The legend surrounding Megadeth's debut 1985 album Killing Is My Business… and Business Is Good! is that most of its budget went to drugs. Even then-bassist Dave Ellefson said in an interview earlier this year that he can still "can hear what color the [cocaine] was" at different points of the album. But guitarist Chris Poland has a very different recollection of the album's recording.
Poland said in an interview with The Metal Voice that myth all the money went to drugs is total bullshit. Poland added that the band was living on a $100 a week out of their $6,000 or $8,000 budget, and humorously adds that "drugs aren't that expensive."
"First of all when, we got any money it was in Dave's account. We got a per diem, we got $100 a week. This myth that the first record was spent on drugs is bullshit. We only had about $6,000 or $8,000 to make a record and we made it in a couple of weeks, and drugs aren't that expensive. We weren't even that far gone then."
Poland also gave a shout out to late producer Cliff Culteri, who he said spoke to Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine about Poland getting more solos on the record.
"Also if it wasn't for Cliff Culteri I wouldn't have gotten solos on the first record. He asked Dave to give me solos because I wasn't going to get a bunch of solos. I thank Cliff for that – rest in peace. Even [Peace Sells… But Who's Buying?] I think our budget was $26,000. But we were in really nice studios, we still had our $200 a week that we lived on."
Later in the interview, Poland said he hasn't spoken to Mustaine since contributing to The System Has Failed in 2004. He added that he wouldn't want to rejoin the band, but "if Dave did a solo thing, maybe… but I don't want to learn all those Megadeth songs." Poland was in Megadeth between 1984 and 1987 and contributed lead guitar to The System Has Failed.
