DM: Because those guys kept dicking around with the process. They kept saying, "listen to my song, listen to my tape"...I'll listen to the tape"click click click" as I throw it out the f**kin'window!
BN: Going back to what you said about Vinnie Colaiuta really wanting to play with Megadeth...in actuality, it's really not that surprising. Even though most skeptics may look at Megadeth as simply a "thrash metal band," fact is, Megadeth were always one of the few thrash bands that were truly respected by musicians. Killing Is My Business... was truly a monumental album in that it was the first of its kind...molding fusion with thrash-metal and taking it to the extreme. And you continue that tradition with this new album. Was that your vision when you first started Megadeth...to mix fusion with thrash-metal and start a whole new musical trend?
DM: Truthfully, I just wanted to out-metal Metallica, and I knew it would be pretty hard since the band had "metal" in their name.
BN: But your music was so much more sophisticated...do you feel it was perhaps Gar Samuelson and Chris Poland's jazz/fusion background gave Megadeth in part its identity, even though you wrote the majority of the material?
DM: I think that Chris didn't really give anything other than playing solos. Gar certainly added some interesting stuff, but I wrote his drum parts pretty much the same way I've written drum parts [for all the drummers in Megadeth] to match the songs. I told them the same thing I told Vinnie [Colaiuta] - "have fun with it, and if it's not what I'm looking for, I will make suggestions. And if you're not getting it, then I will tell you exactly what I want you to do." I think that breathes an environment of a good atmosphere where you can have fun. If you're gonna be creating music with somebody, you want to respect them...and even when hiring session guys, I've respected them enough to come in and listen to their professional opinion and give them a shot at contributing to what I was doing. When this project was finished, I listened to what Vinnie had done and I knew I had made the right decision...he did everything in three days! Sadly, Vinnie is such a high-priced drummer that he can't come out on the road with me, otherwise I would have taken him along. Another thing, that is very peculiar, Jimmy Lee Sloas just disappeared and we can't find this man anywhere, in fact, nobody in Nashville can find him. He had problems with his marriage and with his kid and we just don't know what happened to him...he's gone.
BN: Any prospects for a new bassist?
DM: Yes, but I don't want to say anything until he is 100% confirmed.
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