Former Megadeth guitarist Chris Poland looked back on his tenure with the band during a recent interview with Death Angel’s Ted Aguilar as part of his ‘Alive & Streaming’ YouTube series. According to the guitarist, frontman Dave Mustaine didn’t give enough space to his bandmates to express themselves, which didn’t suit Poland.
Chris Poland joined Megadeth as the band’s guitarist in 1984, a year after the band’s formation, after being introduced to the other three members. He remained as a member until he and drummer Gar Samuelson were fired in 1987 due to alleged substance abuse.
During his tenure with Megadeth, Poland appeared on the band’s debut, second and fourth studio albums. Chris Poland and Dave Mustaine teamed up one last time in 2004 to record the band’s comeback album, ‘The System Has Failed,’ released on September 14, 2004.
The record received positive reviews from critics and debuted at No. 18 on the Billboard 200. However, Poland didn’t agree to rejoin the band as a full-time member regardless of his success with Megadeth. During a recent interview, the ex-Megadeth guitarist reflected on his tenure with the band and was asked if he missed performing with them.
Apparently, Chris Poland loved playing with Megadeth, but there was so much drama off stage that he felt distant from the band. Furthermore, Poland revealed that Dave Mustaine has a thing for dominating the rest of the band members. His actions caused other Megadeth members to have little freedom regarding their creative contributions, which didn’t suit his intentions as an artist.
Chris stressed that he doesn’t regret not returning to Megadeth since he doesn’t miss it regardless of how much money it would probably bring him. Furthermore, if you ask him, he wouldn’t live long enough to spend that money if he stayed with the band anyway.
In his own words, Poland said:
“I really loved playing in Megadeth. It was just there was so much drama all the time that I couldn’t deal with it. Then, when they asked me to join the band, I just couldn’t, ’cause at the time, they were still using. All I had to do is be around people using that drug, and it wouldn’t take but a month, two months, and I would know I would have done it again.
It’s Dave’s thing, and I got put in a box and told what to do. It wasn’t open enough for me. And it didn’t get open until later when all these big bands started seeing therapists. If any band needed therapists, we did during the ‘Peace Sells’ era.
I don’t regret playing in Megadeth. I don’t really miss it. I could have made a lot of money, but I probably wouldn’t have lived. So, I was lucky.”
You can see the entire interview below.
