DAVE MUSTAINE Says He Has Heard METALLICA's 'Hardwired', Refuses To Give His Opinion

Earlier this week, Meltdown of the WRIF radio station in Detroit, Michigan conducted an interview with MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine. You can now listen to the chat using the audio player below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On whether there has been any talk of more shows featuring the so-called "Big Four" of 1980s thrash metal — METALLICA, MEGADETH, SLAYER and ANTHRAX:

Mustaine: "Well, people talk about it all the time. It's just that, which ones? Is it any of the people that them talking about it is gonna have any significance? When you think about the fans, they would love to see that happen, but just like you had said, you saw ANTHRAX and SLAYER, I think that ANTHRAX and SLAYER, the three of us have played so much over the years that, for me, it's kind of… it's boring now. And not taking anything away from any of the bands, because I love SLAYER and ANTHRAX, but I think that if we were gonna do something again, it should either be the four of us or give it a rest for a little while."

On whether he has heard the new METALLICA song "Hardwired":

Mustaine: "I did."

On his opinion of "Hardwired":

Mustaine: "I'm not gonna say anything."

On BUTCHER BABIES landing the opening slot on MEGADETH's fall tour after Mustaine was interviewed by BUTCHER BABIES frontwoman Carla Harvey:

Mustaine: "She was terrific. I was really impressed. I had no idea who she was, and I thought, 'Wow! This girl is really…' Besides being intimidatingly attractive, she was very, very professional. And I thought… I mean, I don't wanna say anything disrespectful, 'cause I don't know her, but I thought she was a television personality. And then when I found out after the fact [that she was singing for the BUTCHER BABIES], I was, 'Wow! That's interesting.' And when the opportunity came up for us to have them on tour, I did a little research on 'em, 'cause there's so many, many, many bands out there, I don't really know… You can't… you just can't keep track of everybody. But when I did a little research on 'em and I saw [photos of] them [performing] with the [nipple] tape, it was, like, 'Oh my God! I'm gonna hear it from my daughter.' And I'm glad that they stopped that. But it was funny, 'cause she had said that they stopped doing it 'cause it hurt. And I was thinking, 'Yeah, I can imagine. If I was putting electrical tape on my balls every day, it probably would hurt too.'"

On the MEGADETH beer which he is launching in partnership with the world-class craft brewery Unibroue:

Mustaine: "A lot of people were questioning the alcohol content, because it was 4.5 [percent]. And this is a top-notch brewery that has nearly, if not more than, three hundred gold medals. And if you look at a Budweiser can, I think they've got, like, twelve on the side of it. I could be wrong; maybe they're abbreviating it, and they've got three hundred and twelve. [Laughs] This is a very, very high-quality brewery. Most beers, when they make a beer, they'll make a batch with a yeast, and then they'll use the yeast again and do a total of anywhere from five to seven batches. We only do one batch, discard the yeast and start over again, which keeps it very clean. It's more expensive to make, but it tastes better. And at the end of the day, there are two kinds of beer drinkers — the ones who drink for the taste and the ones who drink for the effect. And I think that with this beer, because it tastes so good, the alcoholic content wasn't quite as important. Now it is one of those beers that you can drink two of 'em before you know it and have yourself a nice little beer buzz going, especially if you do it before you have your first cup of coffee in the morning."

Mustaine, who was the original lead guitarist of METALLICA, was dismissed from the band by drummer Lars Ulrich in 1983. He was replaced by Kirk Hammett and went on to form MEGADETH and achieve worldwide success on his own.

Mustaine feuded with the members of METALLICA for more than two decades before finally patching things up over the last few years. He has jammed with his ex-bandmates on several occasions during "Big Four" shows and at METALLICA's 30th anniversary concerts in 2011.

Interview (audio):