My open letter to Metal Journalists

[VoiceX3]

I posted this on the Megadeth forums and thought I'd share here too to get some opinions.......

The past couple weeks I've noticed that believe it or not, there is even more nonsensical reporting just to cause controversy in hopes of making a buck on your publications than normal...and normal levels are way too much already. This is metal not a soap opera. I think somewhere along the line you all forgot that. Rehashing the same old stories over and over again makes you no better than TMZ or Perez Hilton, so please do yourselves, the artists and the fans a favor and just stop it.

I understand you wanting to have an exclusive story, but nothing I've seen or heard is groundbreaking. Mostly, it's just garbage. However I do think you can rehash parts of the past that won't hurt or offend anyone and may actually bring the architects of metal together under one moniker. Has anyone bothered to ask about "good stories" that tell of good times these guys had together in the past? In all the years since the big 4 released their first albums I can't remember even one that asked for anything like that. Dave and the Metallica guys were once good close friends, Kerry King played some shows with Megadeth, we all know that Megadeth and Anthrax have some great stories to tell of their time spent together over the years. As I'm sure all of the big 4 have good stories about each other. THIS IS THE STUFF I (and I'm sure others) WANT TO HEAR.

I really can't believe nobody has figured this out yet. Doesn't take much intelligence to be captain obvious does it?

I strongly believe that Dimebag Darrell was murdered because of potty mouth journalism. Bands like these have extremely loyal followings and some of those people aren't wrapped too tight. How many fans stalk their idols? Nathan Gale was an obsessed Pantera fan who I believe read some comments from Phil that should not have been put in print and decided to take things into his own hands because Phil was his false god. Nothing you can say will sway my opinion on that. Did Phil want Dime dead? Of course not, but we all are guilty of saying things we don't mean from time to time in the heat of the moment.

What's to say there aren't other psychos out there who could end up just as screwed up as Gale was? Don't think what happened to Dime, Nate, Jeff and Erin can't happen again...because it can, and is more likely to happen with all this badmouth press. So please just stop.

Think about somebody other than your wallet full of blood money for once.

[Rsmacker]

I want to hear how Dave Mustaine secretly wanked into Lars' soup and Lars lapped it up and asked for more but Mr Mustaine only has miniscule nuts so was unable to serve seconds. This is the root of their problem - Lars thinks Dave is a soup-hog.

I want to hear how other bands used to phone Kerry King's Mum at 2am and ask to speak to her daughter, Kerry, night after night, and then send make-up catalogues to "Miss Kerry King", resulting in him STILL being on mailing lists of sellers of girly stuff.

I want to hear how Dave Mustaine dressed in womens' underwear and sent blurry polaroids to Diamond Darrel of him bending over, complete with the message "Your biggest fan, phone me and we can get dirty", and then playing the answerphone messages he left trying to arrange a meet back to him through the wedges at gigs.

These things happened*. THIS IS WHAT WE WANT TO HEAR.









*Possibly. Then again, possibly not.

[VoiceX3]

Dude....that's just wrong!:ROTF:

[Grandturk]

What's TMZ? Who's Perez Hilton?

[VoiceX3]

What's TMZ? Who's Perez Hilton?

EXACTLY!!!!! I know who they are and I ask the same questions when somebody shares gossip heard thru either outlet.

(I'm still looking for cellphone footage of the dude from Black Eyed Peas knocking Perez Hilton out for being a gossipy bitch....that's newsworthy)

[Endrik]

Dude you know that there's no going back don't ya? People love that shit!

And it's not only in US and UK, I live in a very small country and all that gossip crap is huge over here... I saw TMZ, National Enquirer etc. first time when I was LA but that's nothing compared to what's going on over here. You see our local "celebrities" are a bunch of fucking piss ants who are nothing globally, but to justify their sorry existence and to create an illusion that they are needed, they go overboard with all that gossip/poser shit. Even a street hooker in West Hollywood would laugh her ass off if she would see what's going on over here.
And it doesn't matter if it's mainstream or metal. People are people. There's so many folks who have empty and shallow lives and the only way to get some satisfaction is sticking their nose into other peoples' business.

[VitaminG]

(I'm still looking for cellphone footage of the dude from Black Eyed Peas knocking Perez Hilton out for being a gossipy bitch....that's newsworthy)

but your need to see that footage is just perpetuating the very problem you are complaining about. Why are you looking for it? To enjoy the satisfaction of seeing some gossipy bitch get what's coming to them? That's probably the same feeling the proles are looking for when they look for pictures & stories of things going wrong in the lives of uppity rich celebs.

Nice stories about the good things that people are doing around the world don't sell. That's why they save those for puff pieces at the end of the news - death, death, death, looting, rape, natural disaster, destruction, war. More news at 11. And here's a 2 minute story on an athlete visiting a childrens hospital to give you the warm fuzzies before the closing credits.

Like Endrik said, there's no putting the toothpaste back in the tube, unfortunately. It's like all the "fans" crying that the evil paparazzi killed their beloved Princess Di. Why do they think the photographers were chasing her? To sell photos to satisfy the demand for instrusive pictures about every aspect of her life, as driven by her "fans". If they hadn't so demanded it and bought all those crappy gossip magazines that feature it, the paparazzi wouldn't make money from it, and they wouldn't have bothered to chase her. Hypocrisy.

[Rsmacker]

Secret Squirrel killed Princess Di, on the orders of HRH Prince Phillip, everyone knows that. (And fair play to him too!)

[Marc Snow]

If Endgame was a poor/weak album, the critics certainly would not give all this "attention" to Dave. It's so ridiculous! Why ask him about Metallica days?? Who wants to know about it???

[VoiceX3]

If Endgame was a poor/weak album, the critics certainly would not give all this "attention" to Dave. It's so ridiculous! Why ask him about Metallica days?? Who wants to know about it???

Exactly, the question could also be Who hasn't already heard these stories?

[Rsmacker]

Did he used to be in Metallica then?

[Marc Snow]

yeah, about 11 months in the very early years. Dave, James, Lars and Ron McGovney (before Cliff)

[VoiceX3]

yeah, about 11 months in the very early years. Dave, James, Lars and Ron McGovney (before Cliff)

With Cliff too.

[VitaminG]

Dave was in Metallica? I always wondered why they singled him out with all the Metallica questions......

[Rsmacker]

Gosh, a surprise to you too VitG?

Is that why he did that crap cover of "Four Horsemen" then?