MEGADETH's DAVE MUSTAINE: 'We Really Want To Play And Entertain And Be The Biggest Metal Band In History'

In an interview with Japanese music critic and radio personality Masa Ito of TVK's "Rock City" conducted in late February at Tower Records in Shibuya, MEGADETH leader Dave Mustaine praised the band's current lineup, saying (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I think this is — and not taking anything away from any of the past players, but we seem to fit the best together. I'm not saying that anybody's better than anybody else, because we're all really good musicians and we're all very nice people, but I think the chemistry is really important. And things that we want to do are more similar than any of the other lineups that we had. There's always somebody that wants something different. Not so with the four of us. We really want to play and entertain and be the biggest metal band in history."

MEGADETH's current lineup also includes Belgian-born-and-now-Los-Angeles-based drummer Dirk Verbeuren, who had played with SOILWORK for more than a decade before joining MEGADETH, and Brazilian guitarist Kiko Loureiro, who was previously best known for his work with ANGRA. Playing bass for MEGADETH is James LoMenzo, who was MEGADETH's bass player in the mid-2000s and stepped back in as a touring member for the 2021 leg of "The Metal Tour Of The Year". In May 2022, it was announced that Lomenzo was officially rejoining the MEGADETH family.

Last September, 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 recently 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).