Dave Mustaine has cleared up the reasons for him refusing to share a stage with openly Satanic metal band Dissection at a festival in Israel.
It comes as Megadeth pulled out of a planned show in Israel over fears about the current security situation in the region.
In an interview with Met Al Metal – recorded before the band cancelled the Tel Aviv gig which was due to take place yesterday – Mustaine says he refused to play on the same bill as Dissected in 2005 as he was trying to steer clear of Satanism, as well as drugs.
He says: “Well, the truth of the matter is when I first had gotten my life back in order back in 2002, I had made some changes. I figured, just for now, because I don’t really know a lot about what I’m doing, I wanna make sure that I don’t play with any bands that have junkies with them, because I can’t be around guys that are doing heroin because of the temptation, and because I’m trying to have something in my life that is a power greater than myself so that I’ll get myself back in shape.
“I don’t wanna be hanging around guys that are gonna be dangerous for me spiritually, because I had just decided that I was gonna start following a spiritual path. Because I was into witchcraft and black magic and everything like that, so I know about that stuff. And I figured I’m just gonna try and avoid that stuff. I never said that I hated anybody. I just didn’t wanna play with them.
“I told the promoter, ‘Look, we can’t play.’ I never said kick them off. That was the promoter’s mistake. The promoter kicked them off.”
Dissection frontman Jon Nödtveidt took his own life in 2006, two years after being released from prison following a conviction for being an accessory to murder.
Mustaine adds: “Regardless of whether the guy was a convicted murderer, or that he was a Satanic person … we all have a little bit of darkness in us. And the sad thing is at the end of the day, the poor guy committed suicide, so he was a tortured soul. And I know that, for me, the reason that I turned to black magic and witchcraft and stuff like that was I had had spiritual abuse and so many things had been done wrong in my life and there was so much hypocrisy with the people that had said that they were Christians, or Catholic or whatever, they would say one thing and they would do something else.
“And I think that’s why a lot of us end up being spiritually misled. And that’s probably part of the reason why that poor chap did that too.”
In the rest of the interview, which can be heard below, Mustaine discusses Megadeth’s early battles with radio stations and his current spiritual beliefs.
