In a recent chat with Eonmusic about Metal Allegiance’s upcoming show at the House of Blues in Anaheim, California, Alex Skolnick talked about turning down Megadeth for Testament.
Skolnick admitted that Dave Mustaine had considered him for a while. He said, “I heard through the grapevine, many, many years ago [that they were interested].”
The guitarist added, “I don’t know, if I’d made a call secretly, and reached out to management, or whatever, and said, ‘Hey, I really wanna give this a shot,’ I’m sure maybe it could have happened, but it was pre-Marty [Friedman, who joined Megadeth in 1990], and it was during the time Testament was just up and running, and I knew, ‘Okay, if I were to join this other thing…'”
“At that time with Testament, we were really finding our footing, and establishing a sound with albums like ‘The New Order’ and ‘Practice What You Preach’, like now-essential albums, and it just seemed like, ‘Okay, I’m a part of this thing,'” Alex mentioned his commitment to Testament.
He concluded, “And I think at that point Megadeth had already had three guitar players, and there’d been so many members, so it was just clear, ‘Okay, if you’re in Megadeth, you don’t know how long it’s going to last.'”
Skolnick also shared that he was ‘on standby’ for Megadeth in 2016 when Kiko Loureiro’s wife was expecting twins. He learned the songs and was ready to fill in if needed, but Loureiro didn’t miss any shows.
In a 2009 interview with The Quietus, Skolnick was asked about his relationship with Mustaine during the U.K. tour with Testament, Megadeth, and Judas Priest. Alex said, “Dave and I have known each other a long time and he is, without a doubt, a very intense personality, so I could see how people might find that intimidating. He’s very interesting and at times during the tour he actually came to me for some tips.”
The musician stated, “I play in a jazz orchestra when I’m not doing this and we have very different styles, so Dave was looking for some help with jazz chords. What you need to know about Dave is that he always wants to improve and he is recording his new record as if it’s his first, which says a lot about how driven he is.”
Testament is scheduled to play at Sonic Temple Art & Music Festival on May 9 and Welcome to Rockville on May 18.
