As we previously reported, MEGADETH’s former drummer Nick Menza passed away last Saturday following heart failure while performing with his instrumental rock band OHM in Studio City, California. MEGADETH‘s frontman Dave Mustaine pays tribute to his friend and ex-bandmate Nick Menza, via Megadeth‘s Official Facebook Page:

I woke up this morning to a text message from my son, with the news of Nick Menza’s passing. Shocked, devastated, and saddened don’t begin to describe my feelings.

Originally a tech for the band, Nick soon displayed such talent and personality, it didn’t take long for us to realize he belonged on stage with us, behind the kit. We asked Nick to join Megadeth as our drummer in 1989. At the time, the band already had its first platinum album, which only served to stoke the fire. We all wanted world domination- with so much of our lives and dreams ahead of us. As we navigated through the pitfalls of life and the music business, our first album with Nick, Rust in Peace, and subsequent albums Countdown to Extinction and Youthanasia, kept up the momentum. We parted ways after Cryptic Writings. We, like all brothers, would disagree at times, but our bond was strong throughout.

As a player, Nick had a very powerful jazzy flair, unpredictable and always entertaining. And as great a drummer as he was, the time spent with him as a person, a bandmate, and a friend was even more fun. There were several times we discussed him coming back to the band, but for various reasons it never came together. We’ve been in touch all along, he had come out to our shows recently, and he had remained a great friend, a true professional and a larger than life personality.

The Megadeth family take care of each other, and expect to hear soon about an initiative to help Nick’s children. All of us in this community are connected, take care of yourself and your loved ones.

My deepest condolences go out to Nick’s family.

Dave Mustaine

Menza was the juggernaut force behind the kit for seminal Megadeth albums between 1989 and 1998 alongside guitarist Marty Friedman and bassist David Ellefson, along with Mustaine. His best work included “Rust In Peace”, “Youthanasia” and “Countdown to Extinction”. Menza suffered heart failure while he was performing with OHM, which also features former Megadeth guitarist Chris Poland at the Baked Potato club in LA.

MEGADETH’s former drummer Nick Menza has reportedly passed away after a heart failure while performing with his instrumental rock band OHM in Studio City, California yesterday. The first to announce Menza’s death was Justis Mustaine, son of Megadeth frontman and founding member Dave Mustaine. More details are yet to be confirmed, reports rollingstoneindia.com.

Menza was the juggernaut force behind the kit for seminal Megadeth albums between 1989 and 1998 alongside guitarist Marty Friedman and bassist David Ellefson, along with Mustaine. His best work included “Rust In Peace”, “Youthanasia” and “Countdown to Extinction”. Menza suffered heart failure while he was performing with OHM, which also features former Megadeth guitarist Chris Poland at the Baked Potato club in LA. The venue has also posted “RIP Nick Menza” on their Facebook page.

Dave Mustaine also took to social media about Menza’s death, stating via Twitter: “TELL ME THIS ISN’T TRUE! I woke at 4 AM to hear Nick Menza passed away on 5/21 playing his drums w/Ohm at the Baked Potato. #nickmenzarip”

Nick Menza‘s manager, Robert S. Bolger, has issued, as follows:

Former MEGADETH drummer Nick Menza was recently offered a ‘very unfair deal to rejoin Megadeth’ In a brand new exclusive interview with Caleb Smith of the Heavy Metal Thrash, “The Sick Room” podcast in New Zealand, Nick Menza explains in depth the logistics of what went on in Dave Mustaine’s San Diego based Studio, you can you now listen to the two part interview below.

Menza: “I went and jammed with them for a 3 day weekend and then on the 3rd day we started to write new songs, and it was cool, they even told me that I was back in the band and to send a press release about it. I didn’t want to say anything until I had an agreement, a contract in writing on what is going to happen and they send this ridiculous proposal which pretty much said ‘You’re not going to get paid until the touring’, so basically I was going to be working on the new record for free, but then I had intended on leaning towards that anyway and then I thought to myself I’m not going to break, I’m not going to sell myself short for something that is going to be huge you know. They gotta realize the longevity it, and then the whole thing just became silly, I didn’t even get a chance to negotiate about anything, they just cut it off and said ‘that’s it’ and afterwards I couldn’t get hold of Dave or anybody, he blocked my emails’

We had a meeting at NAMM, the four of us got together with our old manager Ron Laffitte and started talking about touring plans and another record, Marty didn’t say whether he was in the band or not, but I certainly was up for it and yeah, it all just took a turn for the worse.

I was ready to be apart of it, I guess it just wasn’t meant to be. I know Chris Adler will do a great job in the studio, but who will do these songs live?
 
The reason why I refused to join Megadeth is because Dave [Mustaine] didn’t show me any kind of ‘love’ at all, I wish I was doing it, but they didn’t want to show me any contract in writing or anything, I guess it was just not meant to be.

I still love to jam to Megadeth songs, my favorite thing to do is put on YouTube and jam out to new bands, I really love bands like Meshuggah, Gojira, Lamb Of God and heavily into lots prog metal.

Nick reflecting back on his favorite Megadeth tracks and albums “I liked them all pretty much, I just stopped listening to them after Cryptic Writings because it all started to sound too generic, just because they started doing stuff on the computer and not playing live as a band playing live together. Youthanasia was the last studio album we did, all playing together tracking the songs. The reason why Rust In Peace was such a rad album is because there is no click track on that record, Dave, Junior and myself rehearsed those songs for over a year, before Marty even joined the band, and Marty didn’t play much rhythm on the album, Dave did all the the rhythm and Marty just did the leads‘ we were almost to the point where we going to burn out on the songs because we played them so much, we had a demo of the album and then a couple months later we did the whole album, so by then everybody knew their parts and then we went over on Countdown to Extinction that went to digital, and started over-dubbing stuff’ I remember my first gig was really nerving and trying to keep it together and pace myself, I was really blown out after the first two songs, it took me awhile to get to last an hour and 45 minutes. It’s been awhile since I’ve played anything exhilarating like that for two hours.

Menza, on new band: right now we are just going to focus on getting a good singer, and focus on writing some cool timeless music, and we’re going to write some high energy stuff that is just undeniable. We’re working with producer Max Norman, in the studio. Chris is on a break right now as he is going to have surgery on his hand, but we’re definitely going to put this out.

We are working on a couple new guitar players. Rusty Cooley is totally in to it, but I’m going to leave that up to Chris to decide as he is the other guitar player, so it’s up to him and has to be somebody he wants to work with. I don’t no if Rusty is going do the entire record with us or not, but he is going to do something with us, and I definitely want to do something with him.

Menza, on style and sound: I was a fan of Megadeth even before I joined the band, Gar Samuelson was a huge influence on me, my Dad was a Jazz musician too. So, as for the sound of course it will be Megadeth esque, cause that’s our roots, but it’s going to have our own style in there too.
 
Dave [Mustaine] and co, have yet to report if current session drummer [Chris Adler] of Lamb of God will tour live on the up and coming Megadeth studio album. Regarding Menza’s current situation with Megadeth, an indefinite ‘no’ has not yet been suggested whether or not Menza’s return to live touring will be a possibility for the future.