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DAVE MUSTAINE: 'BUCKETHEAD Is Probably Twice As Good A Guitar Player As Me And SLASH Combined' - July 18, 2008

Erin Broadley of SuicideGirls.com conducted an interview with MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine after his July 10, 2008 appearance at the Guitar Center store in Hollywood, California for a very special installment of "GC Sessions". A couple of excerpts from the chat follow.

SuicideGirls.com: One thing you've said before is that when you were growing up you had people like Angus Young or Jimmy Page to look up to, but that now you don't see a lot of virtuosos in metal bands.

Mustaine: Yeah?

SuicideGirls.com: Why do you think that is?

Mustaine: I think the reason that there are no, or not as many, guitar virtuosos right now is we went through a 10 year period when LINKIN PARK had come out and bands like LIMP BIZKIT that had a lot of success that were based on urban lifestyle and, uh, that whole hip hop, yo yo yo? Dude, you don't have any soul, you've got no funk, and you're fucking white as far as I can tell, [laughs] you don't have any rhythm. I'm not a racist or anything like that, and I certainly know there's great rappers in all different walks of life, but when you take away the guitar solos? people think that's the secret? have some lines and lyrics that are cool and "I'm wearing the right hat," or "I'm wearing the right windbreaker," or "I've got the right bling on," or whatever.

I was just watching ? I cant believe I'm actually saying this ? but "Access Hollywood", I was watching that or "Entertainment Tonight", with whatever his name is, and I agree with what the guy says a lot of the time. He's a snotty, smarmy kind of guy but he's right most of the time. He was talking about some of the stuff that was going on 10, 15 years ago with artists and it's true. Think back when MC Hammer was around. Everybody wanted to be MC Hammer. And now everybody hates him. It's sad. For me, I wish someone would have come along and said, "Listen, people are going to take your money, they're going to befriend you?" It's like, how many times have you been the last guy in the bar? Or like when your partying with your friends and when your last doob is gone, so are they.

SuicideGirls.com: M-hmm. When the party stops, your "friends" go away.

Mustaine: That was something that I found really hard to face because in this business you rely on people and you think that you've got friends. But they're not your friends; they're just people over there doing your old lady and your drugs [laughs].

SuicideGirls.com: Right, and it's also bad when the instrument or the guitar becomes secondary to the personality or the hat. Then it's like wait, wait, wait? where did the musicianship go?

Mustaine: You become a caricature of yourself. Well, see, when I think about a guy with a hat, I think of Slash. And I think Slash is an excellent guitar player. He's one of my favorites. That's a guy that's pulled it off.

SuicideGirls.com: Yeah, Slash is amazing.

Mustaine: He's brilliant; I love him. But then you see some guy like Buckethead? Buckethead is probably twice as good a guitar player as me and Slash combined, and can stand having fried chicken rubbed up against his face all night for a couple of hours.

SuicideGirls.com: Is there anything that really excites you about metal these days?

Mustaine: Well, I'm diggin' on what's been happening with Gigantour. Gigantour's been helping a lot of the younger bands. We had a tremendous run last Gigantour with IN FLAMES and CHILDREN OF BODOM. We just had some really super exciting news yesterday about one of the bands we're going to lock up for the next Gigantour and as soon as we can tell you we will. But it's very exciting. When the call came in and I was like, "Really? Really?! They're not wanting to headline over us? Really?" These guys are music of the people of the moment. And for them to want to play with us is great.

Read the entire interview at SuicideGirls.com.

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=101182

Its cool to see Bucket get some recognition like this from one of the best.

Dave Mustaine is cool.  :)   Love Megadeths latest album..

Yeah Bucket is just too far out there for most people to grasp but he's an amazing player

i'm listening to Colma right now! and yeah, mustaine's right. bucket is beyond great

Bucket is a pure badass and I get him.   : ok:  Mustain is cool too!

Nah... when he does something timeless with his guitar you can say that. until then no.

Have you actually listened to all of Buckethead's stuff?  Population Override is timeless.   : ok:

To who you?  Beethoven is timeless  -  Buckethead not so much. :yes:

many artists and composers who are timeless today died in poverty because people didn't recognize their art.. in a 100 years we know if bucketheads music is timeless, we dead in a hundred years so who knows

Shawn Lane's music is timeless as well, but I bet you don't know who he is, right? You don't have to be famous to be 'timeless'. Check out the greatest guitarist that ever lived. Oh, those are not my words, but Buckethead's.

Again -  to who?  The words "greatest guitarist" are very subjective. Everyone has their favorites.

Just because a nobody like Buckethead says so doesn't make it true.

Um, to everyone who has listenened to his music? The fact that you consider Buckethead to be a nobody signifies that you care more about how popular a musician is rather than the music itself. Pity.

October 7, 2008 10:33 PM

L.A. Weekly: I interviewed Dave Mustaine awhile back at Guitar Center Sessions and he sang your praises but then said, "Buckethead is probably twice as good a guitar player as me and Slash combined, and can stand having fried chicken rubbed up against his face all night for a couple of hours."

Slash: Well, that is actually true. Anybody who knows me knows that technically I couldn't play my way out of a paper bag. [Laughs] Or a Kentucky Fried Chicken Bucket, for that matter. I manage to do what it is I do based on a certain kind of feel and sound. I'm getting better at it but I've never been what you'd call a technical guitar player so he's totally right [laughs].

http://blogs.laweekly.com/play/interviews/guitar-icon-slash-talks-les-pa/

Ha, that is cool as hell of Slash to say!

That's pretty cool of both Mustaine and Slash to say, especially since they are both legends. Bucket...not so much. I respect his ability, and like some of his music, but he has absolutely no stage presence beyond that ridiculous bucket. He's a fantastic player, but Slash is one of the greatest guitarists for one of the greatest rock n roll bands of all time, and Dave is not only a great guitarist, but the singer/songwriter of one of the greatest metal bands of all time. Dave and Slash were part of 2 of the greatest live bands I have ever seen. Buckethead was boring outside his technical ability even when he played with the second greatest frontman of all time.

thats pretty cool of slash to humble himself so much on some one that replaced him.

Long Live the BUCKET :headbanger:

You're judging him on entertainment value, which isn't really the point is it?  Mustaine is probably right to be honest and I love Dave and Slash too, and I prefer their music, but it's obvious to anyone who knows anything about guitar that Buckethead stumps them both as a guitarist.  As for no stage presence, I think you're wrong there too - it's just different but how many other guitar players can you name with a persona and nun-chuk skills like the Bucket has?!

Buckethead I think his bucket takes all the attention away from his skills.

And Slash and Daves attitude thats something undenyable. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHCpI_hLRaU

Buckethead is just too funny.