You're now listening to sound talent media. Check out more shows at sound talent media.com. Hey, what's up everybody? Welcome to another edition of Drinks with Johnny. Today, super excited. Got another great guest for you here today. Probably one of our biggest guests we've ever had. A good friend of mine that I just met, finally, after all these years of touring alongside each other, we finally had dinner together in France. We're joined today by, of course, the man from Megadeth.
Dave Mustaine, how are you doing today, brother? I'm good, I'm good. Yes, that was quite a wonderful experience, having dinner with you guys. And, you know, for all of your listeners. Anybody that's tuning in, checking this out. It was just Matt and Johnny and... That was really cool because it wasn't like a circus show. We just got together, just some guys that loved music and talked. And I liked it a lot. I didn't know what to expect. And by the way, was it your boy?
or was it Matt who got hurt? It was my son. Yeah, it was my son. Yeah, he was totally fine. He was fine that moment. You know, as you saw when you came out, we're at this compound hotel kind of, you know, and, you know, get to a little bit of that.
uh interaction too but yeah my son in the middle of our dinner uh was playing with the other kids all of our kids were out in europe at that point dave like i don't know if you realize that but like all of our kids were out from all the bands all the wives they're over in the pool that was just off the restaurant that we were eating at and one of the kids threw my seven-year-old son he kind of hit his head in the pool and I had to go like
Take care of it. He was fine. You know, kids are pretty resilient, as you know. But, yeah, it took me away from the table for a few minutes. But it was an amazing time just sitting with you and the rest of the boys and then getting to see you, like, the next day. Hellfest. Well, duty calls when kids are crying, you've got to go. And we did the same thing. I find it really interesting that you did the big family.
Trip to Europe. Those are always great because you know at some time invariably in a band's existence How many years has Venge been together now? It's a long time, yeah Since 99, so it's been 25 since the conception. You know, of course, like when the ball starts to get rolling a couple years into that, but like the conception started. Yeah, yeah, because I remember for a very long time.
Just the letters AX7. And, you know, over 25 years, you know, there's going to be some ups and downs. There just is. It's human nature. Somebody's going to miss a deadline and miss an appointment. Somebody's going to get sick. somebody's going to do something and somebody else is going to see it or they're going to say it. And, you know, it's just kind of a bummer when that stuff happens. So it's always great to be able to have health in your family of choice.
to make sure that that community's healthy. I like that you just referred to it as family of choice. That is what a band is, isn't it? Sure is. Because your blood is your family of origin. And then you have your family of choice. I guess you can always go one more layer. your family of necessity, which would be the people that you work with, because although I feel a closeness with my crew, I don't necessarily have the same relationship.
with them as i do with a lot of my my friends and and my friends although i go like hey buddy hey dude pay bro whatever um you know they're not my blood right Right, right, right. Man, so that was an amazing experience for me, obviously. Huge fan growing up, Dave. We talked about that a little bit. Me and Matt were sharing our fandom of yours and Megadeth over the years.
Some of the things I transcribed, I remember in high school, transcribing stuff on Countdown and rest in peace with my buddies in a guitar class at school and stuff. And that brought me to a little bit of a... Kind of what we talked about at that dinner table, I don't know if you recall, but maybe we could go a little bit more in depth. You and I have a strange connection. You actually went to the same high school as I did. Right, right, right. Marita High School.
That's right. That's right. And before we hit rolling here, you shared a little story about coffee, and you're like, I love coffee now, but the first time I had it, I could remember exactly where I was, and that cup of coffee tasted like crap.
um can you share me with that story a little bit because i want to bring it to marina high school there you said there was in garden grove and i believe if you tell me where that donut store is i'm pretty sure we could we could pinpoint that that moment that it happened okay so for everybody uh that isn't from the
Huntington Beach area. Marina High School is located in this really weird location where it has an aqueduct that surrounds it and we fondly called it the moat. They used to have bridges that would go across the moat from the school out to the surface road and on the other side of the road was a small shopping mall. And we would hang out on the bridge and that's where
People would go to smoke cigarettes and other things and to ditch school, which, you know, I spent a good amount of time out on the bridge. But the coffee thing was my brother-in-law, I've mentioned before to our family. and I don't think your fans know very much about me yet, but my brother and I was a cop in Stanton. He was the chief of police. So we lived in Garden Grove before I moved to Huntington. And I remember he was...
