DIRK VERBEUREN Is 'Pretty Sure' MEGADETH Will Document 'Farewell' Tour With New Live Album: 'I Think It Would Be Cool'

In a new interview with Stefan Nilsson of Roppongi Rocks, MEGADETH drummer Dirk Verbeuren spoke about the band's recently released final album and ongoing "farewell" tour, which is expected to last several years. After Nilsson noted that MEGADETH's current lineup — consisting of Verbeuren, guitarist/vocalist Dave Mustaine, guitarist Teemu Mäntysaari and bassist James LoMenzo — is "brilliant" and brought up the possibility of documenting the farewell tour with a live record, Dirk said: "Yeah, it's true. We do get along really well. I do think we have a really good relationship in the band. I think we all understand our roles and how we can best fulfil those roles and support each other and mostly support Dave because, obviously, he has the entire weight of MEGADETH and MEGADETH's history on his shoulders. We're kind of there to help with that and support him. His linebackers, if you will. I think we all do that really well."

Dirk continued: "It's been increasingly fun in the years that I've been in the band. I think I'm having more fun now than ever before playing with the guys. It is obviously a huge honor playing with such amazing musicians. I just really take every day and just look at my job and go, 'Wow, I can't believe I'm doing this.' That's pretty cool."

As for the likelihood of a new live MEGADETH album, the 51-year-old Belgian-born-and-now-Los-Angeles-based drummer said: "I'm pretty sure we'll probably do a live record. I don't see why we wouldn't. We have plenty of opportunities to record. I think it would be cool. I hope we do. It would be great to have maybe a career retrospective type of live record where we record several shows and make sure there is a big variety of songs on there, because we have way too many songs than we can put in a live set that we wanna play. I think that right now we have somewhere between 40 and 50 songs that we know, that we are always, more or less, ready to play. And that's not even mentioning anything from the new album. We have already played 'Tipping Point' and 'I Don't Care' live. Those and 'Let There Be Shred' would be on the setlist coming up, I would imagine. So, yeah, hopefully, a live record. That would be great."

Verbeuren had been playing with SOILWORK for more than a decade before joining MEGADETH in 2016 as the replacement for Chris Adler (LAMB OF GOD),who called Dirk "probably [one of the] top three drummers in the world."

In interview with the KATT Rock 100.5 FM radio station, Mustaine described Dirk as "one of the most pleasant, easy-to-get-along-with guys I've ever met in my life. I'll walk up to him and he'll smile and lean forward and pat me on the back. He goes [adopts thin accent], 'How's it going, buddy?' I could say, 'Oh, man…'… anything. 'Oh, okay, buddy.' [He] smiles and pats me, 'cause he's just a happy guy. I've never, ever, ever seen him not smile."

MEGADETH's final, self-titled album arrived in late January via Mustaine's Tradecraft imprint on Frontiers Label Group's new BLKIIBLK label.

"Megadeth" debuted at the top of the U.S. album chart after earning 73,000 equivalent album units in the United States in the week ending January 29, according to Luminate. The bulk of that sum was driven by pure album sales (purchases of physical and digital copies of the album),totaling 69,000.

MEGADETH also claimed the top spot in Australia (highest previous position No. 2) and Austria (highest previous position No. 8). Other top five spots included No. 2 in Finland (and No. 1 physical),Sweden (plus No. 1 physical; highest previous position No. 9),and Belgium (highest previous position: No. 6); No. 3 in both the U.K. and Germany (highest previous position No. 6); No. 4 in the Netherlands (highest previous position No. 7); and No. 5 in both Italy (highest previous position No. 15) and New Zealand (highest chart position ever).

For its final album, MEGADETH once again worked with Chris Rakestraw, a producer, mixer and engineer who previously worked on MEGADETH's previous two LPs, 2022's "The Sick, The Dying... And The Dead!" and 2016's "Dystopia".