Yungblud has recently been making waves in the rock world, drawing widespread attention and earning opportunities to work and perform alongside some of the genre’s biggest names.
In July, the young artist received widespread praise for his cover of Black Sabbath’s “Changes” at Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne’s farewell concert, “Back to the Beginning” – a performance that just earned him a Grammy on Sunday (Feb. 1st).
Following Osbourne’s death, Yungblud also took the stage at the MTV Video Music Awards alongside Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, as well as Extreme guitarist Nuno Bettencourt, to honor the late frontman. That appearance later led to a collaboration with Aerosmith on the five-song EP “One More Time,” released in November.
More recently, Yungblud teamed up with another longtime influence, The Smashing Pumpkins, for a reworked version of his song “Zombie.”
Despite his growing list of high-profile collaborations, Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine has suggested that Yungblud’s rapid rise may come with potential pitfalls.
In a new interview with NME, Mustaine was asked whether he sees Yungblud as the right artist to carry the metal and rock torch into the next generation. While admitting he has never personally “come across” Yungblud’s music, Mustaine said he could “perhaps” envision him in that role. However, he cautioned that too many collaborations could risk diluting Yungblud’s individual artistic identity.
“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.”
Mustaine then went on to address whether he would ever consider collaborating with Yungblud.
“As far as me knowing any young bands or artists that I wanna work with? If I was going to work with anybody right now, I’d keep working with Megadeth.”
Megadeth recently released what they claim to be their final studio album, and will embark on a farewell tour later this month.