He took us to a donut shop that was right by where we lived on this, I think the name of the street was Simone and Gardenville Boulevard. And it was right across from a big store called the Federation. And we used to always go inside there and cause all kinds of trouble in the store. We would get a cigarette and stick a smoke bomb through the bottom of it and light the cigarette and set it down. into the store and then watch the other side go.
this delayed trigger this improvisational smoke bomb with this remote control have you what have you so So that was where we dropped into a little... donut place you know like I said earlier the fact that my brother-in-law had a predisposition towards donuts being a cop it was confirmed early in my life and and when we went to go pick up his his fix. He got some coffee and I took a swig of it and it was tan.
And I probably was around maybe, I was probably a preteen for sure. Because I know by then I probably had... Black coffee by then. But when I first had it, he had a bunch of milk in it and a bunch of sugar in it. And I thought, this is crap. I can't believe people can't get going in the morning without drinking a cup full of hot crap. And then I ended up having a coffee store. I sold coffee for an orphanage down in Mexico. And we made some money selling the coffee.
We closed it down. I had taken some proceeds from the company. We'd been successful, like I said, and we bought a soup kitchen in Haiti. in Port-au-Prince, where we were feeding widows and orphans and taking care of kids there. We had started in Tijuana with the soup kitchen, and before that, we had done a water... pump for a water well in a children's orphanage in Tijuana. The soup kitchen was called Outside the Bowl, and it was a really cool idea.
I'm not really sure where we're at with it. I haven't checked on it lately. But, yeah, I mean, you know, I've been really super successful. And even if I wasn't, I would give my last crust of bread and I would share it with a friend. I mean, you know how easy it is for us at this point to be able to make a donation to a charity. And the difference between a dime to you and I in India, for example.
is pretty revolting how bad things are over there and how much that little tiny coin means to people. We've got it really good here. Dude, you're absolutely right. It is easy. You know, the donation thing is easy. I like to think that I do my part in donating and stuff like that. But to set up a foundation and do a whole soup kitchen. Tijuana Haiti well that's that's another level and I
We commend you for doing that. From the interactions I've had with you, too, I mean, going back to what you were just talking about there real quick. Yeah, I mean, you're good. All the hoopla that you read on the Internet and everything like that is very different than actually getting a chance to talk.
to you and i love that you brought that up because giving us uh you know the audience here today uh a little bit of insight into that and like and and as we started there going back to growing up in Garden Grove on Huntington Beach. I don't know. Anyone I've met growing up in Huntington Beach and Garden Grove seems to be a really nice guy. So there. I think we're doing all right. Yeah, so there. And I'm pretty sure that donut store is still there. It is now, I think it's the donut star.
And it's on Garden Grove in Springdale, it might be. There's the Donut Star, and the cops are always there. It's always like the hangout. Do you remember the place that they had, like that big giant churchy kind of thing? It's like the Crystal Cathedral or whatever. whatever they called it. It was really big church, churchy church. I think maybe it was the Seventh Day Adventist or something right off of Harbor Boulevard and Golden Boulevard, somewhere around there.
