Megadeth and Metallica legend Dave Mustaine revealed why he would not permanently hire Testament’s Steve Di Giorgio as Megadeth’s new bassist in a Revolver interview.
“We parted ways with David Ellefson [in May 2021], and the idea to get Steve basically was… In the end, it’s always gonna be my decision. But there were a couple of guys we looked at. We were trying to finish the record, so the criteria for someone to be a session player and finish the record versus be a guy that’s gonna be a bandmember that we can find right now that’s gonna make a commitment and leave what they’re doing to come join us, we just didn’t have the time. So we sought out for a guy that would just help us finish the album, and that was Steve.
“I’m not a guy that likes to poach people from other bands. I hated when we [Metallica] did that with Cliff Burton. I mean, granted Trauma wasn’t a great band. But I think it just sets you up for resentment from people when you go and take their bandmembers. If the guy quits and wants to join your band, that’s cool.
“But if I would have went to Testament and said, ‘Hey, I want Steve,’ or I would have just went to Steve and said, ‘Hey, I’ll give you a gazillion dollars’ and [he] quit [Testament], you know what would happen? I would lose my friendship with Alex [Skolnick] and with Chuck [Billy]. And it’s not the way to go.”
He added about LoMenzo rejoining Megadeth, “We welcomed James with open arms, and everybody loves him. He’s just such a great, great guy. So it wasn’t a hard decision at all to make. It was basically calling him, seeing what he was doing. Everybody is really, really happy with him. I haven’t really seen that much pushback from the fans. I know that the two people that matter the most, besides me, Dirk [Verbeuren, drums] and Kiko [Loureiro, guitar], love him. It’s what I wanted.
“I wanted to have the four of us playing together and all being comfortable with one another and knowing that there was no weirdness going on or any double dealing or anything like that, because those are the things that always ruin bands. We’ve had this closeness, the four of us, since James came.
“They’re always together somewhere — always, always. James is down at the bar having a glass of wine with Kiko, or James is in the gym working out with Dirk. They are always doing something wonderful together.”
