The Woodstock ’99 festival has been one of the most infamous events. Looting, vandalism, and violence were all part of the event. Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine recently talked about the experience of playing with Megadeth at the infamous event. He went on to recall some of the disasters that marked those three days as well as his band’s own set.
Dave Mustaine opens up on Woodstock
Poor management led to riots, fires, several violent incidents, and even the tragic loss of three lives at Woodstock ’99.The first large-scale incident occurred on the festival’s second day, when a mass riot occurred in the middle of Limp Bizkit’s performance of “Break Stuff”, with audience members ripping off parts of the stage and the sound tower, bashing each other up, and several sexual assaults reportedly taking place.
The chaos would continue on the following day when another riot – this time caused by a fire that engulfed one of the sound towers – occurred while the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Megadeth were performing on the festival’s two main stages.
Speaking to Appetite for Distortion in a new interview, Dave Mustaine admits he hasn’t watched the new Netflix documentary “Trainwreck: ‘Woodstock ’99” – but he was there to witness it firsthand. The Megadeth mastermind recalled that he didn’t like what Limp Bizkit singer Fred Durst did:
“The Woodstock weekend was tragic. The stuff that Mr. Durst had done, and the fact that water there had gone from a couple of bucks the first day until the last day where everything was $12 a bottle.”
Recalling the fire that started near the Chili Peppers’ stage, Mustaine went on:
“We were at one end of the airport, and those guys were at the other end. We could see the smoke and we knew something was wrong. And we could tell that – it looked kind of like an army marching towards us, slowly. And it seemed to me that people were pissed, and they just said, ‘F*** it. Let’s go to the Megadeth side.’Because I think we were the very last band, and we closed the whole concert if I remember right.”
Megadeth are set to release its sixteenth studio album “The Sick, the Dying… and the Dead!” this September 2 via Tradecraft/Universal.