Harbor? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I do, actually. I think that's like, uh... Yeah, yeah, yeah. They do a lot of weddings and, unfortunately, funerals and stuff there. It was a giant mega church before they had mega churches. It was like, you know, when you see that thing in Salt Lake City. Anyways, that was within eyesight.
of some of the areas where I lived with my mom and my sister in apartments. And I lived, the house that was on Simone Street, that was me living with my sister Suzanne, who's my middle sister, whose husband is the donut guy. Gotcha. There it is. Bringing it all back, man. I'm glad you brought up like Marina High School, everything like that. Like I said, I was at, it's funny because you're on the bridge where I was on the bridge as well during my stay at Marina High School.
and uh yeah i had this guitar class that was like an extracurricular one and we just did performances we cover songs of bands that we liked and a lot of times we did uh megadeth covers and uh Yeah, a lot of times me and my buddies would do that. I had a ripping guitar player named Reed Goodale who could handle all the guitar parts. What was his name? I'd play bass. His name was Reed Goodale.
Good friend of mine, still a good friend of mine, ripper of a guitar player. He was playing all those parts. I was singing and playing bass. I was doing my best Dave Mustaine impression in high school. Meanwhile, you know, your memory still haunts those hallways, you know what I mean?
I mean, while I'm up there doing it. It's pretty interesting for me to learn that. Yeah, I mean, it was just interesting for me to learn that and then talk to you about it. Because, again, growing up and listening to you and following the career and being such a fan, it was just like...
And then hearing that from, like, a teacher was like, oh, yeah, Dave Mustaine wants to go here. I'm like, I don't believe that. It's a teacher. Teachers lie to you all the time, right? So I didn't believe it until I got a chance to talk to him about it. They said that. I didn't think they would say anything about me going there. Did you graduate from there? No, I got kicked out and I went to Wintersburg. No, no, no, not Wintersburg. Where did I go?
Yeah, what was the name of the night school on Golden West? It was Wintersburg. I think it might have been. Yeah, yeah. It's part of the Golden West College. I got kicked out of Wintersburg and then they sent me to Golden West College. And then I left that college to go join Metallica. Yeah. There you have it. I had my fill of the Orange County education system.
Yeah, there you go. Well, amazing that you came from there. Same neck of the woods. Avenged Sevenfold would later, you know, come out of Huntington Beach as well, covered all that. Super fun, super interesting there. Did you mention something there, too, like with India?
like places like India and you and I were you I'm you me matt and yourself if i could get it out properly uh we're talking about india you guys had been there before and we were asking you and this was before we were just starting to talk about it and a few weeks ago we mentioned or announced uh we're going to india for the first time And you had an interesting take on it. You're like, it's for the fans. You're not going over there.
It's going to be tough. Maybe you could tell me and the audience a little bit about your experiences. You've been a couple of times to India. At one point recently, we were the band with the most performances in India. I asked more than Maiden. Yeah, more than Maiden. More than Metallica? Wow. More than Metallica. So that may have changed recently because I don't follow either of those bands. We're friends, but I don't keep tabs on them.
But it will be difficult because it's going to tug at your heart to see the poverty and to see some of the people that are there. seeing how they live. There are people that work in the hotels that have made it out, and there are people in the street that live in complete squalor. I remember a long time ago watching videos called Faces of Death. And a lot of the things they had in there were car crashes. And, well, I don't know if it ended up being Faces of Death.
It now is all over the net with these fabulous crashes in India. Right, right. it did start you had to go you had to go rent the vhs in my day we had to go rent the vhs so when i went there and i had taken my uh wife and daughter this time and uh they were really having a hard time with it because in seeing the way people were transported from one place to another, it was a small pickup truck and it had like a cage in the back.
Seriously, it wasn't for humans, but it was like a metal mesh, and it was just stuffed with people. And we were driving in our car from the airport to the hotel, and the guy stops in the middle of the street and runs off. Just ran off. left his door open, and I went, what the fuck? And I'm looking for this guy, and I noticed this little red light blinking under his seat.
And I'm thinking, motherfucker, we're dead. It's over. And he comes running back up, and I asked him what that was under the seat, and it was a tracking device. Thank God. But, I mean, what are you thinking? You're probably the farthest place away from where, you know, you lay your head at night safely.
