DAVE MUSTAINE: 'People Find Relief In Some Of The Stuff That I Have Gone Through, Because I Don't Always Bitch About Something'

Prior to their September 24 performance at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, MEGADETH members Dave Mustaine, James LoMenzo, Dirk Verbeuren and Teemu Mäntysaari were interviewed by former MTV VJ Matt Pinfield. A few excerpts from the conversation appear below (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On the reception to the band's self-titled album, which in early 2026 became their first record to top the Billboard 200 in the United States:

James: "It's been an amazing experience ever since we released the record. We didn't know what to expect. We had a really firm idea of what we wanted to put out as the last album. And since we started this year, we've noticed a lot of old fans, but a lot of young fans showed up [too], and it's been really amazing to play to all of you… I've always been a fan of this band one way or another, but to see you all out there in droves, and just hanging on all the classic songs, but embracing all the new music, it's really, it's been moving for us.
It's been great. It's a great vindication."

Dirk: "When you make new stuff, you never really know how it's going to be embraced, but we set out to make the best MEGADETH album we could. That's what we wanted to do.
When we started on the album, nobody knew it was going to be the last one — I had well finished my drums, and the recording was well underway when that decision was made. So we just really went in and did the best we could, and it was a real brotherly experience. We spent a lot of time together, just exchanging ideas. Ideas were always flowing, and it was just a lot of fun. I think you can hear that fun on the record. There's an enthusiasm and an energy there from all of us that's really genuine."

Teemu: "We really did want to make the album kind of this guitar-driven thing, and we wanted to kind of want to keep it organic, so not to make it too sampled, not too polished, so you can really hear the band sound in there, because we feel like we play really tight together live, and, we kind of just wanted to put that vibe and that sound on the album."

On the band's multi-generational fan base:

James: "I'm amazed at how many younger [fans have attended the band's recent concerts]. It's not because their parents are dragging them. They're up there singing all over the songs too… There's something immediate about this kind of music, and it's undeniable. When you bring people together in a room, we share this energy. I'm not surprised that people bring their kids and share this with them."

Dirk: "For the younger people too, what you've got to realize is that when this kind of music came along in the mid-'80s, it was like a new genre, basically. It transcended everything that existed before [and] kind of made everything more intense and faster and more technical. That still to this day [is] a very true thing, even though of course people have pushed boundaries to their extremes. That always is going to happen, but there's still a vibe to this music and a listenable side to it… I think that's always going to speak to young people. For me personally, when I was a teenager, everything I felt was in those old MEGADETH records. I was 14 or 15. I don't remember exactly, but I found 'Peace Sells' at a flea market and I bought it because I thought the cover looked incredible and the guys looked fucking bad-ass. Everything about that record is perfect in my opinion."

On how Mäntysaari enjoyed his first MEGADETH recording sessions:

Teemu: "MEGADETH was definitely one of the first metal bands that got me into playing guitar. It was IRON MAIDEN, DIO and then MEGADETH. So then, of course, what an incredible honor to be able to join and be part of the legacy of the band."

James: "His contributions to the [new] record, they can't be underestimated. He came in with a real understanding of what this band is really about."

Teemu: "We had already been touring for quite a while, so we had built this chemistry outside of the stage as well. And I think that really helped when we went to the studio.
We immediately kind of clicked on songwriting as well. And of course, we had been jamming backstage and kind of tried some bits and pieces, but it was really natural to go to the studio and start working on songs. One incredible thing that we did – we went through the whole MEGADETH back catalog, 200-plus songs, listening to them together, and Dave was telling us these little stories, how he came up with the song ideas. That was, first of all, really inspiring, but it also kind of gave us a lot of ideas how to make the best MEGADETH album, knowing what is in the back catalog. It was incredible to hear all of these stories that are not all public, and about how some of the lyrics came out, and also we talked about arrangement things.
We had this whole Excel sheet where we would put little notes — this idea we like from this song, and maybe this song we could consider playing live, and this song could work great for an acoustic set in the future. Although we never went back to the sheet to look at it, it kind of is in the backbone now. So I think that was really helpful and made it an easier process to go into the songwriting."

James: "It enthused us in a very special way as far as really absorbing the whole pantheon of what MEGADETH has been. It was really helpful."

On the band's recent tour with IRON MAIDEN:

Dave: "They've been really great. When it started off, it was a little rough. Most tours are like that in the very beginning, but we had the friendship between myself and Steve [Harris] and Bruce [Dickinson] and the management. Rod Smallwood, I actually asked him to manage us for a period, so we're all really close, and the tour has been very successful. We're going into the South Pacific, into Australia and New Zealand with them. We were talking about soccer yesterday, and I figured, 'How the fuck am I going to get some more MAIDEN dates down in South America? All right, I know Steve's a sucker for football.' So I go, 'Hey, when's the next football game?'... We started talking a little bit more about soccer, and by the time I walked away, I'm pretty sure we had the tour, at least in my mind."

On what Mustaine remembers about the "Rust In Peace" era:

Dave: "Rehab… What happened was, we realized we were sitting on a really good record, and it was just getting old. We were homeless, living in a vehicle, and [had] nobody believing [in us]. The time it took to get other people to believe in us like we believed in us, it took a long time. 'Rust In Peace' was a very dark period for us, but we made it through it.
And a lot of the songs on that record have been a great help to people… People find relief in some of the stuff that I have gone through, because I don't always bitch about something. I like to say, 'Here's the problem; here's the solution.' It's real simple – if you have a bad moment and you hold onto that bad moment, it becomes a bad day, and a bad week, and so on. It's just one moment, [but] it's going to own you. During the 'Rust In Peace' process, it was a kind of a whole entire music industry purging of alcohol and drugs. The guys in AEROSMITH were going around, like, sobriety police, and if you wanted to play with them, we had to be sober. The music industry had loads of industry 12-step meetings and stuff like that. I'm glad that's there for people. It really helped me when I needed it. But during that process, it was kind of, put the plug in the jug, put everything I thought I know about myself on a shelf, trying to open a relationship with God and myself and see what I really am, and see what kind of guitar player I really am. That's what 'Rust In Peace' was — that's who I really am."

MEGADETH have sold more than 50 million albums worldwide, earned a Grammy Award (with 12 additional nominations),generated billions of streams, notched 10 Top 10 entries on the Billboard 200, including their first-ever No. 1 album with their acclaimed self-titled seventeenth studio release, and captivated millions of fans in arenas and stadiums across the globe. Their catalog spans indisputable classics such as the platinum "Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?" (ranked No. 8 on Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Metal Albums Of All Time"),the platinum "Rust In Peace", and the double-platinum "Countdown To Extinction", which reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200.

Following the success of 2016's "Dystopia" — which debuted in the Top 3 and earned the band's first Grammy Award for "Best Metal Performance" — and "The Sick, The Dying... And The Dead!", which returned the band to the Top 3 and received another Grammy nomination, MEGADETH reached a new career milestone with their 2026 self-titled album. Debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, the record was praised as one of the strongest releases of their career, reaffirming the band's ability to evolve while remaining one of heavy music's most influential creative forces.

Photo credit: Ross Halfin