see why people sometimes call the police what they do. I don't really like calling the police pigs, unless they are pigs, and then I would quote the famous singer from THE PLASMATICS, (R.I.P., too. W.O.W.) Wendy O. Williams, who said, 'A pig is a pig and that's that.' I find it hard to believe that Gar Samuelson, our first drummer, was with Wendy, because we all thought she was incredible and certainly well endowed. This happened the time we toured with MOTÖRHEAD and THE PLASMATICS obviously back when Gar and Chris [Poland] were still in MEGADETH.

"Today I am in Paris, and whenever I come here I think about the moment of the life of my daughter Electra starting here. Pam [Dave's wife] and I had decided that we wanted another child, and we prayed, and then we conceived our beautiful daughter in the amazing Parisian hotel Costes, which is completely decorated by Elle magazine. All of the people that work here look like they're models and more. I mean, when I get out of my car and the bellman make me look like dog meat, it is a good indication that we are in a very special place and we need to keep our eyes open for whatever the day brings us.

"I have been emailing Andy Sneap [MEGADETH producer] back and forth the last few days, and Andy seems in great spirits and says that the time has renewed him. I have several improvements to make to our [forthcoming MEGADETH] record so far that I have decided on, just by way of sitting with the record for a while, and it occurring that some songs are long for the sake of being long and need to be addressed. As well as James [Lomenzo, bass] and I talked yesterday, and I said, 'It has been such a smooth transition with you coming in here and replacing a person that was here for quite some time, that I have just taken for granted that you have always been here.' I apologized for that, but it was really a testimony to how well things are with James and I and in the land of all-things-MEGA! I asked him if he would be interested maybe taking a look at some parts and making them more explosive. I love the riff at the top of 'Washington Is Next', and I think that we should use his skills and talents 100%. He was thrilled and so am I, so when we get home, the first week or so, before Andy Sneap gets out to San Diego and my studio, I am going to re-cut some parts with James. I am going to look up my engineer that I always use up in L.A., Ken Eisenagle.

"Once we get home, we have a very, very busy schedule: return on the 24th, several medical appointments for my ribs and right shoulder, dentist appointments, and then we play an event for the wounded soldiers in Palm Springs, California, and we are going to play some music for the men and women that got hurt. Then I have to leave on the 30th again to go back to Germany for the release of my new signature product line from Marshall. I am also hoping to go by the Dean booth and sign or at least say hello to the booth and the fans that are there. It's hard to believe that my contract with Dean Guitars will be up at the end of this year, and I must say that I still absolutely love my Dean Guitars, and I hope to show my support at the Messe show [Musikmesse Frankfurt 2009 fair] in Germany next month.

"We will return on the 2nd, and get prepared for the tracking, filming and continued writing of the new record, as well as preparing for our headlining event at the Revolver Golden Gods award show. We are going to play a few songs there, and we are having the fans and general public choose those songs from a list that people can call in to TheLiveLine [a service launched by Dave Mustaine that enables musicians to connect to their audience over the phone], and vote for whatever they want. We have six really great choices. We also have great news about TheLiveLine.

"This month we are opening up TheLiveLine to the MEGADETH fan club to help us go over it and troubleshoot the site. And we have just hired James Lomenzo to write for the descriptions of all of the talent on the site, and we are talking to Shawn and Chris [Broderick, MEGADETH guitarist] on how they can be involved too, but it is time for me to head to the venue for our show tonight. I am going to Sephora before we get to the venue to get some new colognes so we smell good at the meet-and-greets. Hahaha!"