You're in a car, you're out of your element, and then the driver runs off, there's a blinking red light under his seat. You know, I mean, unless you're visiting this planet, the thought has to occur to you that the jig is up, right? No shit. And I remember you did tell this story in France that I've forgotten until you just started retelling again. Like, of course. You're looking down, you see a red blinking light. That's it. Yeah, yeah.
When you told that story, I was like, oh, well, that's something I need to watch out for. That'll be fun. Getting the shit scared out of me. Yeah, fun. The drive... from the airport to the hotel to the venue, back to the hotel to the airport, is really different from one city to the next. I imagine you're probably doing four cities there. You know what, right now we just have one festival that we're going over and doing. You know, I don't, I should know, but you know.
bass player just pay attention sure i could look it up while you played four cities there and they couldn't be any more different one was up in the top of the mountains and there were bamboo trees growing everywhere in fact a lot of the facilities there had been bamboo poles that had been thrashed together and you know you come into a venue and you see everything made out of fucking the set from Gilligan's Island you're going oh my god but then you know we did another place and the guys from
Bob Marley's family were playing there. I think it was Ziggy, or maybe it was somebody in the Wailers. But, you know, you never know who you're going to see at these festivals either. Right? It's so interesting. You've been doing them for longer than I have, and especially the ones that we were just doing out in Europe together. You have your metal festivals that you and I were on a bit together.
you get some of those other festivals that just have such a range of genre, right? I mean, years ago, we'd play on a festival later in the day, and I remember waking up in the morning, and Hanson was playing Mbop on the stage next to our bus. Oh, what did you do? It deserves that.
Oh, I got nothing against them. They're doing their thing, man. Well, I agree there, but to hear Mbop in the middle of the night and right next to your bus, there's... that part that part was a little bit of a dog shit somebody stepped in yeah yeah yeah well you didn't want to wake up dead not to pull a reddit and use one of your little things but you know i don't want to do that
uh but speaking on touring though that was another thing that you and i got to talking about and everything and i found it very interesting where where you at in the real quick before i get to that where are you at right now we are in north carolina Nice, nice. Got a show tonight then? Yep. Boom, Robbie.
Okay, gotcha. So, yeah, so that's awesome. I see that the tour is going really well. You're out with a couple of friends of mine, Chad, and why am I drawing a blank? I say my friend when I draw a blank. I'm back in hell. Hell yeah. So I didn't know him in my vein. But I did know him in hell yeah. And oddly enough, we haven't had a chance to get together. And I look for him every day. I just, you know.
I either see a bunch of guys walking around that look just like him with the same haircut or I see him in his makeup. And there he is, and he's ready to work. So I hope that I get a chance to spend some time with them and catch up, because it's been really an interesting lineup, and I think a lot of people are enjoying this.
Yeah, I know. And you got all the mermaids out there, too. Another good band, yeah. Yeah, another Phil. That's Labonte. Just had on this podcast before he was going out on tour with you guys. I said to say hello. You mentioned the show is something that the audience is clearly digging. Shows have been great. How's the interaction with the other bands, though? Have you had a chance to sit down or talk to Phil or chat or anything like that?
like that or you guys just everyone's doing their thing like we talk I think that you know it's just I think they're all gentlemen and they're showing me some respect. But I don't want them to not allow me the chance to get to know them. You know, because they're being respectful and giving me my time. I don't want them to not come up and say, hey, man, I got a question for you. Or remember that time? Or what would you do?
You know, because I've like you now 25 years. I've been around the block many times And I have a lot of experience with dealing with problems and know how we deal with those problems. It may not be the right solution for you or for them. You know, a lot of times the problems that befall us out here are human nature problems.
It goes back to communication and that goes back to fear. And it's all fear. Fear of not getting something you want or fear of not keeping something you already have. Everything goes back to that. Dude, I think ego plays a part in that too. And I'm so glad that you brought this up because it's so interesting to me.
