In a candid conversation on Steve-O's Wild Ride! podcast, Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine reflected on his complicated relationship with the band's 1986 song "The Conjuring." Known for its dark themes and alleged instructions on black magic, the track from Megadeth's album Peace Sells… But Who's Buying? had long been absent from live shows due to Mustaine's Christian beliefs.
Recounting his decision to bring "The Conjuring" back into Megadeth's setlist for the first time since 2001, Mustaine shared that extensive introspection and faith helped him re-evaluate the song's impact on his audience.
Reflecting on its return in June 2018 at the Home Monitoring Arena in Plzeň, Czech Republic, Mustaine explained: "I wasn't sure about what effects the lyrics would have on our young fans. And I didn't wanna mislead anybody. I wanted to make sure if I was singing something and they gave it any kind of importance that I wasn't inadvertently making a decision for them and they were saying something that was gonna possibly hurt them in some way or form… But the structure of the song did not have in it what I thought was in there. Nothing is misleading in there, and after extensive evaluation with it, a lot of thought, a lot of navel-gazing and prayer and stuff, I figured it's okay to do this one now."
Mustaine also addressed his choice to retire Megadeth's cover of the Sex Pistols' "Anarchy in the U.K." once and for all, primarily due to a lyric he no longer felt aligned with his beliefs.
"Because it says 'I'm an anti-Christ,' and I'm not an anti-Christ," Mustaine said. The last time Megadeth performed was in 2016 at the Download Festival in the U.K., with a guest appearance from Mötley Crüe's Nikki Sixx. Mustaine recalled reaching out to Sixx for an impromptu performance, describing it as an unplanned step toward mending fences with the bassist.
"I looked at him and for some reason, I just felt that I needed to just bury the hatchet with him for something. And I don't know what it was, but just something made me feel like I needed to just make things cool. Not that I need his approval or anything like that, and not that he cares about me at all, but I just felt like maybe there was something out there that I did," Mustaine recalled.
"And I remembered that we had a guy in our band that had a shirt with Nikki's face on it with a red line and a circle through it. And so I'm glad that I did make that amends with Nikki, although it wasn't like a ninth step or anything like that, 'cause I'm not in the program. But I'd gone up to him and said, 'Hey, man, would you be interested in playing 'Anarchy' with us tonight?' So the last time I played it was with Nikki at Download. And it was fun. I don't think anybody expected to see that. I certainly wouldn't have expected that. If young Dave would have talked to old Dave, I would have said, 'You're out of your fucking tree, Mustaine.'"
In a previous 2016 interview, Mustaine had hinted at his willingness to reconsider "The Conjuring" for future shows, saying he'd be open to playing it again "as long as it doesn't hurt anybody."
