Dave Mustaine has revealed who played bass on the upcoming Megadeth record. Last May, the band parted ways with founding bassist Dave Ellefson in the wake of a sexual misconduct scandal that involved leaked sexually explicit videos between Ellefson and a woman other than his wife. In his place, Mustaine tapped former Megadeth bassist James Lomenzo to fill in for their 2021 tour with Lamb of God, but it turns out that a different musician actually played on their upcoming record, titled The Sick, The Dying… The Dead!
In a new interview with SiriusXM's Jose Mangin, Mustaine unveiled that Testament's Steve DiGiorgio is the man who was called on to complete the job.
'It was a good choice," Mustaine told Mangin. "I didn't think about anybody else at the time. I was thinking about 'who's the hottest guy out there that can play these new songs?' [Mustaine's son] Justice told me one of the fastest songs we've ever written is on this record. I don't care what anybody says – bass may be less strings than guitar, but it's difficult to play if you're like me."
As Metal Injection points out, Mustaine recently referred to Lomenzo as "part of the band," and he's expected to tour with the group on this summer's leg of the "Metal Tour of the Year." But DiGiorgio is the guy on the record, which is tentatively set to arrive on July 8th.
But wait, there's more! In addition to DiGiorgio, Mustaine also unveiled in the interview that Ice-T and Sammy Hagar make special guest vocal appearances on the album. Hagar sings on a cover of his own song, "This Planet's On Fire," Ice-T guests on a track called "Night Stalker."
"There's a song called 'Night Stalker,'" Mustaine said, as transcribed by MetalSucks. "I can't remember if that was the fastest one or not, but 'Night Stalker' is about the 160th Battallion with the U.S. Army, and it's all the black-ops helicopters that go in at night, nobody knows they're there, they're in, they're out, and…I had my buddy Ice T join me on a part in the middle of it, because Ice was a Ranger in the army, and he did two tours over in Afghanistan…I think that was back in '91, when I first met him. I know he was a Ranger. "
On top of all these guests, Mustaine mentioned that there's also a cover of Dead Kennedys' "Police Truck" in the track listing. Something for everybody!
