Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine recently opened up about bringing Finnish-born guitarist Teemu Mäntysaari into the band. He shared the personal promise he made to him before Mäntysaari officially joined, in an interview conducted at the Tuska festival in Helsinki.
Mustaine spoke warmly about Mäntysaari’s significance — both to the band and to his home country of Finland. He reflected on the guitarist’s journey from joining Megadeth in September 2023, following the departure of Kiko Loureiro, to becoming a key part of the group’s live and studio lineup.
“I’m really excited for Teemu because he’s never played here [in Finland] with us,” Mustaine said. “And Teemu is a national treasure here — the first Finnish man to ever have a Number One record in America. So I get a lot of pleasure out of seeing him have success.”
Mustaine then recalled Mäntysaari’s early days with the band and the adjustment that came with stepping into a much larger stage.
“Well, he was very, very shy when we first hired him, because you go from being in a smaller band into a bigger band, obviously there’s gonna be a little bit of an adapting period,” he continued. “But Megadeth is not a little bigger band — it’s a lot f*cking bigger.”
He went on to reveal the promise he personally made to Mäntysaari ahead of the guitarist’s decision to join.
“So, I promised him, I said, ‘Your life’s gonna change. And it’s gonna change to where you’re gonna be the happiest you’ve ever been, beyond your wildest dreams,'” Mustaine said. “And that’s happened.”
Mustaine also highlighted the chemistry the two have developed on stage and in the studio, pointing to Mäntysaari’s contributions to the band’s 2026 self-titled album.
“We’re [super tight] on stage. We play like we’ve been playing together forever,” he said. “And I think that his guitar soloing on the new album [2026’s ‘Megadeth’] really helped excite me too. The album’s got over 40 solos on it, I think — I think it was 45 or 47 solos on the album, and they’re all really involved, complex solos. So it’s a great guitar players’ record, and the songwriting part is very melodic, where I think a lot of people gravitated toward. It was Number One in 11 countries, so we did something right.”
Mustaine went further in his praise, calling Mäntysaari “the missing link that we’ve been looking for for many, many years.” The remark underscores just how significant the guitarist’s arrival has been for the band’s direction and identity.
Mäntysaari was born in Tampere, Finland, and began playing guitar at the age of 12. He joined the Finnish metal band Wintersun in 2004 and has also been a member of Smackbound since 2015. His background in melodic and technically demanding metal made him a natural fit for Megadeth’s guitar-driven sound.
His path into Megadeth was anything but leisurely. He was recruited on short notice after Kiko Loureiro stepped away from touring to be with his family. Mäntysaari had learned the full setlist before his touring status was even confirmed. It was only about a week before the first show that he received his visa and knew for certain he would be on stage. His debut with the band took place on September 6, 2023, at Revel in Albuquerque, New Mexico — a moment he later described as “pretty unbelievable, surreal.”
Megadeth’s 2026 self-titled album was released on January 23 via Mustaine’s Tradecraft imprint in partnership with BLKIIBLK. It marked the first studio record to feature Mäntysaari and became one of the band’s most commercially successful releases in recent years, reaching Number One in 11 countries. The album also carries additional weight as the band’s final studio record — a fact Mustaine revealed to Mäntysaari only after the writing process was already 10 months underway.
Mäntysaari’s role as lead guitarist is now firmly established within the group. His presence has reinvigorated Mustaine’s enthusiasm both on stage and in the studio. What began as a last-minute call-up has evolved into one of the most celebrated partnerships in Megadeth’s history.
Source: Radio City
