In a new Interview with Tigman of Poughkeepsie, New York’s Z93 radio station, MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson talked about the story leading to the creation of “Holy Wars… The Punishment Due”.
Asked if the 1988 incident in question was the scariest thing he has ever encountered on the road, Ellefson replied:
“Well, I was really drunk when it happened, so I was probably a little numb to what was going on.
“You know, it’s interesting — Kristian Nairn, who plays Hodor on [the HBO fantasy series] ‘Game Of Thrones’, spoke very openly about that incident in my new book, ‘More Life With Deth’”
“I had a lot of people tell their MEGADETH stories throughout their life in my book, and he, of all people, was at that show as a young MEGADETH fan, and he talks very openly and clearly as he saw it in the audience. But I do remember… it was very polarizing. I mean, basically, think U2 with ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ — they wrote that song about the warring factions of the Protestants and the Catholics, the Irish and the English, Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland.
“We were based in Southern Ireland, which is Dublin — a more Catholic faction and very friendly and peaceful. But, man, when we went up north, there was a hard borderline… I remember the guns, and coming out of the immigration, they check your passport, and you really felt like you were going into a warzone.
[MEGADETH frontman] Dave [Mustaine], he’s not one to mince words onstage. And we were very unclear of what was happening — the whole thing with the IRA [Irish Republican Army].And it was just a moment that, quite honestly, we were not very well educated on, and a comment was made, and suddenly all hell broke loose.
They quickly escorted us off stage in a bullet-proof bus, and they said, ‘You guys need to get out of here.’ And we rolled out. And, yeah, the place got trashed, and it was just one of those things. I’ll tell you one thing — it teaches you, when you travel, you can be an observer, but you really need to kind of watch your Ps and Qs and show up, play your songs, ‘Thank you very much,’ and then be on your way.”