Dave Mustaine on Latest Grammy Nomination: “This is Just Surreal”

Thrash metal pioneers Megadeth earned their 13th Grammy nod this year for the single “We’ll Be Back” from their latest album, The Sick, the Dying… and the Dead! Frontman Dave Mustaine said:

“I am so happy to be nominated again. I am still on a high from our last win, and this is just surreal. After all the hard work put in by my team, this moment is for them to share in the celebration as well!”

If they win the gold this year, it would be Megadeth’s second Grammy for “Best Metal Performance” in two consecutive albums. Mustaine and crew took home the prize in 2017, earning the award for the title track to their last album, Dystopia. When Megadeth approached the stage to receive the award, “Master of Puppets” by Metallica—Mustaine’s former band—played, which undoubtedly made the notoriously-bitter musician even more bitter, understandably so in this case.

In his acceptance speech, Mustaine said:

“Fantastic! Only took twelve tries to get this. Last time we were here, we were talking to Kenny G, and he asked me how many times we were here, and he goes, ‘Well, eleven isn’t that bad.’ And I said, ‘How many times did it take you?’ And he said, Twenty-one.’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, my god. If it takes twenty-one times… I don’t know if I’ll live that long.’

“I wanna thank Jesus Christ, I wanna thank my wife, my children, all the band’s wives and kids, I wanna thank our management, our label, our agent, our attorney, our crew, all of you, especially the metal community. I think it’s a little weird that we ended up being category 69, but somebody’s got a sense of humor.”

Check out all the 2023 Grammy noms below.

Best Rock Performance

• “So Happy It Hurts” – Bryan Adams
• “Old Man” – Beck
• “Wild Child” – The Black Keys
• “Broken Horses” – Brandi Carlile
• “Crawl!” – Idles
• “Patient Number 9” – Ozzy Osbourne feat. Jeff Beck
• “Holiday” – Turnstile

Best Metal Performance

• “Call Me Little Sunshine” – Ghost
• “We’ll Be Back” – Megadeth
• “Kill or Be Killed” – Muse
• “Degradation Rules” – Ozzy Osbourne feat. Tony Iommi
• “Blackout” – Turnstile

Best Rock Song

• “Black Summer” – Flea, John Frusciante, Anthony Kiedis and Chad Smith, songwriters (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
• “Blackout” – Brady Ebert, Daniel Fang, Franz Lyons, Pat McCrory and Brendan Yates, songwriters (Turnstile)
• “Broken Horses” – Brandi Carlile, Phil Hanseroth and Tim Hanseroth, songwriters (Brandi Carlile)
• “Harmonia’s Dream” – Robbie Bennett and Adam Granduciel, songwriters (The War on Drugs)
• “Patient Number 9” – John Osbourne, Chad Smith, Ali Tamposi, Robert Trujillo and Andrew Wotman, songwriters (Ozzy Osbourne featuring Jeff Beck)

Best Rock Album

• Dropout Boogie – The Black Keys
• The Boy Named If – Elvis Costello & the Imposters
• Crawler – Idles
• Mainstream Sellout – Machine Gun Kelly
• Patient Number 9 – Ozzy Osbourne
• Lucifer on the Sofa – Spoon