Dave Mustaine Quotes

I don't want to sell my soul or anything, but to go on a huge tour would be next level.

I sold my soul to rock 'n' roll.

It was really weird to have a hit. Of course, we had a certain level of fame in the Pixies, but nothing I had ever done had been mall-kid friendly.

I would rather fall flat on my face than try to just make a quick dollar by making music that fits into the radio format right now. It does nothing for me.

In the music industry, we value large success. I realized that while I would like that, that it's not what my writing is about. And if I start making it about that, it becomes impure.

You can tell when you're in a hit.

What I really want is a commercial hit. If you're in a hit, you're suddenly a star, whether you acted well or not.

I now believe that major labels can only work with people who care more about fame and money than the quality of the art they produce.

I never set out to have a No. 1 single, not at all, man.

If you're thinking about making a hit song, and you think I want everybody in the world to love it, then you kind of make it up, and you do it.

A lot of time, if you spend too much time in Nashville, songwriters get caught up in charts and numbers and the music business politics.

Obviously, I would like to play to bigger audiences and have a bit more success, but not if I have to commercialize.

I don't want to just make music as I want to be legendary. I understand it has to be commercial as I have to feed my family. I am in between these two marks and they are not many people in this space. I want my work to my valued even if my face is forgotten.

If you can write a catchy melody and a song that captures people around the world, what better thing to do? Other than 'Let Her Go,' I haven't managed to do that. And that's fine by me.

I've always been such an album-driven artist that I never really stopped to think about how cool it would be to just have one really big song.

I just feel really lucky to have had some hits because we had a lot of time where we didn't have them. It's better to have a hit. You can ask anyone - U2, Green Day - and they'll tell you the same thing.

I'm not heart-broken if I don't have a hit. But I guess a hit would help. It makes the money go up a bit.

Our first single, 'Ticket To Ride', was a kind of half-hit, half flop: in some places it was number one, in others it was ash-tray material.

I think it's all to the good that a writer shouldn't be too famous. Because, in a country where a writer may be famous, he may be pandering to the mob, celebrity and so on.

Of course, you're not making records in a vacuum. I'm not making them for myself. It would be nice if I could get more people to hear them. But if I have to sell my soul to the devil to do it, I won't.

The extraordinary thing about the record industry is how success can take off without warning.

Whoever makes big records is a winner to me. Not the person with the mumbo jumbo, or the biggest diss record, or whatever the case may be. In the end of the day, whoever is most successful, whoever puts out a big record, wins the battle.

I never cease to be amazed why some of my friends became famous and others, just as talented, didn't. I've come to suspect it's a matter of wanting fame or not, and those who don't want it, don't get it.

If there are one hundred thousand damned souls for one saved soul, the devil has always the advantage without having given up his son to death.

You want to be commercially successful and critically acclaimed. But the truth is, there's only a few Bruce Springsteens and Paul McCartneys out there.