DAVE MUSTAINE On TEEMU MÄNTYSAARI's Addition To MEGADETH: 'We Are A Band Again'

In a new interview with Chuck Armstrong of "Loudwire Nights", MEGADETH leader Dave Mustaine was asked how the dynamic within the band since last year's addition of guitarist Teemu Mäntysaari. Mustaine responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, we are a band again. It doesn't feel like me and some side players or some session guys. Not that it felt like that with any of the previous lineups, but that was one of the fears that I had. I feel like Kiko [Loureiro, MEGADETH's previous guitarist] did us a really huge courtesy by helping us find Teemu because with Kiko needing to step down… I thought I was gonna finish my career out with Kiko, and when things came up with him, he couldn't tour anymore because he needed to be home for his kids. So I see he's touring again, which I'm happy that he's still playing. But he had to go home. And when he did, he introduced us to Teemu. And it was an even closer connection between me and Teemu than Kiko and I had. We'll [Kiko and I] always be friends, but this new relationship I have is — it harkens me back to the days when we had Marty Friedman in the band and the four of us actually felt like a band."

Mustaine also talked about a possible follow-up to MEGADETH's 2022 album "The Sick, The Dying... And The Dead!" which arrived six years after its predecessor, 2016's "Dystopia". Asked if he is thinking about the next MEGADETH full-length album at this point, Mustaine said: "Yes, we are. We're not gonna be taking as long in between offerings as we did this time. There were a lot of setbacks — the pandemic, the blockade, you name it. It's just so many things that went on. [My throat] cancer treatment, the lineup change, having to start from scratch with a new bassist. And the cancer treatment also was difficult on the guys because they were watching me go through all this stuff. And one day, I would be seemingly normal. The other day, I would be so medicated that I couldn't stay awake. And that was hard for the guys to see. I had two days that I was really, really sick that I threw up. Out of the whole treatment, I thought that was really good. I was fighting with everything, every moral fiber of my being, to make sure that I stayed in the game, because they kept saying over and over again, 'If you don't eat, if you lose weight, we're gonna put a tube in you.' And I got so serious. And we started to pick up the pace when we were doing the ['The Sick, The Dying... And The Dead!'] record."

Reflecting on the decision to fire longtime bassist David Ellefson during the final recording phase of "The Sick, The Dying... And The Dead!", Mustaine said: "I don't like getting into the details about it because Dave was my friend for many, many years and even still, in a matter of faith, we're still brothers, but this was something we needed to change, and I painfully did so. And we had Steve DiGiorgio come in from TESTAMENT [to play on the album], and he really delivered. He was a great guy and just masterful player. I really liked him a lot. We talked a lot about his availability to play with us if we had tour dates come up until we found a permanent player. And I thought about that, and I just thought, 'No, I don't wanna do that to Eric [Peterson, TESTAMENT guitarist] and the guys in TESTAMENT,' 'cause Eric and I and Alex [Skolnick, TESTAMENT guitarist], we're guitar players, so we're close with one another. And poaching somebody's player I don't think is cool. Plus, Steve had integrity, where he was there to play on the record and everything. And any talk of anything other than that, it just never germinated. And just to be clear for the record, we never tried to steal Steve. I think he would tell you that. We were talking about situations where if we had a concert, we needed him to come in and do a one-off."

Mäntysaari stepped in last September for Loureiro, who announced earlier that month that he would sit out the next leg of MEGADETH's "Crush The World" tour in order to stay home with his children back in Finland. It was later revealed that the 37-year-old Finnish musician would continue to play guitar for MEGADETH for the foreseeable future, with Loureiro seemingly having no plans to return.

Mäntysaari was born in Tampere, Finland and began playing guitar at the age of 12. In 2004, he joined the band WINTERSUN. He has also been a member of SMACKBOUND since 2015.

Earlier this month, Mustaine was asked by Kyle Meredith what Mäntysaari has brought to MEGADETH that wasn't there before. Mustaine responded: "God, he's such an amazing talent. And as far as being a human is concerned, he's a really humble guy. He's fun to be around because he's kind of — there's this 'greenness' to him, if that's a word, greenness. He makes it really fun because he's gone from being in a band that was pretty well known to being in MEGADETH. And so everything's very new for him at this level. And for us, we get to kind of enjoy ourselves, because we sometimes forget where we're at and then you see other people that, 'Wow, the bread is round and so is the meat,' that kind of shit. And it just makes him really happy, and it just reminds you of how good you have it."

Regarding how much a lineup change like that actually alters the musical DNA of the band, Dave said: "Well, it depends on who the new player is. If they're willing to learn the parts, then the songs either, they stay where they are or they get better. And a lot of times when you have a new player, like when Teemu came in, he played everything identical to the original players. So, he's been one of the best guitar players to step in and play somebody else's stuff. I don't know what his stuff's going to sound like yet, which I'm looking forward to finding out."

This past June, Mustaine told Sakis Fragos of Rock Hard Greece that he thinks Teemu will contribute to the songwriting process on MEGADETH's next studio album. "I think he's gonna be a great addition to MEGADETH," Dave said. "He already has. We're playing more songs now than we were playing before. And that has nothing negative to say about any of the previous lineups. It just says that he knew more about the band and understands the metal backbone of so many of these songs more than some of the other people would understand it."

He continued: "When you're a metal guy, I think you understand metal compositions more than somebody who, say for example, knows progressive rock like [former MEGADETH guitarist] Chris Broderick does, or somebody who knows bossa nova, which Kiko does, or somebody that plays jazzy, like [former MEGADETH guitarist] Glen Drover would play, maybe Al Pitrelli. These guys all have their strengths."

Mustaine added: "I've often thought, although I've never said it, I do believe that when somebody gets singled out by me, that's pretty much it for them. They've been indoctrinated into the world of great guitar players, and from that moment on, their life will change."

In early October, Mustaine told Shaggy of the 94.9 and 104.5 The Pick radio station in Idaho Falls, Idaho about Teemu's addition to MEGADETH: "People are losing their minds over how things are going right now 'cause we have a really good chemistry together."

In September, Mustaine was equally full of praise for Mäntysaari, telling Wes Styles in a separate interview: "He's really great. And I'm super excited with what Teemu has brought. And it's uncanny because he plays a lot like Marty. And it's really exciting. At certain times I just close my eyes during the set and I just hear these songs played, whether like Kiko in the past or Teemu now, it just sounds really magic because these guys have learned these songs and they're not just going out there and just banging their guitar around; they actually learned the solos from some of the virtuosos that I've played with over my career."

Photo credit: Ryan Chang