Prior to Nick Menza's tragic death a few weeks ago, he and Megadeth frontman and former bandmate Dave Mustaine were not on the best of terms. Menza said the only thing stopping the classic Megadeth reunion was Mustaine being cheap and later accused Mustaine of not paying Menza royalties.
But once Menza passed, Mustaine seemed to suddenly remember how much he loved Menza. He even said so as much in a recent interview, saying he started crying onstage while paying tribute to his former drummer:
"Yeah, [my emotional reaction] came out of nowhere. I didn't know what it was, because it was very [well known] how much Nick did not like me, in the things that he was saying [in the press]. And I was not going to retaliate because I loved him, and I think that was evident when we dedicated the song to him. I couldn't finish it, and I usually don't let things stop me from doing by job, but I was overwhelmed with emotion. We've lost a lot of very valuable members of the metal community this year and last year."
"You know, I've always loved [Nick's] playing and thought he was great, so he's terribly, terribly missed. And, like I said, I had no idea how much I really loved him until I couldn't finish the song."
Mustaine, in posting a tribute, mentioned that he wanted to organize a benefit show for Menza with all former Megadeth members coming on stage to play.
Except, there's one problem. Nick Menza's family is not interested. Jeez, I wonder why.
Mustaine revealed in a new interview with EonMusic that Menza's family is not interested in Mustaine's help at the moment:
There's some stuff going on right now where [Nick's] family is doing a GoFundMe page, and I'm not involved in that. If they need our help, they know where we're at. We love them and want the best for them, so we'll find out."
He continued: "For now, I think that if anybody wants to get involved with [supporting] Nick [by donating money], the GoFundMe page [is the best place to do so]. I would rather that if anybody's going to support what we're going to do, our involvement is to help Nick's legacy for his children. He's got artwork, he's got a lot of music that he's written outside of Megadeth, and if people really love Nick and they really want to support him, look at his artwork, focus on the music that he did, Megadeth or otherwise."
The GoFundMe page, set up to help Menza's kids is asking for $65k, and is only $5k in, so they could use some help here. Hey Dave, here's an idea. Why not show some goodwill and donate a chunk of money to Menza's kids, if he meant so much to you?
Mustaine loved Menza so much, when asked to share a fond memory, all he could do was talk about the time Menza happened to run into a "girl guy girl". We'll definitely discuss this on tonight's RIP a Livecast, and for now, you can enjoy this amazing audio of us dissecting Mustaine's previous memories of Menza:
[youtube]https://youtu.be/OWSiATqoZJU[/youtube]
