Megadeth fans were shocked a few weeks ago when drummer Shawn Drover quit, followed shortly by guitarist Chris Broderick. Both men kept a low profile in the few weeks since until last night.
Chris Broderick appeared on SiriusXM Liquid Metal's weekly live show, 666Live, and spoke for the first time about his split from Megadeth since making his initial announcement. Those expecting him to give some juicy gossip about Mustiane will probably be disappointed, but he did offer some interesting nuggets of information.
When asked why he quit, Broderick said:
"It was simply time. I’ve been in Megadeth for seven years and I’ve really wanted to just be able to have creative freedom to write anything I wanted to, go anywhere I wanted to. I wanted to direct my own course. The way I think of it is it’s not unlike a chef who works at a restaurant that wants to open his own or a lawyer who wants to open his own firm.
It was a great time to move on. Talking to Shawn, he was in the exact same place. We talked about it and thought about it for a while. When Shawn quit, I was like whoa, we talked about it but he just did it. I had no idea. We talked all the time so I knew he had thought about it and I’d been thinking about it. As soon as he quit, I knew he made the right decision."
As for why now was the right time for him to quit:
"Megadeth is going to ramping up for their next recording cycle. If you’ve got trepidation to being a part of somnething, you don’t want to commit to the writing process and bail on it. When Shawn quit that instantly became clear to me. I talked to Ellefson and talked to Jackson Guitars and Fractal Audio and they were all so supportive. So I decided that night, after Shawn did it, that it’s the right time since Megdeth was going into the recording cycle. If there is a good time to leave, that was it."
On Dave Mustaine's reaction to him leaving:
"He was definitely disappointed. It’s not something he wanted to hear. In a way, we’re hired guns."
Here's the juicy part. Broderick revealed future plans:
Through talking with Shawn Drover, we talked about all this [Megadeth] material that will never get released, so we decided why don’t we put this stuff out. Why don’t we form a band and put this stuff out? So we formed a band, we have a killer singer. We have some record labels on the table so we’re really excited where its going to go.
While Broderick wouldn't reveal the singer he did elaborate more on where the riffs came from:
Some of the riffs were presented but some of them felt inappropriate for Megadeth. I have a tendency to write really complex stuff, so I have to watch it when I submit stuff. So I wanted to make sure it wasn’t too complex, so that’s some stuff I held back…
Update: The frontman of the band has since been revealed.
Broderick is a very accomplished guitarist and I am excited to hear what he has in store for us with this new band. Needless to say, it'll be an interesting year for him and Drover. Meanwhile, it looks like Megadeth may have already found a new drummer.
Coincidentally, this is not the first time former Megadeth members decided to band together, as former drummer Nick Menza, guitarist Chris Poland and bassist James LoMenzo also formed a new project recently.
If you missed the interview in its original airing on SiriusXM Liquid Metal, you can hear this interview on demand by subscribing to SiriusXM.
