MEGADETH's Dave Mustaine has issued the following message:

"Droogies!

For the last few weeks I have been telling you about a huge project coming up. Well, yesterday I submitted our work for approval and it was approved, so very soon we will be able to say 'what' this very big announcement is. Rest assured it involves a new song that I have just recently written, with more co-writing from Chris Broderick. It's another aggressive, complicated Megadeth track, and I will give you more details as soon as I can.

I was looking at the top 100 albums on Amazon in the Thrash category and we have 16 records in the Top 100 on their site. What a great feeling!

You also no doubt saw all of the tour dates coming in for 2010, which promises to be an extensive touring year. We are planning on (in no particular order - but this is close) doing the R.I.P. tour all of March with our dear friends
in EXODUS and TESTAMENT, which is progressing, then to South America in April, then Europe in June and early July, then Canada in late July, then the States in August with SLAYER, then back to the Pacific Rim after that and HOPEFULLY Australia and New Zealand again.

We are trying to make our "Pac Rim Tours" always include New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, South Korea.

Hopefully we will soon be playing in China (and surrounding areas like Hong Kong, Taipei, and Taiwan), and also in Malaysia (of course we would need the government's permission because we have been banned from playing in Malaysia because of a Satanic ritual where someone painted Megadeth at a crime scene and the government blamed us and banned us).

More to follow."

MEGADETH frontman Dave Mustaine has checked in with the following update:

"Droogies!

Happy Valentine's Day! I thought that Happy VD was a bit funny, but I really wanted to stop and take the time to thank you all for your support and especially thank all of the ticket holders for the RIP tour cities that have already sold-out.

Rehearsals are all done and we are ready for pre-production next week, and then we will be heading out to start the tour
. Please send your prayers, best wishes, and positive thoughts our way, and if we are playing in your city or town I sure hope to see you. A big thank you goes out to all of the cities that are sold-out already!

Just so you know, we are playing 10 songs from over our 25+ year careers, as well as all 9 songs off of RIP.

We are playing:
'Set The World Afire'
'Wake Up Dead'
'In My Darkest Hour'
'Sweating Bullets'
'Skin O' My Teeth'
'Head Crusher'
'A Tout Le Monde'
'Symphony Of Destruction'
'Trust'
'Peace Sells, But Who's Buying?'
(and all of RIP)

One great thing is that we all know so many, many songs, and that this is just the starting point. Remember, David Ellefson knows everything of Megadeth's career, excluding a few new tracks, Shawn knows them all, and Chris is learning them as fast as he can. All in all, I think that we have approximately 40 songs we can do on this next month's tour.

We will return to the Endgame Tour after that, and may play any of the RIP tracks over the coming years. We already play several songs off of RIP; 'Holy Wars', 'Take No Prisoners', 'Tornado Of Souls', and 'Hangar 18'. It will be fun to have some new gems added to our set list, and also the possibility of us revisiting songs that I mentioned were added to our playlist for potential songs to perform from KIMB or PSBWB.

I have to get going now to get to the studio to start mixing the new track that I have been working on. I am not sure if the party I am doing this for has said anything lately, because I have been in my studio 20,000 leagues under the sea, and haven't seen any news lately. I do know that we will be describing the track and the people who I wrote this for very soon.

Have a great day today, and I hope that all of you and your nice red hearts are going to be pumping people all day today with love and kindness, especially for the people you love. Of course tomorrow, you can go back to hating their guts."

MEGADETH leader DAVE MUSTAINE fears former bass player DAVE ELLEFSON will take months to settle back into the band because he's still damaged and "affected" by his bust-up with the frontman.
The two rockers have patched up their differences and Ellefson has rejoined the band after an eight-year hiatus - but singer Mustaine admits the pair has a long way to go before they're true friends again.
During their years apart, Ellefson sued Mustaine for royalties and claimed the frontman backed out of a deal to turn Megadeth over to him when the band broke up in 2002.
But, after years of bitterness, the two born-again Christians have agreed to try to forgive and forget the past.
Mustaine tells WENN, "We had dinner and he said, 'Sorry,' and I said, 'I forgive you.' We've got that history. He's the best bass player for Megadeth and he's been there since the beginning. The time without him was difficult for me. He was my partner and one of my best friends.
"I asked him to forgive me too, and that's really important too because I realised that I had made a lot of mistakes in my leadership. I was a kid when we met and, granted, I was an adult when we parted ways, but I made a lot of mistakes along the way that affected him. We're still working through all this stuff and talking about the future.
"I did a lot of things that were mistakes, but I never intentionally screwed Dave. I have always loved him and always wanted to protect him. In fact, I think that is the beauty of why we're even able to do this because he knows my intentions. He also knows my desire to clear stuff up. If something had happened I can tell you right now it was unintentional and my heart is open to making everything right."
And now Mustaine is keen to get the old Dave and Dave partnership up and running again: "There were a lot of times I'm sure where I was close to death... and Dave helped keep me alive.
"In the old days we lived together, we were homeless together on the street. There was a time some guy was gonna kick Dave's a** and I have multiple black belts, so I told the guy to leave Dave alone and of course he didn't, and so I beat the s**t out of him. That's the Dave and Dave that I know; he's my little brother and I'll defend him no matter what.
"If there's something that happened to him, especially if it's by my hand, I want to clear it up. I think we're in a really great place right now. We've come to a level playing field and are open to talking about stuff."