I had a metal radio show at KSDT which was on the campus of University Of CA, San Diego. We were streaming via cable (reaching all of San Diego) before anyone even knew what streaming was. It was an incredible time. I would play all the new metal that there was, including 30 minutes of demos from really new and upcoming bands (like Death, Hallow’s Eve, and Kreator). I also had an advance of Slayer’s Reign In Blood album via the tape trading circles (I think I indirectly got my copy from Gene Hoglan from Dark Angel) and I KNOW I was the first person in San Diego to ever play that on the air (the local FM professional stations certainly weren’t going to play this; it wasn’t Ratt or Rough Cutt). I have many of my shows on tape and can easily convert them. I don’t know if I’m able to upload them to youtube or anyplace like that due to licensing from all the songs played. Any ideas?
Well at some point, in early ’86, Slayer was playing the Adams Avenue Theater. My first interview ever was supposed to be with them. I had it set up by the fine folks at Metal Blade. Only when I got to the club and was talking to them to get it done after soundcheck (I even helped Kerry King lift up his amp head on the stage), they claimed they had no idea about any interview and said “no”. They all went drinking at the Elbow Club (now a fantastic Irish pub called the Ould Sod) beforehand and Tom Araya said we can do it there. Only I wasn’t old enough to get in. Not to mention that the place was packed and it would’ve sounded horrible. After the show (more about this in another entry), after badgering Kerry King to do it, he finally relented and said “ok, let me go back into the club and get the rest of my stuff”. After waiting a little bit, I realized, they really don’t want to do this interview and I’m making them do this. This is no way to go about this. So I basically just left. It would’ve been a complete disaster had it actually happened. And no way would I want to embarrass myself (even more than I already had) in front of one of my favorite bands, Slayer.
(some fun things about that show: while badgering Kerry King to do the interview that was scheduled, we were walking down to the 7-Eleven down the street. People were yelling “SLAYER” at him. Kerry was in a pissy mood (yet another reason why it was a good thing that interview never happened) and would mock them going “slayer! slayer!” in a whiney voice under his breath. He was also in a goofy mood, as he tried lighting a broken and bent cigarette in his mouth, which wasn’t going to work.)
So a month later, a new band called Megadeth were playing the Adams Avenue Theater. The Mentors opened up. Before the show, I asked Dave Mustaine if I could get an interview with him for my radio show. He said “Sure. No problem. Just hit me up after the show.” I couldn’t believe my luck! I didn’t have to set up anything with the record label (Combat) or anything. I just asked Dave (after giving him a flier for my radio show) and boom!
They played the concert and it was great. A lot of the Killing Is My Business LP with some new songs from an album that would be called Peace Sells, But Who’s Buying.
One thing that was interesting was that after the Mentors played and before Megadeth, the soundguy played Metallica’s “Ride The Lightning” in between the bands (THIS must’ve really ticked off Mustaine at the time). The audience went wild with a full on pit going on! To a record!
After the show, I went up to Dave Mustaine and asked if we could do the interview and he said “sure”. I couldn’t believe my luck! He sat down with me on some chairs by the dressing room and we had about an hour talk! He told me everything, including a lot of Metallica stories that were not known at the time. He was very professional, knew what he was doing and got his story out.
Here’s the interview:
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