MEGADETH's KIKO LOUREIRO Read DAVE MUSTAINE's Autobiography Immediately After Joining Band

In a new interview with HardDrive Radio's Lou Brutus, Brazilian guitarist Kiko Loureiro was asked if joining MEGADETH in 2015 was an instantly life-changing experience for him. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It [was]. Yeah, I would say so. Although when you joined, you don't know what to expect. It's just like this legendary band. And then I was already in the studio, so I was already, 'Man, I need to know those ideas. I need to learn those parts. I need to understand better who is who here' — the producer, the owner of the studio. And I was having a lot of talks with Dave [Mustaine, MEGADETH leader], and Chris Adler [then-LAMB OF GOD drummer, who played on MEGADETH's 2016 album 'Dystopia'] was there already kind of rehearsing the drum parts. So there was a lot of stuff going on already. So I couldn't really think, 'Oh, my life's gonna change,' or stuff like that. I was already, like, 'Okay, let's start working here.'

"I tried to understand the whole dynamics so I could bring my musicality, my ideas as soon as possible without interfering… understanding the concept of the band, because I knew MEGADETH has fans, as you know, and from the outside," he explained. "I remember the first thing I bought was the Dave Mustaine biography, to know everything in the personal life as well. Because making music is very intimate in a way — sharing your ideas. You have to feel like you're free to share your ideas. You cannot feel like you're an impostor; you cannot feel like you don't belong to that place. You have to feel that you deserve to be there. You have your place now, and you have to feel free to give your ideas, even if they suck. So it's very hard — to feel confident with strangers, strangers in this sense. So I was, like, thinking a lot about those kinds of things when I was there because it was pretty challenging. It's a great thing, but also if I suck — recording 'Dystopia', if I suck or if I don't give my best, this is not gonna last without that."

Mustaine autobiography, "Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir", which came out in August 2010, landed at position No. 15 on the New York Times "Hardcover Nonfiction" best sellers list. The book was released in the U.S. via HarperCollins's It Books imprint (focusing on pop culture, sports, style and content derived from the Internet). The U.K. edition, "Mustaine: A Life In Metal", hit bookstores in the U.K. in September 2010.

Mustaine discussed his relationship with Loureiro during a recent appearance on the "Talk Is Jericho" podcast hosted by Chris Jericho. He said: "Kiko has a very playful nature. He's very much like a cat, with the way that he kind of plays around with certain things. I think the differences between dogs and cats are pretty obvious. Kiko is very cerebral with his thoughts; they're very calculated. And he's very much in his — I don't wanna say 'his own world' because that sounds disrespectful. But Kiko is very happy with his life and where he's going.

"We all face challenges at every stage in our life, and this is no different than anybody else," Dave continued. "Going out on a two-month tour when you have a set of five-year-old twins [as Kiko does] is challenging. But I think that the success of the record right now is setting the stage. As things change for us with our careers, as we start to learn how to conduct ourselves as businessmen, start to put a little bit of money in the bank, start to get a car, get a house, start to save some money and plan for the future, those are things that are all happening right now with Kiko and Dirk [Verbeuren, MEGADETH drummer]. [Kiko's] been at this a long time.

"This is really great now 'cause I told [Kiko] when I first met him, I said, 'Your life's gonna change. I don't care how big you think [your former band] ANGRA is' — 'cause I like ANGRA too — but I said, 'You're gonna go from being in ANGRA to being a star in MEGADETH.' And I said, 'If you play your cards right, you'll end up being a superstar.'"

MEGADETH's new album, "The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!", arrived on September 2 via UMe.