You know, Catch-22 that we're always in the position of as traveling bands. You can get these bands out wherever they are on the lineup, doesn't matter. You're on tour together with these other bands. And some tours you go by and you rarely...
see the other band and it's no fault of anyone like you said sometimes it's you know you respect one another's space you know what i mean and maybe you respect it too much and then at the end of it you go shit we never really got to hang out so it's a it's a it's it's a tough a tough balancing act to do out there because you do need your space you do need a warm-up you do need to take care of your vocals everything like that but there's time
And I'm glad you said, like, come up to me, say hi, you know. And I think if everyone communicates that way and is honest, like, maybe it's not a good time for you. You can just go, hey, now's not a good time. You understand. I'll come find you in a little bit. Something like that would be a lot better way. Yeah, there you go. And a good fuck off for five minutes is a good way to answer that. It is interesting. Tell me about ego. And what is ego? Ego is what you think about.
And the fear of people not thinking highly of you, well, it goes back to fear, right? Yes. That's the fear that plays into the ego. You're absolutely right. Again, fear. Yes. And it's so easy once you get in a really supportive environment, like it sounds like X7 is, but... Not everybody's in a situation like that. A lot of times we get really fortunate where God or luck or whatever you want to call it chose us from the mountain of other bands from where we live.
guys from Huntington Beach that got really blessed. And think about it, when you're cruising around Huntington Beach, Huntington Beach doesn't really seem like it's a place where it's a mecca for metal. You know, it's a really warm, inviting beach. You know, I didn't care for Bolsa Chica, and I thought we could probably have some really creative reefs put in there to improve our surf.
you know as far as everything else was concerned i loved tonic beach that was my favorite time of my life was living there
That's so rad to hear. I love that. I still live here in Huntington Beach. Right now, I'm standing in my house in Huntington Beach, half a mile from the beach. You mentioned surfing. Did you grow up surfing here then, too? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I used to surf. Let's see. I mean, there wasn't really... great surf up in the state beach but you know there was the cliffs and then a couple of little hot spots down above and below the pier and then I used to go to Newport to 56th Street a lot.
That had a good jetty break because I'm goofy fluid. And the highlight of my surfing career culminated in Hawaii. I had gone there and surfed pipeline. one time with some friends of mine. And then we were just dicking around by Ala Moana, which was where the harbor is at the beginning of the Gillian's Island show. And there was a really long, consistent... but small, right. And I remember trying, I was scratching my ass off trying to catch this, and I missed the wave. And then...
All of a sudden I hit something. I hit the shelf and my foot felt like I had cut my foot on the coral. And I keep looking up over my shoulder looking for blood. And I didn't see anything, but I saw my foot looked weird. So I went, fuck it, I'm going in. This hurts too much. So I started paddling. I stepped on a sea urchin. Have you ever done that?
I've never stepped on a sea urchin, but I've heard about that. It's pretty fucking painful. Worst pain. And you know what you got to do is, I got out of the water and I'm hobbling down back to where we were staying. And there's this local... the pickup truck drinking beer and i said hey man i said i stepped on a search and what do i do and he goes ah you have to piss on it brother come over here i pee on your food and i went
Because I didn't know. You opted out. I didn't do it, no, because I didn't believe him. And then I got back to the place we were staying, and sure enough, you need to pee on it. So I peed on my foot. Then I find out it can't be your pee because it has to have ammonia in it, I guess, and it needs to be from somebody else. And I went, I am not.
going to my friends and asking them to piss on my foot. I'll just deal with it. So it took a while for it to heal. But man, that was one of the worst pains ever. Consequently, I hate. Sea urchins. Now, whenever we go and get sushi, if I see somebody eating sea urchins, I think, good for you. I hope you... No, I don't. I'm going to help you.
