MEGADETH's DIRK VERBEUREN On DAVE MUSTAINE: 'He'll Tell You Straight To Your Face If He Doesn't Like Something'

During a recent appearance on the Freddy And Friends podcast, hosted by world-renowned drummer Freddy Charles, MEGADETH drummer Dirk Verbeuren was asked what it's like to work on new music with the band's leader, guitarist/vocalist Dave Mustaine. Dirk responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It's like everything. Anybody you work with — I've worked with so many different people and continue to do so, and you have to figure out what works for them, what their process is, what they're looking for and what they're expecting. And that's always a bit of a search in the beginning and a bit of a trial and error sometimes. Dave is very straightforward always; he is a very straightforward person. Whatever anybody says about him, with him you get what you see. And he'll tell you straight to your face if he doesn't like something or if he's looking for something or whatever. So it was pretty easy, actually, to figure out with him what he wants. He is, like, 'Hey, guys, I want you all to contribute stuff. I wanna do it this way and this way. Contribute your stuff. Put the rifts here,' whatever. So, 'Okay.' So then you do that, and then we work through it and in the end I have songs on the record. So, clearly it works. And of course, there's also an understanding that — I grew up with MEGADETH, kind of like you, it's been in my life, and so I understand the band. So that helps. If it was something that I didn't have an understanding of, I may not be able to contribute much in that regard."

The 50-year-old Belgian-born-and-now-Los-Angeles-based drummer also talked about MEGADETH's upcoming final LP, simply titled "Megadeth", which will be released on January 23, 2026. The follow-up to 2022's "The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!" will be made available via Mustaine's Tradecraft imprint on Frontiers Label Group's new BLKIIBLK label.

"It just got finished mastering three days ago," Dirk said. "[Most of it was recorded] in Nashville where Dave lives. I did the drums here at One On One [studios]. But everything else was done in Nashville… I spent a lot of time in Nashville together with the other bandmembers, and we just worked on stuff day after day. And so at night we would go and write stuff, work on our computers and stuff, and then the next day put it in the Dropbox at night and then the next day go, 'Hey, Dave, check this out.' During the day we'll be in the studio, and he'll come, like, 'All right, guys. Did you guys do anything?' 'Okay, let's listen.' And then whatever he liked, that stuff would go into a folder of, like, 'Okay, these are potential candidates for us to work on.' And then some of it would end up being a song."

Regarding how the touring side of being in MEGADETH has evolved over the last 10 years, Dirk, who had been playing with SOILWORK for more than a decade before being recommended for the MEGADETH gig in 2016 by LAMB OF GOD's Chris Adler, said: "Well, if you look at it from the aspect of how has the touring become as opposed to when I started, it's become like the main thing now, with the changes in the music business. Touring is where — it's our bread and butter. That's everything. So that's kind of been a noticeable shift. But, of course, at the level of MEGADETH, it's always been an important thing anyway. For me, on a personal level, it's been an incredible learning situation. I've learned so much just seeing how everything operates, how Dave runs the ship, all the things that are required. And I've really built, I think, a lot of confidence and ease of… I'm naturally a very introverted person, and so those things were usually a bit difficult for me, even in the SOILWORK years. And now I've just really learned to just embrace the public side of it because you kind of have to. It doesn't have to change who I am… I fought against it for a while — like, 'I don't like this' and 'I don't like that' — and I was, like, 'You know what? I should just really just embrace this, because it's only gonna last so long.' I mean, we're doing our farewell tour now."

Last month, Dirk spoke about his first exposure to MEGADETH's music via the band's 1986 album "Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?" during an appearance on the 100th episode of the Vinyl Bang podcast hosted by Nick Martin and Jeff Grindstopher. Dirk said at the time: "I remember going to a little flea market in the town outside of Paris where we lived in a small town, and I just looked at the cover and I looked at these pictures… But these pictures of the four bandmembers [on the album cover], they looked so badass to me on there. And I was, like, 'I don't know this band, but I gotta get this. This looks killer.' And so this was probably, I'm gonna say either '87 or '88. So a few years after the record came out, so I was a few years behind, but at the time it wasn't so like now where, oh, everything is super specific about when it's coming out because it's all online. At the time, it was more, like, whatever you could stumble across, whatever you were lucky to find or get on a tape became a big deal. So it was a bit more spread out in time, I believe, before the Internet."

Dirk continued: "So, anyway, MEGADETH immediately stood out to me from other things I was listening to at the time. The vocals, the lyrics, just the approach was its very own kind of thrash metal, I guess, which I don't even know if at the time I really knew what that style was called. I just knew I loved it. And so that became one of my important albums growing up, which, obviously, given what happened many years later in my life, it's kind of crazy.'

Verbeuren went on to say that it's surreal for him to be in a band that he looked up to when he was still in his early teens.

