LACUNA COIL’s CRISTINA SCABBIA Says She Was ‘Almost Afraid’ To Meet DAVE MUSTAINE, But ‘He Was A Sweetheart’

In a new interview with Canada’s The Metal Voice, LACUNA COIL singer Cristina Scabbia reflected on her guest appearance on MEGADETH’s reworked version of the song “À Tout Le Monde”, retitled “À Tout Le Monde (Set Me Free)”, which was included on the latter band’s 2007 album “United Abominations”. She said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I remember that, basically, we didn’t meet before the recording. All I had was the original version that I already loved. So I had to create from scratch harmonizations and embellishments. I worked with [producer] Andy Sneap. I remember that I stayed [at his studio in the United Kingdom] for a couple of days. I arrived in the evening. I spent one day of recording. Everything that I had in mind, or Andy had in mind, which is, like, okay, ‘Let’s do this. Let’s do that. Let’s do this.’ And so we gave all the recorded material to Dave [Mustaine, MEGADETH leader] and MEGADETH, and then they did the mixing the way they wanted to. But I basically re-sung exactly what Dave was singing. I did all the harmonizations. I did some ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ without really knowing what they wanted from it because the communication was made through mails. My management asked me to sing with them. I said immediately ‘yes’ because it was a such a cool experience and a privilege and I love that song. But then after a while I just went to Los Angeles and they were filming the video. and that’s exactly when we met for the very first time. The video was filmed in two days. I did all my filming in the second day, and the first one was the band performance. So I went to the place where they were filming and I started to talk to Dave and he was super cool, super kind. And then we went on tour a couple of times together.”Regarding what he impressions of Dave were after meeting him for the first time and spending time with him, Cristina said: “It was so crazy, especially because I didn’t know what to expect because many people left different ideas of Dave. So I was just, like, ‘Oh my God.’ I was almost afraid to meet him. And he was a sweetheart, super gentle. I remember the first day on tour with him, he left a bottle of champagne with a a note, ‘Thank you for being on tour with us.’ He was super, super nice. We asked him to take a picture with all the band and he was happy to do it.”I remember that he only got pissed with me once because I remember that he threw a party after one of the gigs,” she continued. “It was just, like, ‘Okay, let’s organize it.’ I think it was a margarita party, something like this, for all the group, all the tour, all the bands. He just wanted to create an event that would bring us all together. And I remember that there was metal music blasting. But after a while, I got tired because I love metal music, but, to me, party music, it’s other type of music sometimes. So I was just, like, ‘Okay, let’s change a little bit. Let’s put’ — I don’t know — ‘some music from the ’70s and or some disco music,’ and he just looked at me, like, ‘I’m so pissed.'”Cristina added: “But he gave me one of his guitars to thank me for singing a song with him. I remember that he came with two guitars. One was the Angel Of Death and the other one was a guitar with the old artwork of ‘United Abominations’. And he asked me to choose. And I was just, like, ‘I am in one album, but the other one is the Angel Of Death.’ And I was looking so close. I was just, like, ‘I will go for this.’ And he was, like, ‘Yeah, but it’s not really working. You have to set it up’ because there was something wrong with it. I was, like, ‘I don’t mind. I will never sell it. I will never touch it. It will be there in my house forever.'””À Tout Le Monde”, which originally appeared on the 1994 CD “Youthanasia”, has created controversy because the song was cited in an online post by Dawson College killer Kimveer Gill as one of his favorites before his Montreal shooting spree in September 2006. Mustaine contended that he wanted to give the song a second shot at success, as the original video for it had been banned by MTV, and most radio stations followed suit. The track ended up featuring Scabbia after “the first singer didn’t work out,” Mustaine told Straight.com, “the second one didn’t work, and the third one was Lisa Marie Presley. She was on the way to the airport, and we had to call and say, ‘Sorry, we changed our minds.’ I would have loved to have heard what Lisa Marie Presley would have done, but because of the demographics of the LACUNA COIL fan base, and Cristina’s reign in the heavy-metal business, it was the right thing to do.”Cristina commented at the time: “[Dave Mustaine] actually asked me to be part of this duet, and I was really surprised about it because ‘À Tout Le Monde’ is a song that I’ve always loved, even if it’s not like the new [version] because [the original song] [was released on] the album ‘Youthanasia’. It was a big surprise for me to get this invitation — I was really honored to be part of it. And seriously, when I heard the final result, I was awesomely surprised ’cause I think that the two voices are fitting incredibly [well together]. I think that the version of ‘À Tout Le Monde’ 2007 has a stronger attitude. If the original version was for the mellow mood, this one is way more rock, way more powerful. I totally love it. I was surprised myself, and I think that a lot of people will be pleasantly surprised.”It was recorded, like an hour from Birmingham [England]. So I flew in and recorded my parts with Andy Sneap. He’s [Andy] an amazing guy — super professional — and the atmosphere in the studio was so relaxed. It was like a family vibe, and I think that’s the most amazing thing when you have to work. You can work and still smile, you know, and be relaxed.”I tracked the entire song because we weren’t really sure what we had to do, so we just wanted to be totally sure, so we recorded all the parts that Dave sung with some improvisation with it, double vocals. We basically made anything possible, so they could pick up whatever they wanted to.””United Abominations” was released in May 2007 via Roadrunner Records.[embedded content]