It wasn’t too long ago that we chatted with Shawn Drover, talking mostly about Megadeth’s Endgame [Roadrunner, 2008], the recording studio and, of course, his heat vision and other superpowers, as an entire thread on the band’s forums will attest. In fact, this guy could probably give Chuck Norris a challenge, especially when you add the fact that he is the backbone to one of the most popular metal acts in the world. No pressure, right?

The laid back Canadian drummer has a good laugh; he takes it all in stride. He is, after all, living his dream in playing with thrash titans Megadeth, and has been now for the past six years.

Now, Drover is getting set to embark on a North American tour to celebrate the band’s 20th anniversary of the classic 1990 album Rust In Peace [Capitol Records]. With two dates right here in Alberta in early March, Drover reveals how he gets ready to perform, and has some advice for aspiring drummers.

What do you do to keep your chops up, whether on the road or prepping for a tour?

When I’m on tour, the most important thing for me is to stretch a lot and drink a lot of water. If you’re a drummer and you’re playing anything fast and your legs cramp up, that is so not cool. It has happened (to me) and I learned quickly from it. That’s really the only thing I’ve ever really had issues with on the road, so I’ll stretch out a good hour before the show, pretty much from head to toe, and drink a lot of water. Having potassium is important to not cramping up, too.

Do you rehearse before shows?

For me, honestly, I could tell you I have this four-hour drum workout routine, but that would be a lie. I just do the stretching, practice for a little bit, and then just go up there and do it.

What techniques, if any, are you still trying to learn?

I’m an old school, heavy metal basher dude. I was never that guy that went to study rudiments and stick control and all this stuff. I mean, obviously that probably would’ve made me a better drummer, I just wasn’t willing to put in the time. I was more about writing songs for the Eidolon records that I did and that whole process, and that ate up a lot of my time. I wasn’t always a hundred percent focused on drums, it was more writing songs and the guitar aspect of it and ultimately playing drums. I was never that guy who played for 12 hours every day and tried to be better than Virgil Donati (virgildonati.com), because it’s pretty much physically impossible.

As a multi-instrumentalist, did you learn guitar or drums first?

Drums. My father and both my brothers are all guitar players. Glen started playing when he was 10, so I was 13 at the time. When he started playing guitar was when I decided I wanted to play drums. I was always hitting on a desk at school and stuff, so it was pretty much in the cards I was going to be a drummer. But I took guitar a couple of years after that. I’ve been playing drums now for about 30 years, and guitar for about 27.

Did you always want to play metal?

Always rock music, certainly. I come from the school of Rainbow and Black Sabbath and Rush and all that kind of stuff. And then I discovered Judas Priest in ’79 and Iron Maiden shortly after. Over the course of time, it went heavier and heavier, but at the same time, I like a lot of jazz too, but ultimately that harder rock and the metal was the stuff that really appealed to me.

What kind of advice could you give to a starry eyed kids who just got their first drum kit and dreams of being in a metal band?

I would do what we did when I was a kid, and that’s putting on the headphones and playing along to records that you like. Start off with something that’s not too hard to play. When we started, we were playing along with Black Sabbath and stuff that wasn’t unattainable. I didn’t start off trying to play, Rush because there was no way. It was physically impossible for a 13-year-old guy who had just started playing to play that kind of stuff, so I worked my way up. Another important thing is to play with other musicians. Get some guys at school or wherever and form a band and start playing. Playing with people and interacting and trying to become better and learn how to write songs was a really important part of the process of becoming a decent musician in our teenage years. All those things are really important to evolving.

Megadeth, recently reunited with original bassist Dave Ellefson, will be performing Rust In Peace in it’s entirety this month in Alberta, and 20 other dates across North America. The band visits Calgary’s Stampede Corral on March 6, then heads north to Edmonton for a March 7 performance at the Shaw Conference Centre. Joining them are fellow Bay Area thrash legends Testament and Exodus.