"A cool story about that is that I saw MEGADETH on the 'Clash Of The Titans' tour [in October 1990 when I was 15 years old]," he recalled. "It was one of the first shows I went to as a young teenager. So this was in Paris at Le Zénith. And I have since now three times played with the band at that very venue. So every time I go there, it blows my mind because I'm, like, 'I can't believe I was here as a teenager seeing the band I'm now a part of.' And all these years later, to be on that stage is just, like [laughs], 'What happened?'"

According to Dirk, joining a band like MEGADETH is "beyond a dream" for him "because I would've never even dared to dream that," he said. "People will say, like, 'Oh, was that your craziest dream?' And I'm, like, 'No,' 'cause I would've never even dared to imagine that that would happen. I was just happy to be making music. I was in SOILWORK for 12 years before I went to MEGADETH, and I was stoked to be in a touring band and in an active, professional band that was making music I liked. So it's beyond — you can't even put words on to that, really. [Laughs] So when I look back at this record, and I remember I having a vision of going to this flea market and flipping through albums and being, like, 'This looks cool.' … There's a few other things I bought that day — I think like a HELLOWEEN album, and I forget what else — but it blows my mind to think that, wow. If you had told me at that time, 'Yeah, one day you'll be in that band,' I think my head would've exploded. So, yeah. Pretty cool. Pretty crazy where life can take you."

Back in September 2022, Dirk told Sick Drummer Magazine that he was "just humbled" to have been involved with the writing and recording of the band's latest album, "The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!" He said: "I'm just thankful to be here. That's the best way I can put it. I can't even say that this is a dream come true, 'cause I don't think I ever dreamed anything crazy like [this]. I was just happy to be playing drums and trying to make a living off of doing it, and [that] in itself was a gratifying thing for me. It wasn't always easy, and I don't think any good job is always easy; it was a struggle sometimes. But I never thought, like, 'Oh, I should be in this major band', so when it kind of just happened, I'm still kind of pinching myself to this day. At the same time, I have to say that I worked really hard my whole life. I've always been somebody who I think when I do something I do it one hundred percent. To persevere through the hard times and always try to keep my head up and try to keep learning new things, it's paid off in the long run."

He continued: "There have been times when I wanted to give up, like anybody, when things seem a bit hopeless. There was a few times I told my wife where I thought maybe I should just get a normal job and life would be a bit more simple and I can just stay home and not struggle to try and pay the bills and work my ass off 24/7 — no weekends [off], no time [off] — and just have a normal family life. But in the end, I know where my passion is and so I wouldn't give up. And I have to give a lot of credit to my parents and my wife and my teachers and my friends — everybody who supported me and my family over the years doing this — I owe it to them 'cause they've helped me so tremendously so many times and talked me back into doing what I wanted to do when it seemed a bit hopeless.

"But to answer your question, it's an incredible feeling," Dirk added. "I'm so stoked that people are enjoying the album overall, and I'm just happy to be a part of that. I'm happy to have contributed to it, because I didn't know, going into this, how that part would be. Being on tour with the band was one thing — you play the songs, here's the songs, it's cool. You get to know the guys, you get to know the way the band operates on the road. Now, going into the recording studio, or first rather into the band room and start writing stuff, I had no idea. And Dave [Mustaine, MEGADETH leader] said early on to us, 'Bring stuff. Bring ideas. I want your ideas.' And I'm, like, 'Cool.' I wrote some stuff. I play a little bit of guitar, so I made some demos at home, recorded some riffs, recorded some song ideas, brought them on. I didn't anticipate that any of my stuff would go anywhere, because, I mean, c'mon, this is Dave Mustaine we're talking about. Who am I on guitar compared to Dave Mustaine? .. I'm nothing compared to that. Nevertheless, I ended up with some stuff on the album. Like the song 'Life In Hell', which is the second song on the record, is based on a demo I wrote. And then I also have a riff in the third song, 'Night Stalkers', which everybody just enjoyed that riff and was, like, 'We need to use this.' So my mind is just blown 'cause I didn't anticipate that. But again, I'm happy I just went for it. I listened to Dave and tried and went along with his idea and proposed some things. That's the proof that you have to believe in yourself. You have to believe that you can do what you wanna do. And I did wanna contribute. I mean, I was, like, 'It would be cool if I could. Because this is a band I love, and if some of my ideas can inspire the other guys and we can make a song together, hey, that's freakin' cool. If I can do something else than just write the drum parts on the album, that's freakin' cool.' So here we are — it actually happened, and people are loving the thrashy direction of this record in general. And I'm not ashamed to say that I'm definitely a part of kind of pushing that envelope, because that's the MEGADETH I grew up with — 'Peace Sells', 'Killing Is My Business'; the next couple of albums after that, that's the MEGADETH I enjoyed that I saw live back in 1990 on the 'Clash Of The Titans' tour for the 'Rust In Peace' album. So, yeah, it's a wonderful feeling. I'm thankful every day, and I enjoy every single day we're out here [on the road]."

Photo credit: Ross Halfin