It's time for another round of Dave Mustaine backtracking. In the last few weeks, Dave Mustaine has started a public feud with Lars Ulrich over songwriting credits, the chances of such a tour happening again seem even more unlikely. Just last week, Mustaine said Lars fears playing with Megadeth, literally saying "I think Lars is just afraid to play with Megadeth."
In an interview with Heavymetal.dk, he implied there was one person in particular holding up the possibility of more Big Four shows:
I would do it; I think the other two bands [apparently referring to Slayer and Anthrax] would do it; but there's one person that's holding it up for everybody. So you've gotta ask the right person. I have nothing to fear; I have nothing to lose. We're all supposed to be friends now, so I think that if the fans are first and foremost, then you know what? Let's go. Let's go."
Naturally, based on all the pleasantries Mustaine leveled towards Lars in recent weeks, it was easy to make the leap that he was calling out his little Danish friend.
Dave Mustaine now denies he was implicating Lars as the hold up.
On a new episode of Rock Talk With Mitch Lafon, Mustaine acted like he had no idea how people could come to this conclusion. He called it a "silly controversy" and "just more sophomoric journalism" that was designed "to get gossip out of me."
"I never said that Lars is standing in the way of there being a 'Big Four' show," Mustaine said (hear audio below). "What I have said, and I stand by this, is that Slayer going away… they're choosing to go out on their terms [by embarking on one final tour], which is terrific. And I wish them the best.
"Kerry [King, Slayer guitarist] and I have had a friendship over the years. Albeit on the outside it looks like we're not friends because of some stuff that he or I have said to each other over the years, we're friends. And the same thing with Tom [Araya] and Dave [Lombardo] and Jeff [Hanneman], when he was with us, and with Gary [Holt] now; we're friends.
"I hope that Megadeth and Slayer get to go one more round somewhere. I think it would be great, especially if it was a 'Big Four' show," he added. "But that's entirely up to them. And if it doesn't happen, we've had our share of Slayer and Megadeth shows, and I'll always appreciate those times together.".
You'll note that Mustaine never actually clarified who the hold up was.
During this same interview, Mustaine gave some hints on the next Megadeth album:
"We've been putting new music up in my Dropbox, and the stuff that Dirk's [Verbeuren, drums] been playing along to it is scary," he said. "We've never had any of those blast-beat kind of things on our music before, and some of the drumming on this is so mind-blowing. It's making me a better guitar player again, which I love. But I never thought we were gonna be playing this fast or this aggressive again."
Mustaine revealed the album will be released to coincide with a new festival Megadeth will be curating:
"We've got a huge festival that we're gonna be announcing," he said. "It's really a big deal. It's kind of the equivalent of Gigantour, but it's a much fresher idea. We've got that set up in about 10 cities in April, and then we're gonna do it again for a three-day weekend in the middle of the year, and we're gonna do probably about another 10 of those dates at the latter part of the year."