Yeah, well, uni's a good, uni's a good, it's an acquired taste, but it's a good little sushi there. It does, it really does. For those of you that are parents. Yes. I mean, yeah, for the surf spots you just mentioned, those are still the surf spots. I live right off the cliffs. That's where I surf usually. Go down to the River Jetty, where you mentioned, down by Newport. The pier is still going off. Those are still the spots. If you ever come back, those are still the spots.
still surf no no it's been so long oh that was that i have my board still because i lived in in san diego again for a while i had a i had a long board night That's where you were born, right? Yeah, the Mesa. You were born out in San Diego area. So I have a longboard and then I've got a little pocket rocket, but I haven't been probably for about...
15 years since I had my neck fused together. I had just been real cautious with any high-impact sports. And, you know, I'm not going to kid myself, you know, getting thrown under, being dragged along. just bottom you know getting hit in the face with your own board all those things are ways that i could sustain a repeat injury to my neck area and you know a plate and screws is not something you
A plate and screws are not something that you want to mess around with. Absolutely not. Yeah, man. I mean, you've gone through some physical... uh and and health scares over the years as well and i know you you managed that obviously the most recent famous one or infamous one rather i should say is the throat cancer and we're all happy that you're
recovering and back from that as we talked about in France. But you did mention like with the plate and everything like that and worried about surfing. I totally get it. except for the fact that I see you still doing Brazilian jiu-jitsu all the time. How are you managing that and making sure you're not going to fuck something up? Well, I try not to get hurt, and I have.
I think that's the point of it, right? Yeah. I've been doing martial arts since I was a little guy. I started when I was 12 with the YMCA up in Stanton. That aforementioned city gives you kind of a bearing how old I was when we did the coffee run. You know, if I feel something going towards my neck, I would tap before I would put up any kind of resistance because at that point when you've surrendered your neck, you're kind of done anyway.
So rather than try and really put up a fight, if I'm there, I might say, okay, let me try and work my way out of this. um be really careful because i only roll with a few selected people okay yeah i saw that so um and you're a brown belt now in brazilian jiu-jitsu is that correct yes
Awesome. Congratulations on that. That was just like last year or something like that, right? Yeah. This will be my fourth black belt if I make it. Fourth black. Oh, I didn't know you could go. I thought after you. So correct. Okay. please uh uh inform the the the uninformed here how does that work then i didn't know you go back for multiple black belts i thought once you go to the black belt i mean i did a little karate when i was a kid you get the degrees of the black belt and that was
And then you're like a master. How are you going back to get more black belts? Can you explain that? It's going to make so much sense to you. I have a black belt in karate. It's called Yukiro Kan Karate. My second black belt is in taekwondo. And I have a first degree in American taekwondo and a fourth degree in world taekwondo. I'm the goodwill ambassador for World Taekwondo Federation. And... Those are my three that I hold right now. And I have a brown belt in Gracie Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
And I started with the Gracie Baja School, and we changed affiliation to the Renzo Gracie School. Same stuff, you know. It's just their combinations and how you put them together is kind of like... All the different ways you can win a game of checkers. No. But really, jujitsu is more like chess than anything. Something like...
Muay Thai kickboxing, I punch you, you punch me, I kick you, you kick me, I punch you, you punch me. That's checkers to me. But when you're doing something like chess, okay, we're grappling. We've already committed. We're going to be doing something. And I'm looking. I'm looking for green lights. Green light on the shoulder. Green light on the neck.
green light on the wrist, the elbow, the hips, because they're all red lights right now. I don't know where. Yeah, they're guarded. They're guarded. I don't know what you're going to open up. As soon as I see that, okay. That's when I started thinking, how do I get there? So for me, you know, Jiu-Jitsu stands for the gentle art. And much like Aikido, which is part of my karate black belt. you use your opponent's strength against them.
So when it comes down to the point where I get my neck in a situation or my shoulders, my shoulders are a little beat up from playing guitar all these years. My knees are beat up. Just about everywhere has got some... some rust and some rickety joints. Whenever I get to that point, I just start thinking, where's the green lights? I obviously showed off a green light. How do I turn that red? Ah, yeah, the defense there too. And that's the checkers versus chess part.
