THE BEAST

Jazz fusion and metal guitar legend Chris Poland looked back on his days in Megadeth back in the 1980s, recording guitar on the band's first two albums, explaining how Dave Mustaine wasn't exactly the biggest fan of improvisation in the band's songs.

Of course, Poland would be back once again but as a session member on 2004's "The System Has Failed," a record that also featured none other than Vinnie Colaiuta on drums. Either way, no matter the lineup, it's pretty much a widely-known fact that Mustaine runs the show.

And as Chris Poland recalled in a recent interview with Guitar World, Mustaine "hated" when someone improvised in Megadeth songs. The talk about this came up when Poland was asked about working with Kings of Thrash, a new band featuring former Megadeth members David Ellefson and Jeff Young. He said:

    "It's been a lot of fun. It's been interesting getting together with those guys and playing those tunes again. I was worried I might have forgotten how to play them, but to my surprise, after a few times playing them, all my muscle memory returned. I was like, 'Holy cow! I can still do this after all these years!'"

Going more into it, Poland looked back on his lead part in "Wake Up Dead" which he's incredibly proud of:

    "But take the 'Wake Up Dead' solo, for instance; I'm very proud of that solo, and I know many people liked it. It's only like 10 seconds long, but I didn't want to improvise it, which is something I did while I was in Megadeth that Dave hated."

In fact, Dave would get pretty upset about it. As Poland added:

    "He used to get so upset, and that was fair. I shouldn't have done that. But anyway, I really took the time to actually learn the solo, and I was happy that I still could."

Nonetheless, Chris still looks back at this period positively. Improvisation was his way of doing things and Mustaine had different philosophy. It's the difference in opinion that made Megadeth's early material so good. He explained:

    "I came from a different place than Dave. But I guess that was the beauty of our incarnation of Megadeth. The differing opinions probably made the music as good as it was."

This year, Chris Poland got together with Rick Wakeman and Dave Lombardo on a recording of reworked Pink Floyd's "San Tropez." Coming from the legendary band's "Meddle" album, this new version of the classic piece also featured Graham Bonnet on vocals and Blue Öyster Cult's Joe Bouchard on bass.

Via UltmateGuitar