Dave Mustaine Shares A Note Of Caution For Yungblud’s Rapid Rise

Yungblud has spent the past year collecting co-signs most artists only dream about.

A Grammy win for covering Black Sabbath’s ‘Changes’ at the Back to the Beginning concert, collaborations with Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, and Billy Corgan, and a close bond with the late Ozzy Osbourne have all cemented his place in rock’s current conversation.

Not everyone sees that momentum as an unqualified win.

In a recent interview with NME, Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine was asked for his thoughts on newer artists carrying the torch for rock and metal, Mustaine admitted he wasn’t familiar with Yungblud’s music, but when the interviewer outlined the sheer number of high profile collaborations packed into Yungblud’s 2025, his response came with a warning.

“Perhaps. But when you say somebody is working with everybody, that to me means they’ve reached a point where they need to either take a break, or find something else [to separate them from the pack] because you run the risk of your song sounding like the last person’s song, which then sounds like the last person’s song.”

The comment lands as Yungblud continues to straddle generations, earning respect from legacy artists while building a younger fanbase that sees him as a standard bearer rather than a throwback.

Speaking last year about being embraced by rock’s elder statesmen, Yungblud admitted the experience still feels surreal. “Honestly, I’m still pinching myself,” he said (per Loudwire).

His connection to Ozzy, in particular, has been central:

“Ozzy was always really my North Star, you know what I mean,” he explained.

“So the fact that I was going to, one, get to meet him and chill with him [and] him being in my video was just mental.”

Yungblud also shared advice Ozzy gave him personally: “The thing he said to me when he gave me his cross was, ‘Never compromise, be yourself, they’ll understand it later. Trust me.’ That’s what he said.”

While doors have continued to open, “I’m getting emails from Brian May and Joe Perry and I’m like, ‘What? Wow.’”, Yungblud maintains that the driving force behind his Idols album remains internal.

“When you make an album from you heart and your soul and people don’t like it or people don’t like you or they don’t believe you, you can’t really do much about it because it came out of you,” he said. “I meant it that much.”

Whether Mustaine’s caution proves prophetic or premature, Yungblud’s trajectory shows no signs of slowing.

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