That's so interesting. I know a lot of friends. I dabbled in jujitsu. I went to like one class and I enjoyed it for a minute, but it was just it wasn't. I think maybe I could get back into it later in life. I was in my 20s and I didn't really care for it at the time for whatever reason. So I know a little bit about it. You mentioned that striking is more checkers to you. So does that mean...
Do you watch Brazilian jiu-jitsu competitions? Are you a UFC fan? Or is this more just for you and your workout? I watch UFC. I watched the first... UFC live if that gives you any idea of you know what my soul is when it comes down to fighting um and uh Some fights I still watch, like I want to watch Tyson fight, but it depends. I see a lot of fights sometimes that, like...
Some of the last really big ticket boxing matches that looked like it was just a bunch of glorified sparring, that frustrated me. It's a period where corruption came into the heavyweight division. I don't know how long that was, but I used to watch Muhammad Ali box live. uh stuff like that so so i've seen the whole don king era and uh all that stuff i love watching it but a lot of times what
I saw, I didn't understand. Hey, can we take a break for a second? I need to grab something to my mouth a little bit dry. I'll be right back, okay? All right. Awesome, man. So, yeah, as you're saying right there, all great stuff on Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, if I could fucking talk. Anyways, you were just mentioning something, though, and before we move on from that, I want to not brush over something you just mentioned. You said you were...
At the first UFC fight live? Is it your first UFC fight? I watched the first UFC fight live when they had all the different fighters. I watched it. Really lovely sumo wrestler go into the ring and got his tooth kicked out of his face by a shoot fighter. I watched Royce Gracie win the first UFC. And at the time, where I was training in Yukito-Con, Royce had said some stuff about my sensei, so Royce was not respected at all.
in the circle I was in. I've come to put that behind me because my professor had shared with me that many years ago that it was true that the family was different than how they are now. And I think that's good to know because... I don't want to think poorly of somebody I don't even know. In the whole world right now, I think I've got one guy that I'd like to kick his ass.
That's pretty good when you think about, you know, at my age and that if there's only one person and not kill him, just kick his ass. Just rough them up a little bit. Well, not even that. Just kind of like say, what are you thinking? Here, let me go wash your mouth out with soap, you little naughty boy. Okay. You want to tell who that person is, Dave, or should we move on? I figured, I figured, I had to ask, I had to ask. But yeah, in the UFC stuff, I what? I'm sorry, go ahead.
that I think about smacking him around. Fair enough, man. But I'm glad we got into the UFC stuff there, because you did mention you are training the Gracie method in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu now, so that's interesting there. And the other thing, I grew up watching the original UFCs, too. I wasn't there live now. as you were, but I remember those matches. I wasn't live. I saw live on TV. You saw, I'm sorry, the first one.
The very first one. I watched it as it happened. I think I saw that first one as well. My father got the pay-per-view, so I was able to watch it. I remember that one. The first three were brutal because that was when it was just all tournament style. You know, one of the tournaments was another alumni of Marina was David versus Goliath tournament. I believe it was the third UFC. And Tank Abbott. would later go on to be a UFC champion and everything.
And got a lot of fame for it, went on to wrestling, became a WCW wrestler. Everyone knows who Tank Abbott is, I think. Went to Marina High School as well. He was in the David and Goliath matches, and he was the smaller man in the match because he went up against a guy named Polar Bear who was 6'8".
and he ended up beating the crap out of them. I don't know if you remember that one. Yeah, there were a couple tough guys running around HP. Remember Polo? He was just a bar fighter. Yeah, Polo. Yeah, Polo. I remember hearing the stories. It was a little bit before my time. Polo and I were not friends, but we were acquaintances. I admired him very much. And it probably would have been fun to be friends with him, but he was one of the guys that, you know, you spoke about him in whispers.
