MEGADETH’s DAVE MUSTAINE: ‘I See Myself Living Till I’m In My 80s Or Maybe 90s’

In a new interview with The SDR Show, Dave Mustaine was asked how many MEGADETH albums he thinks he has left in him. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I was talking about that the other day. If it takes two years between an album — let’s just say it does, if I’m able to put them out fast — it’ll probably be three years, but let’s just say it’s two years. And I put an album out. We’ve still got about a year left on this one [2022’s ‘The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!’], at least. So that’ll take us into ’25. We’ve got all kinds of anniversary tours that we are planning right now. ‘Rust In Peace’ is gonna be 25 years old, I think, or 30 years old next year, and all kinds of shit like that. And then if we get ready to go into the studio, let’s just say it takes a year to do that. That’s ’26. Another two years, that’s ’27, ’28. And then we go back into the studio. Again, we do two more records. I’ll be 70 by the time ’31 comes around now.”

The 62-year-old musician continued: “Now, do I think I’ll be able to continue making music? Because of the advancement of modern medicine right now — stuff like medbeds,” apparently referencing the conspiracy theory that secret beds exist that can miraculously heal humans and extend life, “and all of the crazy new developments that they’ve made for people with different chronic illnesses, me with chronic pain and with the cancer… It’s in remission. I don’t act like, ‘Oh, poor me.’ ‘Cause it’s not ‘poor me’, man. I won. I fucking won. I beat cancer, and I’m gonna keep fighting to keep it outside the door. Say I do three records, and that’s nine years. It’s gonna be a while from now. I’m realistically thinking, what kind of shape am I gonna be in in my 70s? And I’ve gotta tell you, I feel really good right now. I’m still rolling and still training and still doing my cardio and eating well, hardly drinking at all and just taking really good care of myself. So I think, unless something really wrong happens, I see myself living till I’m in my 80s or maybe 90s, if I’m lucky.”

Mustaine revealed his throat cancer battle in June 2019 on social media, saying the doctors had given him a 90 percent chance of beating the illness.

He later shared that he went through 51 radiation treatments and nine chemotherapy treatments, determined to overcome the disease so he could continue to play music.

MEGADETH played its first concert with new guitarist Teemu Mäntysaari on September 6 at Revel in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The 36-year-old 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.

Mäntysaari stepped into MEGADETH as the replacement for the band’s longtime axeman Kiko Loureiro, who announced in September 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.

Loureiro officially joined MEGADETH in April 2015, about five months after Chris Broderick‘s exit from the group.

In addition to Mustaine and Mäntysaari, MEGADETH‘s current lineup includes former SOILWORK drummer Dirk Verbeuren and bassist James LoMenzo.

In September 2022, MEGADETH‘s latest album, “The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!”, debuted at the top of the charts during its first week of sales, taking the No. 3 spot on the Billboard 200 as well as number ones on Top Album Sales, Top Current Albums Sales, Top Rock & Alternative Albums, Top Rock Albums and Top Hard Rock Albums. “The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!” was the highest-charting MEGADETH album of all time around the world, notching No. 1 In Finland, No. 2 in australia, poland, Switzerland, and Scotland, No. 3 in the U.K., and more.

MEGADETH‘s previous top 10 entries on the Billboard 200 were “Countdown to Extinction” (No. 2, 1992),“Youthanasia” (No. 4, 1994),“Cryptic Writings” (No. 10, 1997),“United Abominations” (No. 8, 2007),“Endgame” (No. 9, 2009),“Super Collider” (No. 6, 2013) and “Dystopia” (No. 3, 2016).

MEGADETH received its thirteenth Grammy nomination for “Best Metal Performance” for the song “We’ll Be Back” from “The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!”.

MEGADETH won the 2017 Grammy Award for “Best Metal Performance” for the title track of the band’s 2016 album “Dystopia”. This marked the group’s twelfth Grammy nomination in this category (including nominations in the discontinued “Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance” category).