Dave Mustaine Talks Gibson Collection, First Guitar, and Reuniting with Marty Friedman: Interview + Giveaway
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The post Dave Mustaine Talks Gibson Collection, First Guitar, and Reuniting with Marty Friedman: Interview + Giveaway appeared first on Consequence.
Dave Mustaine has long been considered one of metal’s all-time greatest guitarists, and his status was further cemented a couple years ago when he partnered with one of the world’s most renowned guitar companies, Gibson, for the Dave Mustaine Collection.
The Megadeth frontman’s signature line, which continues to grow, not only includes guitars under the Gibson name, but also two of its owned-and-operated brands: Epiphone and Kramer. Now, Heavy Consequence is giving away one Epiphone Flying V Prophecy in Aged Dark Red Burst and one Kramer Vanguard “Rust in Peace” in Alien Tech Green to a pair of lucky winners (one guitar each) who enter the contest below.
After his exit from Metallica in 1983, Mustaine almost immediately formed Megadeth, which quickly became one of the leaders of the then-burgeoning thrash metal movement. The band went on to release such metal classic albums as Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying?, Rust in Peace, and Countdown to Extinction, as well as such metal anthems as “Peace Sells,” “Wake Up Dead,” “Holy Wars…The Punishment Due,” “Symphony of Destruction,” and “Sweating Bullets.”
Megadeth — whose current lineup consists of Mustaine, guitarist Kiko Loureiro, bassist James LoMenzo, and drummer Dirk Verbeuren — are still going strong, as evidenced by last year’s release of their 16th studio album, The Sick, the Dying…and the Dead.
Mustaine spoke with Heavy Consequence during a break in touring, as he discussed his Gibson guitar line, his first notable guitar, his musical influences, the current Megadeth lineup, and his recent reunion with former Megadeth bandmate Marty Friedman in Japan.
Read the interview below, and enter for a chance to win one of two guitars — the Epiphone Flying V Prophecy in Aged Dark Red Burst and the Kramer Vanguard “Rust in Peace” in Alien Tech Green — in the contest form above the Q&A.
One winner will get the Epiphone, while the other will receive the Kramer (contest ends July 28th at 11:59PM PT). For more on the Dave Mustaine Collection, visit Gibson, Epiphone, and Kramer.
What does it mean for you to have your own Dave Mustaine Collection with Gibson?
God, it means the world to me. I guess to some people it means that I’ve arrived. [Laughs] It’s an American success story. If you keep trying and you do your best, great things will happen for you. I’m not saying if you have a job making toothpicks out of logs that you’re going to end up owning the world one day – I think that’s kind of a long way around things – but I’ve worked hard over my career and had a lot of “learning stuff” over the years. But I learned from it. And here I am.
Let’s talk about your latest guitar model, which is the Kramer Vanguard. What can fans look forward to with that particular instrument?
Well, for those that like the more “metal looking shapes,” it’s right up… the alley. It’s what you’re looking for. And it is a 24-fret guitar, which is how the whole line is that I’m an ambassador for – the Gibson line, the Kramer line, and the Epiphone line. I had no idea how identical the Kramers were to the Gibsons until I went out onstage a few weeks ago while we were on the “Crush the World” Canadian leg, and we were out with Bullet for My Valentine. There was a night where my guitar tech, Bryan Jones, had handed me a Kramer, and I went out onstage. I did not know that it wasn’t a Gibson. I thought he gave me the same guitar he gives me every night for the first song. And I got out there and I’m playing and I’m playing and I’m playing. It shows you how much I stare at the neck and not everything else. And I went back over and he gave me the guitar and proceeded to finish the show. He came in after the show and says, “So, how did you like that first guitar?” And I said, “Fine. Why?” And he goes, “That was the Kramer.” And I went, “Get the fuck outta here! Are you kidding me?” And he said, “No. It was the Kramer.”
I was so surprised that there was nothing that I felt with my fingers to separate the two. Now, the guitar body is identical, the head stock is the same, but the fret markers are different – that should have told me. But you know, we have the Gibson V’s that I’m endorsing. They’re all different entry levels. There’s kind of a junior level, a semi-pro, and then a pro level – the custom shop ones are real fancy. There’s just a bunch of different ways that these have been made. So, I didn’t know. And when he told me that I was out there playing a Kramer, I thought, “This is gonna be rad.”
As you mentioned, you also have Flying V models with both Epiphone and Gibson. Can you discuss those, as well?
The Gibson and the Epiphone have the classic body shapes. All the guitars have the identical neck shape and headstock, and almost all models have the same pickups. There is an alternative version of the Epiphone Flying V that you can get if you want – without the Dave Mustaine pickups in it. You can get the Fishmans that they have or you can get the Seymour Duncans.
Do you remember the first guitar you ever owned?
I think the first guitar that I ever really owned that was anything worth mentioning was the first BC Rich that I got. I bought it from a music store up in Hollywood. I lived down in Huntington Beach – I was a little surf punk – and I got someone that I knew – one of my big-mouthed drunken friends from the time period back then – to take me up in her Volkswagen Beetle. And it came in a flight case! So the guitar was the BC Rich “Rich Bich 10-string” in a flight case, which was enormous… and we couldn’t fit it in her Bug. So, it was my entry into the world of being a guitar owner – the first journey home with the baby from the hospital was probably more memorable than the first year or so of even playing it.
