MEGADETH's DAVE MUSTAINE: 'I Don't Put Any Political Party Favoritism Into My Lyrics'

MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine was interviewed last night (Saturday, June 24) on the "Fox News Saturday Night" program, hosted by former MTV VJ Kennedy. Asked how the pandemic influenced his songwriting, Mustaine said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I've tried to use things that we all deal with without putting too much of a black-or-white yin-or-a-yang to it. I try and go right up the middle so that you can think what you want. With my kids, I've always said, 'Here's the pro. Here's the con. Here's what Dad would do. And here's what happened.'"

When Kennedy brought up the fact that Mustaine is often accused of putting his politics into his music, Dave said: "Well, I don't put any political party favoritism into my lyrics. I talk about issues that affect all of us. I've grown up in a very real outlook towards life and the world. I've been living on my own ever since I was 15. So, back in 1976 — that's like a 10-year-old nowadays. So I know what it's like for a lot of the kids that are growing up in our nation. And I have my own beliefs of what a big part of that problem is, and I try and put it into lyrics in an easily palatable way so that people can maybe take a look at stuff and maybe not want what I have but ask themselves… 'I don't want what Dave has, but do I want what I have?' That kind of a thing, to give yourself a different perspective and maybe another shot at something in life."

Asked to name an issue that keeps him up at night, either as a parent or someone who reads the news, Mustaine said: "Believe it or not, I don't really watch too much of the current affairs right now, because I don't have a lot of time to do that. There was a period while I was going through my recovery from my previous illness where I got to watch a lot of TV, but I'm just so busy right now. I know a lot of the current affairs that are going on, and I think it's just like anything in life. When people are gonna look back, they're gonna figure out who's doing what, they're gonna correct it, and we're gonna move on."

Back in June 2018, Mustaine addressed the controversial comments he made on stage in Singapore in August 2012 about then-President Barack Obama "staging" murders and turning the United States into "Nazi America." Asked by Kerrang! magazine if he had any regrets about what he said, Mustaine responded: "I have no regrets. If you weren't there, you won't know what happened. We were in Asia and soon discovered that the guy doing our monitors really wasn't a monitor guy; the first two shows had been disastrous. We got a local guy to help us and it was a fucking mess. Naturally, I threw caution to the wind and we knew we couldn't take the gig too seriously. That night I had a couple of drinks and I was really just joking with the audience."

When asked to clarify what the "joke" was exactly, Mustaine said: "What I said was how much I wanted to live in Singapore because it's beautiful — the streets are immaculate, there's no graffiti, and hardly any crime at all. It really is a remarkable Asian paradise. I was drinking and started talking about the shootings in America. All I said was next time it happens, I'd come and live out there in Singapore. Whatever else came out along with that was to soften the blow to the audience about the sound issues. When I say stuff that I mean, I stick by it and nobody can shake me from it. And when I'm joking around and laughing, people need to be smart enough to know it is not meant seriously."

During the August 7, 2012 concert in Singapore, Mustaine told the crowd: "Back in my country, my president is trying to pass a gun ban. So he's staging all of these murders, like the Fast And Furious thing down at the border and Aurora, Colorado, all the people that were killed there. And now the beautiful people at the Sikh temple."

He continued: "I don't know where I'm gonna live if America keeps going the way it's going because it looks like it's turning into Nazi America."

Fast And Furious was part of a federal sting operation intended to trace the movement of weapons from legal dealers in the United States to the leaders of Mexican drug cartels. The government lost track of some weapons, which were later found at crime scenes in Mexico.

A week after the Singapore concert, Mustaine spoke with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones about his controversial comments, claiming that he was merely repeating the theories of Larry Pratt, a pro-gun activist who runs the organization Gun Owners Of America. He said: "To clarify things, no one can deny there were criminal rogues in the administration. CBS News got the memos, Congress has the information and basically, Larry Pratt, the head of Gun Owners Of America, who is a highly respected person, said that if they would stage 'Fast And Furious,' they'd be capable of staging everything. And it was all done to blame the Second Amendment. We'd be fools not to look at this. Our U.S. border patrol agents were killed. And like I said, I was just quoting Larry Pratt. That's it bottom line."

He continued: "In the heat of the moment, when you're onstage and you're talking, sometimes you're not as eloquent as you'd like to be. Like I said, I was just quoting what Larry said. We really need to investigate this and we need to have the Attorney General release the documents and find out who's responsible for this. People died and the democratic process says, 'Let's investigate this. Let's find out what's going on here.'

"I love our country and my whole thing with this is that I think we should just look into it... I just think that we deserve to know the truth — that's it.

"I'm a patriot," he added. "I've always been controversial. I'm a political songwriter. And this wasn't done to hurt any our my fellow countrymen. I think that it's something that we really, really need to look into."

Earlier in 2012, Mustaine made headlines when he voiced his support for ultraconservative Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum. He explained at the time that the Pennsylvania politician looked "like he could be a really cool president… kind of like a JFK kind of guy."

Later that year, Mustaine revealed his "birther" opinions on Alex Jones's talk show, saying he doubted President Obama was born in the United States. He said: "With all of the proof about his birth certificate being fake… And you see the signs in Kenya that say 'the birthplace of Barack Obama.' Hello?! C'mon, guys. How stupid are we right now?"

Mustaine has consistently denied that he is a Republican, telling Artisan News in a 2012 interview: "I'm an independent, not a Republican — I've never been a Republican. I've always said that. I don't belong to any party — I'm non-partisan. And for me, the sad thing is, instead of voting for the best man, I have to vote for the lesser of two evils."