This weekend, we reportes on the tragic news of former Megadeth drummer Nick Menza’s passing while performing onstage with Ohm. Naturally, this has created a wave of tributes and messages by those close to him or inspired by his professional life, but one of the most relevant ones must be the one Megadeth did last night on stage.
During their performance at the Rock’N Derby this past Sunday, frontman Dave Mustaine took a moment of silence and closed their set by giving some words in memory of his friend Nick Menza. Mustaine simply said : “I usually say ‘You’ve been great. We’ve been Megadeth.’ But Nick, you’ve been great,” Mustaine said while pointing to the sky. “I love you, buddy.”
During the same festival, Mustaine spoke more about his relationship with Menza to Tigman of the Q103 radio station stating:
“Contrary to popular belief, Nick and I were very, very close. I think when you’re that close with somebody, the temperatures run a lot hotter than in most relationships, so the love is that much more deeper and the anger is so much more hot and the sadness is so much more profound. So I think that’s when you know that you’re really in a relationship with somebody that matters to you.”
“Nick was a very talented musician, and he came from a talented family. His dad played the saxophone on the ‘Pink Panther’ song. Yeah, his dad was the original saxophone player for Henry Mancini in ‘The Pink Panther’.
“So Nick and I were really, really close. And people think that we had this failed reunion attempt. There were several times that we tried to reconcile stuff, and it just didn’t happen for whatever reason — I don’t know why, but it didn’t.”
“I think now, it’s the time for everyone to remember Nick and his legacy of just great performances. And tonight we are hoping to do a moment of silence, and the band’s already agreed, we’re gonna do a benefit in California to… I mean, we’re working out the details; you’re the first person to hear this. So we’re working on a benefit there. And we’re hoping to leave an open stage for all of the alumni from MEGADETH to come there and play with us, so that we can help leave behind something for Nick’s children, which, I think, had been kind of left in a bad way. We wanted to get all that stuff set up and right now, that’s what… the wheels are all turning in our camp.
“So, to anybody that thinks that I don’t love Nick [raises middle finger]… You can imagine what I just said.”
You can watch footage of Megadeth’s onstage tribute and Mustaine interview below:
