Australia, Dave Mustaine is pissed at you!
Specifically, Australian Soundwave promoter AJ Maddah. You see, last week, AJ announced that Newsted was kicked off Megadeth's headlining "Sidewave" shows, which are off-dates for the big Soundwave festival that happens in Australia every February. Megadeth's camp immediately denied that Mustaine or the band had anything to do with it.
I guess Dave is mad about all the negative publicity that was generated on sites such as this one, because last night the offical Megadeth Facebook page posted this:
Due to circumstances beyond its control, unfortunately Megadeth has to cancel their Australian dates. Megadeth's decision is unrelated to the fact that Jason Newsted is performing at Soundwave. Jason and I spoke recently and continue to be friends. – Dave Mustaine, Megadeth
To further elaborate, Dave posted this on his personal page:
All I asked for was an apology for blaming me for something I didn't do. I am still willing to play, but the promoter would rather not apologize and prefers to say I asked him to lie, which I didn't. Am I the only one that sees how easy it is to fix this? The AJ Maddah that I know is a wise and caring man, and I don't know what has happened to my old friend. My bags are packed Aussie fans.
It's quite shitty that Mustaine is basically holding his Aussie fans hostage because of a potential mix up by a promoter. Megadeth fans paid hard-earned money to see the band play a rare Australian show and because of no fault of their own, they are getting punished. Not cool!
AJ took to Twitter to respond, offering a great non-apology, placing the blame on Dave's handlers:
“Dave, we have been friends for a long time and I love you. Your family is like my own. But the only people being punished here are the fans. We took instructions from your representatives and we acted on those instructions as we would with any other artist. I realise that you fired your agent and manager and appointed new ones during the process… And that there may have been misunderstandings or miscommunications but none of those were at our end.
“Despite of this, I sent you a statement regarding possible misunderstandings/miscommunications, apologising to fans, etc, …even though my people did everything by the book and correct protocol was undertaken getting approvals for supports. There are strings of emails supporting this, including ones forwarded with instructions to remove certain artists. I am not sure where and how you believe you are owed an apology.
“And if you are, it should be from your own reps! All you are doing by canceling is punishing the fans who have had no part in any of this. Your reps approved your supports and sent clear instructions.
“They even approved artwork and press release. If you have a quarrel, or you were not consulted then your issue is with your reps and not Australian reps or your old friend! So here it is Dave. I apologize for whatever slight you think I have done you. So, does this mean tour is back on?”
AJ later added that he tried to personally reach out to Dave via analog means and all he got was a call from an agent – “Got a call from his agent apologising for his behaviour. That’s about it.”
So I doubt Megadeth will be making it to Australia this month.
Meanwhile, according to Musicfeeds, Newsted has teamed up with another thrash titan, Testament, to do a string of Sidewave shows. Not a bad trade-off for Aussie fans.