As a young guitar player starting out, who were some of acts that influenced and inspired you?
Well, as far as really great guitar players at the time, everybody was kind of gravitating towards just a few bands. The lesser bands really didn’t get the time of day. So, of course the bands on everyone’s lips were KISS and Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple. A lot of people were talking about Aerosmith, as well. And I had just kinda stumbled onto AC/DC. And from there, it was pretty much off to the races – the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and the British Invasion, both of those musical eras had really affected me. The rhythm playing and the songwriting from the British Invasion – the Beatles, the Stones, Led Zeppelin, the Who… surprisingly more of the Who than I even realized until later on in life.
And then the New Wave of British Heavy Metal for the soloing and the riff playing – because Americans play a lot of chords, and the people that are in the modern riff era are more of the speed and thrash metal players. And of course that includes death, black, all these other offshoots of metal. But unlike the rock and heavy metal bands in the States, where they do a lot of chords and sweep picking and stuff like that, the British metal players relied more on riffs, I believe.
And speaking of guitarists, you welcomed back Marty Friedman for a gig in Japan earlier this year. What was that experience like?
That was awesome. So, here’s the backstory: Marty and I were in the band together for a long time, and Marty had fallen in love with Japan. He was reading and writing and speaking it almost fluently – and married a Japanese girl. We were pretty big in Japan and we got offered a show at Budokan. And then I got sick and I had to be hospitalized. So, I canceled the Budokan show, and I didn’t really think about how that was going to affect Marty – because I was thinking about the good of the band as a whole. And he was heartbroken, ‘cause he wanted to do it so bad. So, that was part of the reason why Marty and I parted ways [in 2000].
And when Budokan came back up 23 years later, I knew I had to extend an invitation to see if he wanted to play with me. And he was on fire – he played great. You know, we all played really well… So, the fans that were there to watch this got to see something magical. We live-streamed it around the world, as well. So, there’s a lot of people who got to see it as it was going down. And the last point on that, we have the recordings of everything and are going to be hopefully releasing something in the future – either audio or video – containing those performances by Megadeth and special guest Marty Friedman.
There’s been a number of lineup changes in Megadeth’s history, but how are you feeling about the current lineup?
There hasn’t been that many when you think about how many some of these bands go through. A lot of popular bands will go through lineup changes and sometimes it’s really bad for the band. Other times, it’s necessary. So, I try not to hold it against guys that are in bands when they have personnel issues. Sometimes, you just end up having a different perspective, and when you guys start off doing stuff, it’s very much like a marriage, and you want to have the same vision – but it doesn’t always stay that way. So, compared to some bands, yeah, we’ve had several lineup changes, but not as many as others have. And the lineup that we have right now, I think is magic. I can tell you at any given time, we may have had a period where there was a more popular person on drums or a more popular person on bass or a more popular person on lead guitar. But the magic that the band is operating under right now is so different.
I mean, it’s literally mesmerizing for me to take a step back from the microphone and look over and see things like Kiko playing with Marty. And James floating around the stage like a sage with his craft, and going up to the microphone and singing as good as I do – or better. And we’ve never been a band that was strong in the singing department. All of the background vocals we’ve ever had have always been the person at the time that was doing the least amount of playing or whatnot, if they could even sing the parts would go and sing. And to hear the difference between someone who actually is a singer versus someone like myself who is, is…I don’t know, for lack of a better term, a “vocalizer” – that has made me a better singer. And that was one of the things I was hearing every night out on the tour: “Man, you’re really singing so much better.” When we would see our friends that would come out and visit us – “Wow, Dave, you’re singing great. Your voice sounds great.”
And I’d like to think I’m not doing anything different. But, the truth remains your vocal box is a muscle just like anything else, and you have to take care of it. I have to be careful when I eat or drink or if I’m around anybody smoking. That was one of the things that with smoking and drinking and everything, that gravelly voice – like Janis Joplin – works for some people. And then when you start having your voice clear out and get a little bit cleaner, and you start really hearing your voice – you have a choice. You can either say, “Now I sound like a guy that can’t sing” and stop smoking, or, you end up saying, “I can do this and I know I can take baby steps and get my voice stronger, and take care of myself health-wise.”
I’m almost 62 years old and I’ve got a handful of friends that are my age and they look like shit. I even question if they could do a week out on the road with us because of the grind that we’re under. But it doesn’t mean I don’t love them, I’m just talking about the fact that I think we are out on the road working at such a high level – this lineup. And our outlook being so congruent that when we get done playing, it’s like “heavy metal calisthenics” every night for 90 minutes. You get back into the dressing room and cool off, and you don’t realize, “Man, I just sweat off four or five billion calories, and I’m really doing good for where I’m at in my life, where I’m at with my playing, where I’m at with my career.”
Megadeth’s been around for a long time, and a lot of bands when they become successful and they start going off into that “legendary status stuff,” they kind of get a little complacent. And I think that happens with a lot of bands, and it’s not something you can cover up with a fancy leather jacket – if you’re out of shape and you look disgusting, you’re out of shape and you look disgusting. I think that if you’re going to take care of yourself, then share that and talk about it. I’ve always talked about my health and my fitness.
Dave Mustaine Talks Gibson Collection, First Guitar, and Reuniting with Marty Friedman: Interview + Giveaway
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