SW: Yeah, but how were the sandwiches?
MF: I didn't eat them. Would you eat a sandwich that was next to a urinal?
SW: Is that why they were so soggy?
MF: [laughs] Yeah, no kidding man.
SW: Before joining Megadeth, you must have had some terrible day jobs just to stay afloat. What's the worst day job you've ever had?
MF: I've never had a day job, can you believe that?
SW: Amazing. How did you get by?
MF: Uh... by just being broke. [laughs] I taught guitar, and I would teach just enough to scrape by. When I lived in Hollywood, I ate a box of rice a day from a Chinese restaurant. You could get a side order of rice for like a buck, that was what I lived on. And bags of lollipops - I would get two big bags for like 59 cents, really cheap. So I lived on rice and lollipops for a while, and I taught just enough guitar to pay rent. I think if I really went out of my way to get more students I could've made more, but teaching was killing me because I didn't have the patience to give people what was necessary. I gave people what would bring them back for another lesson, but that's not necessarily what benefited them the most. I just wanted them to come back again so I could eat another box of rice.
Erik Fong is a San Francisco-based music "journalist." There's nothing left for him to learn.
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