In a recent video posted on DragonForce’s YouTube channel, Herman Li supported Dave Mustaine after his harsh words towards a Judas Priest crew member.
Megadeth and Judas Priest performed at Barcelona Rock Fest on July 2. Many significant artists and bands, such as Alice Cooper and KISS, were also a part of this year’s festival. The festival had two main stages next to each other to remove downtime between shows.
What triggered a scene during Megadeth’s performance was when the Judas Priest guitar technician started to sound check on the other stage. The interruption caused Mustaine to insult the guitar technician on stage before continuing to perform the next song.
In a recent video, Herman Li touched upon this incident and said he understood Mustaine’s point of view. Festival performances are already challenging and much worse when the crew doesn’t do the silent line check correctly. He added that Judas Priest were the headliners, assuming they’d be ready to go before any sound checks if they arrived late due to cancellations and delays.
However, Megadeth was on stage performing, and when they heard the other guy blasting the guitar, it ruined the show. Li eventually stated that Mustaine could have kept his cool and not made a scene, but he added that all musicians react to annoying situations like this.
Herman Li’s words in support of Dave Mustaine:
“I’ve gotta defend Dave Mustaine on this one, in some way. Look, I’ve done a lot of festivals, not as much as him, but it’s super annoying when you’re playing the show, and you hear the other stage next door, just doing the line check. You’re supposed to have a silent line check. You’re not supposed to have an amp blasting next door that you can hear while you’re playing. It’d become pretty annoying. You’re doing a show; it takes you out of the game, and you start making mistakes.
Judas Priest is obviously higher up on the bill than Megadeth because they’re playing afterward. They’re probably thinking, Well, we’re the headliner. Or maybe they were late, and they couldn’t sound check earlier. Usually, the headliner soundchecks earlier in the day because they’re the headliner. But with the flight cancellations and delays happening these days around the world, especially in Europe this touring season, they probably didn’t get there on time, and they said, Well, we’re the headliner, we gotta go.”
He added:
“In defense of Dave, that’s super annoying! I know you’re a headliner, but I’m doing a show now! I need to play! If I play sh*t because some guy’s blasting guitar on the side, it’s not fair, and it’s not something you should be doing, especially at that level. He probably shouldn’t have flipped that guy off in front and gotten the fans to talk sh*t about him, but God, c’mon! We’re musicians; when we’re in the moment, we react.”
You can watch the video below.
