Dave Mustaine Says Teemu Mäntysaari is “the Right Guy for Megadeth”
Though his introduction to the band may have been a little unexpected for fans, Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine recently gushed in an interview about how he feels Wintersun guitarist Teemu Mäntysaari has been doing.
For those that may not recall, Mäntysaari joined Megadeth last September to take over for long-time guitarist Kiko Loureiro. Hailing from Finland, Mäntysaari was originally supposed to fill in for the duration of the Crush The World tour, but that’s been extended a bit with Loureiro officially out of the band.
While speaking with Brazilian radio station A Rádio Rock, Mustaine praised the Finish guitarist, admitting that things would have been much harder to continue without him.
“Well, I’m expecting us to keep doing what we’ve been doing. Kiko had recommended Teemu, and Teemu is an exceptional guitar player. Kiko was at the top of his game when this happened, so we were obviously disappointed, but it is what it is. If Kiko would have said, ‘I don’t know anybody, and you’re on your own,’ that would have been a lot harder. But Teemu is the right guy for Megadeth. And Kiko knows that Teemu is the right guy for me. So, he actually did us a really big favor, and I love him, and I wish him the best with everything that he does.
“Teemu is gonna make a lot of people happy” [on Megadeth’s upcoming South American tour] “because we’re gonna be playing some songs that we haven’t played for a long time. When he came in, I figured instead of just saying, ‘Well, you’ve gotta learn these 30 songs here,’ I asked him to learn a couple more. I mean, what’s the difference when you’re learning 30 songs? What’s 33, right? Well, if he learned three, and I said he’s gotta learn 30, that’s different. But I asked him to do some other songs that Dirk [Verbeuren, drummer] and James [Lomenzo, bassist] have been asking me to play for a very long time, and we’re adding them now, which is great.”
While Mäntysaari’s addition to the band may have been a surprise, and initially temporary, he is quickly becoming a staple member of the band, at least according to Mustaine. However, with Wintersun’s Time II finally finished, it’ll be interesting to see what happens next.
