Mega-Stress!
Friday is fun because it’s about music, so links and playlists. Today, a weird, hopefully funny little tale about the weirdness of music PR and the desperation of it too.
Here’s a good one. Many years ago now, I interviewed one of the guitarists in Megadeth. Not Dave Mustaine, obviously, or I would have just said that. Post-Marty, revolving door. So, yeah, anyway, the New Guy of the time was nice to chat with, and I have always been a casual fan at best, and I kinda love those interviews the most — I knew enough to hit the talking points, and could vibe with the chat, but I wasn’t so deeply invested as a lifelong fan that it would crush me if the interview went pear-shaped.
That’s the best position to be in I think.
I’ve loved talking to people like Jon Ronson and Jeff Beck and Bob Geldof and Elvis Costello — can’t believe my luck really! — but Jesus, right?! You’re working hard and hoping not to fuck it up, just hoping to get away with a bit of a “he liked me” story.
This Megadeth interview was easy-as in the scheme of things: Ask about the new album, the tour, being part of the legacy, what it’s like to join a band you were presumably a fan of…oh yeah, and sneak in a bit of a ‘What’s Dave really like?’ question.
So that’s what I did.
I wrote the interview up and posted it online, which is how it worked then. I was grabbing these interviews when they were offered, so that I had content on the daily.
A day or so after I shared the Megadeth interview, I get this panicked call from a rep at Warner Bros, the record company that had set up the call. She said, speaking very quickly, that I needed to take the interview down; that someone in the band was very unhappy; that it had got back to Mustaine himself that he was sometimes a bit tricky to work with or something (I think the quote was actually just the guitarist, Chris Broderick, saying “we all know it’s Dave’s band, that’s very clear”, or you know something like that). Anyway, I replied to the person on the phone that I didn’t imagine they had any issue really since it was actually being shared on the Megadeth webpage.
She argued that this was coming from the very top and she needed my assurance that I would get it removed.
Getting it removed was a whole thing. I was writing for Stuff, and they had web editors that had to load our blogs and I was pretty sure I already bugged them enough by posting content every day…
So I just said, “Yeah, sure, consider it done. I’ll get it removed”.
She was elated, and said thanks so much.
And I never did a thing about it; never even asked to have it removed. Didn’t bother, couldn’t see the point. And figured in that moment, as in so many, the person just wanted to hear ‘yes’ to the thing they asked. They weren’t ever going to check up on it, they just needed to tell someone higher up that the thing had been done.
People everywhere moving things off their list. Well, I moved this off my list. And thought I’d wait to see if I was ever contacted again.
Never thought too much about it really.
And then, the other day, I’m listening to the brand new Megadeth album; purportedly the band’s last. That guitarist is long gone, and off in another band. But as I was scrolling through the Megadeth discography, and working out the gaps around what I’d heard and hadn’t, I thought back to this moment. Checked the website…
That interview I “had taken down” still proudly displayed on the offical Megadeth website.
Okay, by the way, as a casual fan, I am loving the new album:
But if you’ve read this far, and you’re still waiting for the regular Friday playlist, then wait no more. And I really think this one is a ripper. No Megadeth by the way…