For a guy who makes his living as one of metal's resident badasses, Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine sure finds inspiration in some cheesy places.

Take the track A Tout Le Monde, which first appeared on the band's 1994 album Youthanasia and is about to be rolled out as the first single from the upcoming United Abominations disc, this time re-recorded as a sped-up duet with Lacuna Coil's Cristina Scabbia.

While the song has been misinterpreted by many as being about suicide (most infamously by Kimveer Gill, who claimed it inspired him to open fire on students at a Montreal College last fall), Mustaine has always maintained it's about a dying man taking stock of the final stages of his life.

"If you read the lyrics, it says, 'I'd love to stay with you all, and I don't want to die,'" says Mustaine, 45, from his home in Fallbrook, California. "It's about a guy who has died, or who's dying, and he has this one chance to come back and say one thing to the people he loves."

So just what inspired the tune? Believe it or not, it was the 1990 chick-flick Ghost, which saw a spectral Patrick Swayze wringing mucho melodrama from an erotic pottery session, some floating pennies and the immortal line, "Ditto."

"I had seen Ghost and I thought, 'What a great idea for a song,'" says Mustaine, who once skydived from the same plane as Swayze. "Like, what if you had this chance, to come back and settle things?"

Fitting, then, that Mustaine has found himself with a chance to settle things where the song is concerned. When it was first released as a single, it was banned by MTV, because Mustaine's management went behind the network's back and hired a video director they'd specifically been asked not to. Then the song became linked to the shooting in Montreal, a "horrific and disgusting" turn of events that left Mustaine with little choice but to claim it for himself again.

"That song doesn't belong to the killer, it belongs to me," he says. "There was always this ... idea of the song being re-recorded as a duet, and the more I thought about it, the more a voice kept popping into my head and saying, 'Do this, Dave -- you've taken a lot of risks in your career. Take this one, too.'"

Though Mustaine had originally considered Lisa Marie Presley for duet duty, Scabbia was chosen for her obvious appeal to the hard-rock community. And metal-heads will be thrilled to hear the drums for United Abomination were recorded at (Pink Floyd guitarist) David Gilmour's house in England, using Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham's rented kit.

"Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin and Megadeth," Mustaine laughs. "I was kind of worried the entire universe was gonna split wide open, and Aleister Crowley would be laughing, like 'Mwah-hah-hah!"

Check out Mustaine and the rest of the Megadeth lineup (James LoMenzo and brothers Glen and Shawn Drover) when they open for Heaven and Hell this Sunday at MTS Centre. Tickets are $39.50 to $59.50 at Ticketmaster (www.ticketmaster.ca or 780-3333).