“I regret that Mustaine for years would go on stage and call me a liar”: Chris Poland on how Dave Mustaine’s accusations had ‘damaged’ his post-Megadeth career
Chris Poland has opened up about his time in Megadeth, and how accusations from frontman Dave Mustaine cast a long shadow over his career after leaving the band.
Appearing on The David Ellefson Show, the guitarist joined former bandmate and host David Ellefson, along with co-host Joshua Toomey, to revisit how tensions from decades ago had affected his professional life.
READ MORE: “I looked down and could see the bone of my pointer finger”: how a grisly accident and nerve damage transformed former Megadeth man Chris Poland’s guitar style
“I have no regrets about everything that’s happened – except one,” Poland explains [via Blabbermouth]. “I regret that Mustaine for years would go on stage and call me a liar. I never really thought much about it, but then I did the math and I realised that’s why things were so hard for me to try and get deals.”
I walked into Carvin [guitars] one day and I thought, ‘You know what? These guitars aren’t bad. I wanna talk to their A&R guy.’ So I spoke to the guy and he goes, ‘Dude, we don’t use people like you on our roster.’ So, I was, like, ‘Oh, okay.’ So I have a feeling that Dave’s anger with me about what it was really was like dragging around a fucking 50-pound ball all the time – back then.”
Ellefson – who was fired from Megadeth in 2021 – echoes his experience, noting how Mustaine had a pattern of speaking ill of those who’d left the band.
“Well, look, he did it to Jeff Young. There was some derogatory comment [Dave made] that kept [Jeff] from getting work for a long time,” says Ellefson. “I could say the same was attempted at me. Fortunately, I just kept moving. I just kept going and was, like, ‘All right, I’m just gonna ignore that comment and keep moving.’”
He continues: “It’s interesting. There’s always been a lot of these ‘former Megadeth members unite’ [situations]. And it’s not an intentional thing. It’s not. In fact, when I was going back to Megadeth [15 years ago], Jeff was really taking an issue over Dave [saying in interviews that Mustaine was] whistling or singing guitar solos to him [while Jeff was in the band] or something, and it was a public thing. And he is going, ‘Come on, we gotta unite.’ And I said, ‘Hey, Jeff. I just got home from San Diego. I literally just rejoined Megadeth.’ And this was 2010.”
“And I remember Dave came to me about it, and I said, ‘I’ll handle it. I’ll take care of it.’ And I made it go away – as I do. Because that’s just part of – I don’t know – part of the gift I’ve been given on this planet. It’s, like, we’re gonna come to peaceful terms, we’re gonna make that go away, and we’re all gonna just move on.”
Poland sums up simply, “It’s not sour grapes or anything. It’s just it finally dawned on me just how much damage that really did.”
The post “I regret that Mustaine for years would go on stage and call me a liar”: Chris Poland on how Dave Mustaine’s accusations had ‘damaged’ his post-Megadeth career appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
