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A telephonic interview with Mustaine, I thought, would mean facing oodles of attitude, considering he is known to be somewhat a “difficult guy”.

What I found on the other end of that international call was an intelligent, sensitive and logical talker, who is a tad irritable.

He seemed a little cheesed off with some previous interview and wanted to know why he was being “antagonised”.

So, what took him so long to come to India? Seemed like a logical question, but perhaps he’s not the right person to answer it, as Mustaine points out.

“It’s quite far from where I live, but you should ask your promoters and agents. We aren’t against playing there but then no one’s really called us before,” he explains patiently.

Chris Broderick recently replaced Glen Drover on the leads; Mustaine’s convinced that he’s much better than Glen . Megadeth will play everything from “Peace Sells” and “Symphony of Destruction” to the more recent “Sleepwalker”; the set list for Friday seems like a fairly good assortment. . “Now, Chris sounds a lot like Marty Freidman, so we’re playing a lot of the music from when Marty was around. Trust me, this guy’s fantastic on the guitars,” he says. Ask about his frequent line-up changes and he snaps: “Nick Menza lies about having cancer, Poland was hooked onto alcohol, Jeff went out with my fiancé… need I say more?” But the answer lies closer to what his buddies and band mates have often said about him: that Dave Mustaine the musician is a perfectionist who doesn’t settle for anything less.

The man spells commitment to metal. Moving out of Metallica was probably the best thing for this metal-head who stuck to guitar-centric aggressive metal even when Metal music seemed to be on a slump.

He fights shy of definitions when he says that all he knows is that he plays heavy metal and only wants to make his fans happy. Simple, don’t you think?

But obviously there’s more to Dave than that.

Here is a man who follows the news, who knows where India is on the map and makes strong, well thought-out political statements on topics ranging from UFOs to conspiracy theories. If the interview wasn’t a mere fifteen minutes I would have asked him all this and more.

“There’s so much that we could have talked about,” says Dave, who is chatty by now. “Hopefully you guys will meet me and tell me about your culture, your food and what people in your country think.”

So, what can one expect on Friday? “I just want to entertain my fans and make it worth it for them,” he says. He is obviously oblivious to his tremendous fan following in India.

The band is known for its understated Metal demeanour and Mustaine says that this one will be no different.

“If you can’t close your eyes and enjoy the music, it’s not worth it then.”

The Public Relations person tells me he’s in the country only for a day, but he says he might be staying longer.

“And I don’t want to spend all my time cooped up in a bus or a hotel. We’re trying to build a relationship with your country and want to make friends,” he says.

Millions of fans will agree that it’s about time and will be more than happy to even catch a glimpse of this Metal demigod.

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