Question
Scorpion,
Was the song Holy wars...The punishment due originally about the troubles in Ireland?
I just heard some stuff that they (megadeth) had been fed information by the IRA and had to be escorted off stage during a show...
Loyal fan
Stephen B
Answer
Some believe "Holy Wars" to be about Northern Ireland specifically, but Dave Mustaine says "'Holy Wars' doesn't talk about any specific place in time. It doesn't talk about any country. It just says, 'Don't look now to Israel it might be YOUR homeland.'"
On an Israeli radio interview, Mustaine said: "I've mentioned Israel in songs before, in Holy Wars. Holy wars don't necessarily have to start in Israel. It can be anywhere. There are so many holy wars taking place in the world right now anyway. People are dying for a cause. It's so unbelievable."
However, when asked about his state of mind when writing the song, he responded "Well, I'd been misinformed by someone from Ireland. When I was over there, I asked him, 'What is goin' on here,' because somebody said there was someone with a box of T-shirts bootlegging Megadeth shirts. I would want to get them confiscated because that's basically the way the band stays alive out there is by selling merchandise and records. They said, 'Well, you can't do that. Those guys are sellin' T-shirts for the cause.' And I went, 'What the hell's the cause?' And they go, 'Well, it's the IRA.' What's this all about? And the guy goes, 'Well, Catholics are against the Protestants are against the Catholics, ya know.' And to me, any religion that thinks it's better than another religion is full of it, ya know? I can't really say how I really feel without getting vulgar and I would rather, you know, instead of having what I feel oppressed, I would rather watch what I say and just say that I think that a prejudice religion is a sin in itself, and they're trying to disguise their sins by saying one religion is better than the other and that's blaspheme, and they oughta talk to their god because I'm sure he would tell them what's happening."
So there we have the Irish connection to the song. Hope this clears things up!
