Dave Mustaine has addressed one of the oldest talking points about his band: the number of musicians who have passed through MEGADETH across four and a half decades.
Speaking to Fox Radio host Terrence Long, the guitarist argued the count is smaller than the legend suggests. "Certain people say that there's been a lot of people that have been in MEGADETH, and there's been a lot of people that have said they were in the band — people who were auditioned, people who were in name only," he said. "For almost 50 years, the amount of people that we have on record is really pretty small. If you think about David Bowie, he had loads of people he played with."
He also conceded he would have preferred it otherwise. "For me, I wished that it was just one lineup the whole time, honestly. But you don't always have that luxury of playing with the same people for long periods of time, especially in something as intense as thrash metal. Because face it, thrash metal's a young man's game, and certain people grow up, they grow old and some people change. They still have the fire, some people don't."
Asked whether the farewell album and tour mean he has said everything he wanted to say, Mustaine was blunt that the decision is physical, not creative. "It's not because I wanna quit. My hand is giving me problems, and I don't wanna keep playing if I can't play. That, to me, is a little frightening. I don't wanna go out in front of our fans and not be able to do my best." He added: "I don't wanna ever go out there and do it half-assed. I wanna make sure that I kick ass every time I take the stage."
MEGADETH's self-titled final album, released via Mustaine's Tradecraft imprint on Frontiers' BLKIIBLK label and produced by Chris Rakestraw, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in January with 73,000 equivalent album units — 69,000 of them pure sales. It also topped the charts in Australia and Austria and reached the Top 5 in a further twenty markets.
The European chapter of the farewell, "Breakout: Hibernation Of The Nations," opens March 9, 2027 in Belfast and runs 24 arena dates before closing April 13 in Lisbon, with BLACK LABEL SOCIETY and TESTAMENT along for the full run. Mustaine is joined in the current line-up by guitarist Teemu Mäntysaari, drummer Dirk Verbeuren and bassist James LoMenzo.