Polo's here. Polo went there. Polo went there. Got in a fight with this guy. Just beat the fuck out of him. I remember one time I heard he had gone to a party and someone hit him across his face with the tire iron and he stepped back a little bit and then he went after the guy. And I went, son of a bitch.
After getting hit in the face with a tire iron? That was the folklore that I remember about Polo. Yeah, that he had been hit in the face with a tire iron, and he backed up a few steps, and then he went after the guy. So, all right.
Amazing. Well, Huntington Fork Lord there, we're wrapping up here on the time. I know you've got a lot of stuff to do. You've got to get back to your regiment, everything like that. You've got a show here tonight. Really appreciate that. The last thing I want to mention so that we do so. guys got your headphones uh for the megadeth headphones that are out um that came out last month uh that was from a company that timu actually brought in to you guys right yeah
Is that a headphone that you're using at home? I have a pair of them. Yeah, I think they're great. I had them before we did this. Tima was listening to them, and then I asked to borrow them. It sounded incredible and I used Sennheiser 600s in the studio. And I was using Sennheiser wireless sound-canceling headphones when I traveled. And then I tried these, and I went, wow, these are great.
And our engineer, Chris Raikstra, I think you know him, he had come up with an idea. Why don't we have 10 people sit on the side of the stage? and wear these Megadeth-branded headphones. And I went in and I recorded all the commands in my voice. We've got our logos on each ear and they're exchangeable caps so that if you don't want it to say Megadeth on the earpieces, you can just put where it says.
is the brand name of the company. Or Loser, because you don't want to put Megadeth on the side. You can just put Loser. If you want to, yeah. Yeah, and they sound great, and it's been a complete success with people coming on the side of the stage. You know, they get to hear the same stuff that you and I hear when we're on stage, what our mix is, if we're... If we're really honest about it, the headphone mix on stage is going to have a really safe, balanced sound.
source, sound source and you get to witness everything live but you also get to hear it better than live, because when you're hearing live music, sometimes it's just so loud that it loses its texture. And dynamics, yes, absolutely. I can't wait to check out those headphones. And thank you, Dave, so much for the time. Thank you for taking the time on a show day. Again, I know we went through your regimen. I'd love to have another chat with you sometime down the line, maybe in person.
because there's some more stuff we could get into. And I want to, before I say goodbye here, thank you again for that conversation we had walking through the garden. in france i i want to paint the picture real quick for everyone it was very game of thrones to me you know uh we're having dinner it's all nice we finish up dinner and there's just garden on the premises
And we all just start going, walking through this garden. It's very artsy, very cool, if you remember. And we're just having a conversation, walking side by side. All these, you know, these three guys from Huntington. Of course, the rest of your bandmates from other places in the world. But these three guys from Huntington walking in the garden.
talking about something we didn't get a chance to today but i'd like to get back into is uh our different nft projects that we're doing for our fans and stuff which is really cool and being close related and it was just like walking through the garden i just We had a couple of great moments. I won't go into detail on the conversation, but I really appreciate that conversation we had. And just walking through, like I said, just felt like...
a Game of Thrones moment, if you will, you know, walking through the gardens, getting things figured out and shit. So I really appreciate that. I hope you enjoyed it as well. Have a great... Thank you, man. And anything else you want to add? I would love to talk with you again about the NFT stuff or whatever. That'd be fun. Awesome. It's been great getting to know you and the band, and I look forward to seeing you in person again soon.
Absolutely, man. We'll be checking you out. Hopefully we get to see everybody on tour here very soon. Everyone go check out more tour dates from Megadeth. Got a lot of great stuff. The VIP package looks sick, by the way. I haven't had a chance to talk to you about that, but the VIP package looks sick. If you guys have the means, go check that out.
out get some of Dave Mustaine's wine which I will try even though I'm sober these days I could I could still spit it out we'll do that next day buddy thanks Johnny