Watch Megadeth’s drummer play Paramore anthem Misery Business after only hearing it once

Dirk Verbeuren with Megadeth in 2023 and Paramore in 2007
(Image credit: Elsie Roymans/Getty Images | Theo Wargo/WireImage)

Megadeth drummer Dirk Verbeuren has covered Paramore’s Misery Business without hearing the drums on the original track.

Verbeuren, who joined the thrash metal legends in 2016, did the cover as the featured guest in a new video by Youtube channel Drumeo.

The drummer previously appeared on the channel to cover Mr Brightside by The Killers.

In the video, Verbeuren says that, somehow, he’s never listened to Misery Business before. He proceeds to listen to the original song with its drum parts removed, then has to improvise his own immediately afterwards.

See the results below.

Paramore released Misery Business as the lead single of their second studio album Riot! in 2007.

The track became the band’s breakthrough hit, reaching number 26 in the Billboard Hot 100 before being certified Platinum by the RIAA six times over.

Paramore temporarily stopped performing Misery Business live in 2018, due to alleged “slut-shaming” in one of its lyrics.

Singer Hayley Williams told the audience at a concert that September: “Tonight we’re playing this song for the last time, for a really long time.

“This is a choice that we’ve made because we feel that we should, we feel like it’s time to move away from it for a little while.

“This is to every bad decision that led us here, this is to all the embarrassing things we might have said, but we owned up to it and we grew.”

The band brought the song back to their setlist in 2022, albeit without the perceived offensive lyric, and have recently performed it live on the Eras tour at the behest of headline act Taylor Swift.

“This one came straight from the top, I’m not gonna lie,” Williams told an audience in Stockholm, Sweden, last month.

“Me and the guys, we knew that we were testing the waters by pulling this out. […] So, by request of Queen Taylor, here’s your fucking breakthrough hit, Stockholm! Let’s fucking go!”

Paramore are still on the Eras tour and will support Swift at the Groupama Stadium in Lyon, France, tonight (June 3).

Megadeth Drummer Hears Paramore For The First Time - YouTube Megadeth Drummer Hears Paramore For The First Time - YouTube
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Matt Mills
Contributing Editor, Metal Hammer

Louder’s resident Gojira obsessive was still at uni when he joined the team in 2017. Since then, Matt’s become a regular in Prog and Metal Hammer, at his happiest when interviewing the most forward-thinking artists heavy music can muster. He’s got bylines in The Guardian, The Telegraph, NME, Guitar and many others, too. When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him skydiving, scuba diving or coasteering.