Posted on 11/22/2004 8:53:32 PM PST by reaganaut
On an episode of South Park, Satan is trapped in a gay love triangle involving Saddam Hussein and goes to God for advice. God says, "Jesus, what the hell happened to you?" Sometimes I feel that way about the aging stars of heavy metal. Not that they're gay or anything, except for Rob Halford. Not that there's anything wrong with being gay.
Let's review. Metallica behaves like spoiled little boys. Ozzy Osbourne plays a frail Uncle Fester on a reality show of his own life. The music of Slayer is used to torture Iraqi PoWs. Gene Simmons turned into the rock 'n' roll Anthony Robbins.
The release date of the new Guns N' Roses album is such a huge joke that it's a cliche. David Lee Roth's latest insanity is training to be a paramedic - more successfully than his recent solo career, apparently. Ted Nugent has a freakishly huge forehead. Need I go on?
Most vexing is the curse of "too much information," as anyone who's seen Some Kind of Monster or read Tommy Lee's new book can attest. These guys are eager to share every detail of their lives, no matter how personal or disgusting. The shelves are full of this stuff. What ever happened to the "code of the road?"
Plus, many of the old metal dudes have turned into Republicans. Jesus, what the hell happened to you?
Funny you should ask. At Red's tomorrow is Megadeth. Frontman Dave Mustaine argues that sometimes fans "want to know everything." Everything is exactly what he offers in a recent telephone interview.
He is one slick rock 'n' roll raconteur. Give him a topic, he'll give you an opinion.
He's not afraid to shock, either - he voted for Bush. Aieee!
He explains his decision, not that he has to. "OK, I'm not gay, so I'm not concerned about gay rights. I don't support abortion. I don't actually share a lot of viewpoints with the Democratic party.
"If you boil down the values of the Republican party on just going into Iraq, that's very short-visioned."
Ironically, Megadeth's new album (a new recording of older material that marks Megadeth's last album before Mustaine goes solo) is called The System Has Failed.
He says, "The systems in the world have been failing since Cain killed Abel."
Ah, a biblical reference. Megadeth fans ought to know by now that Mustaine is a Christian. He says his faith kicked up a notch while recovering from a nerve injury in his fretting hand (he slept on it funny, a condition known as "Saturday night palsy"). He couldn't play at all for more than a year. Megadeth was shelved - for good, he thought - but the "fire" kept burning.
"I had a pretty profound spiritual experience during the process, too," he says. "I believed in God my whole life, but I was never really ready to serve Him until I said these six simple words: 'What have I got to lose?'
"People say, oh, Dave became a Christian. They think I'm a pussy. I'm not. I'm still the same guy. If you make me angry, you still make me angry. It's just the way I'm going to respond to it.
"One of the things I decided early on is that I'm not going to go around telling people they're doing something wrong. That would've been the same as when everybody was doing this sobriety police stuff in the music industry, which I thought was absolutely pathetic. I was on tour with Aerosmith and they had their sobriety police out and I said, 'How gay is that?' "
He goes on and on in much the same vein, spontaneously weighing in on a variety of musical and political issues and taking a nice shot at Lars Ulrich - "The guy thinks he created heavy metal. Metal created you, buddy."
Megadave is an open book, which makes me understand his publicist's concern before the interview: Half-hour time limit, no politics (whoops), nothing about Dave Ellefson. It's not worth going into the convoluted tale of the current lineup. Some of it is before the courts.
Suffice to say Mustaine is delighted with his new band, assembled "without auditions," excited that Megadeth is attracting young fans, proud to boast a killer live show.
"You smell the presence of the rock 'n' roll that we're trying to deliver," he says.
Metal fans are a forgiving lot. All we want is for these guys to rock without looking too ridiculous. I believe Mustaine's show will be as killer as he says it is. It's sold-out, too. A bar full of headbangers will cheer him just for showing up.
If there's room in the metal scene for a 49-year-old guitarist who wears a schoolboy uniform, there's certainly room for right-wing Christian rock singers that can still tap into the dark side.
Ask Alice Cooper.
Maybe Mustaine can reach some listeners with a positive Christian message.
Dave used to be a highlight of my guitar magazine reading days. His interviews were always entertaining.
Yowza. I was expecting a critical crucifixion, but instead witnessed a rocker resurrection.
Alberta tends to be a conservative province in Canada.
Glad to see David Lee Roth doing good by being a paramedic. Great job.
Gene Simmons is quite a shock too, you'd think the guy would be a simpleton with his previous act. But whenever he appears on talk shows he is the smartest one there, very, very sensible and insightful.
Yes, but not surprisingly, rather pointless. The author seems to go out of his way to set up the fact that right wing Christians are nutcases, but, if they're metal rockers, that's sort of OK.
Imagine the insufferable drooling we'd need to endure if he was a lapsed Christian who campaigned for Kerry, and you get some sense of how tepid the praise is that we've come to regard as "friendly.".
Rock on.
I always figured Mustaine to be on the conservative side. The guys from Jackyl are too, IIRC.
There's a few out there: members of KISS, Megadeth, Poison, Ted Nugent come to mind.
"Glad to see David Lee Roth doing good by being a paramedic. Great job."
Ditto that, I always liked him. He can rescue me anytime, anyplace, anywhere!
BTW - Holy Wars is a great CD. Megadeth's best one.
I wasn't all that suprised, he is very supportive of Iraq. Some though have questioned the sincerity of his conversion, however.
I would think that there would be many freepers who were into Megadeath. I believe that a couple of their album covers show the United Nations in ruins. They have always been political. I would be interested in hearing post christian conversion music from Mustane if he ever puts out any. For now however I can listen to Neal Morse, another rocker-christian-convert with a "Testimony", powerfull music....
I like "Peace Sells" better.
"What do you mean I don't believe in God...I talk to him everyday...What do you mean I'm not kind...just not your kind....Peace Sells, but whose buying."
Ah, memories.
Dave voted for W! That made my day!!!
Add another one to the list. Ever notice that the hard rock and metal guys are most likely to be Republicans?
CC DeVille
Ted Nugent
Gene Simmons (a liberal but supported W)
Sammy Hagar
James Hetfield (not a Pubbie but a conservative anarchist)
Alice Cooper
DAVE MUSTAINE!!
Metal and hard rock seems to tend way conservative.
Rock and Roll ping
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