‘Thank God That Genre Went Away’

Dave Mustaine, along with his family Pamela and Electra, welcomed LifeMinute.tv into their home to showcase House Of Mustaine, their wine brand that uniquely combines music, culture, and winemaking. They also shared MEGADETH news and gave a home tour.

When asked about the impact of music, Mustaine said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth): “It depends. If you believe all of the colloquies about music, there’s all kinds of sayings and stuff. The one that comes to mind first with your question is music soothes the savage beast. And I don’t know who coined that phrase, but it’s pretty accurate, depending on the type of music. Now, if you play modern metal with the guys that can’t sing and they do the screaming bit, that’s really understandable to me, ’cause they can’t sing and they’re making the best of what they can do.”

“There was a period in 2000 where we had these bands called — I think it was ‘nu metal’, and they didn’t do any solos,” he continued. “Well, why didn’t they do any solos? They couldn’t do solos. And thank God that genre went away. People started to learn how to do solos. I would say, if you’re in a ‘nu metal’ band, you probably would be challenged even playing ‘Johnny B. Goode’. So I’m glad that went away.”

Back in 2022, Mustaine revealed to WSOU 89.5 FM that he and his MEGADETH bandmates used to laugh at many of the nu-metal bands that they were “forced” to take out on the road with them during late 90s.

“You know, in 1992, when NIRVANA and DEF LEPPARD and PEARL JAM and SOUNDGARDEN all happened to radio in America, radio in America changed,” Mustaine said. “You either had to be an alternative band, or you needed to be a glam kind of band. Remember WARRANT, POISON, DEF LEPPARD, all these bands — God, there’s millions of them.

“All these glam bands, and then you think about all the alternative bands — well, what happened to the metal bands that were on the radio at the time? Well, they kind of got swept up into the dark, and only the strong survived,” he continued. “For us, we went through a period where like I said, admittedly so, we were trying to do what we were told. And it backfired. I mean, why would you pay a manager if you’re not going to listen to them?

“And so, there were several situations where we would make decisions [that] were presented to us in a way kind of, like, ‘You got to do this,’ or ‘That’s just how it is.’ I can’t tell you how much we would laugh about the bands that we were forced to take out on tour with us, especially during the nu-metal period that we went through years ago. You know, all these bands that wouldn’t play solos and stuff.”