MEGADETH's DAVE MUSTAINE Says He Has Been Praying For SLAYER's JEFF HANNEMAN

Steve Appleford of LA Weekly recently conducted an interview with MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

LA Weekly: Leaving METALLICA and then becoming a platinum-selling artist on your own was a huge accomplishment, but your acrimony with that band seemed to go on for years.

Mustaine: It was a pretty big mountain to climb. The thing was, I wasn't really looking at what was right in front of me. I was looking down the road at my pals that had left me behind because the different chemical reaction that alcohol had on us. When we drank, those guys would get happy and I would get angry. I grew up fighting. My whole life I was living on the streets, scratching and clawing. I'm almost 50, and when I think back . . . David Ellefson and I had an asinine agreement: We were panhandling in Hollywood, and if we didn't make it, we were going to handcuff ourselves to a light pole and pull a hand-grenade pin and go out in a bang. Obviously we were stupid and probably stoned at the time.

LA Weekly: Tom Araya of SLAYER told me he would actually be interested in doing "The Four Horsemen" [an early song originally written by Mustaine, as a jam with the other "Big Four" bands at the upcoming show in Indio, California]. He said it was more representative of what you guys were all about [than DIAMOND HEAD's "Am I Evil?", which was performed by the four bands in Sofia, Bulgaria in July 2010].

Mustaine: Wow. On tour I've gotten to know Tom and I really like that guy. He's a really interesting and cool guy. Today I just walked in [to SLAYER's dressing room] and said I heard from [ailing guitarist] Jeff Hanneman — because I texted Jeff and told him I've been praying for him about his arm and asking if he wants to talk to me. I said to Jeff, "Look, I want you to remember I had an arm injury that almost ended my career. And I know what it feels like to not be able to play."

LA Weekly: There were a couple of Christian protesters outside your show in Long Beach some months ago. Do you find some irony in that?

Mustaine: You mean the fact that they're out there picketing and I'm a born-again Christian? Well, it just shows that they don't know me. If you really want to preach the Gospel to people, you have to do it with your deeds and not your words. There's been ups and downs in my life. Everybody knows I've had a really checkered past. What better way to get me prepared to be of service to other people at the end of my career. I had a really rough beginning, but I'm having a great ending. This is all getting me prepared for what I'm going to do next.

Read the entire interview from LA Weekly.