Megadeth mainman Dave Mustaine has spoken about the recent violence in Charlottesville.
Last weekend saw violent clashes between white supremacists and those opposing them in the city, which resulted in the death of 32-year-old Heather Heyer.
She was killed when a car ploughed through a crowd of counter-protestors who had gathered to oppose a ‘Unite The Right’ rally in the city. Another 19 people were injured at the scene.
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Reacting to the news at last weekend’s Bloodstock festival, Mustaine tells Metal Hammer’s online editor Luke Morton: “I don’t know much about what happened – all I know is what they showed on TV and I didn’t get a chance to really see it.
“I do know that the same way there were bad guys that went to the liberal protests and started fights, there was a guy in the liberal side hit a guy on the right side in the head with a bicycle lock. He wasn’t part of the people that were protesting, he just went there to be an agent provocateur.
“If the guys on the right can go and mess with the guys on the left, the guys on the left can go and mess with the guys on the right. You don’t really know why people do this and why they have so much hate in their heart.
He adds: “The thought of me getting behind the wheel of a car and running somebody down is just incomprehensible. I don’t have any capacity to think with that much hate.”
Later, when Mustaine saw the full news report, he reached out to Luke on Twitter, saying: “I saw the story you asked about in Virginia. It was awful and breaks my heart to see how some people have devolved back into animals.”
Earlier this week, Anti-Flag released a lyric video for their track Racist in direct response to the events in Charlottesville, while Papa Roach delivered a message saying no to war and hate in their new video for American Dreams.
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