In a brand new interview with Spain’s The Steel Circus, ex-MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson spoke about the truth that he’s always being related his his former band, at the same time as he tries to launch a number of new musical tasks, together with KINGS OF THRASH and DIETH. He stated (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I am at all times gonna be identified for my work in MEGADETH. However me not being in MEGADETH will not be of my alternative. [Laughs] I believe persons are appreciative that I am persevering with to make music — at the least from what I’ve seen. It isn’t like I left the band and stated, ‘Fuck you. I am out.’ ‘Trigger if I did that, after which if I used to be attempting to begin new bands, individuals can be, like, ‘Fuck you, Ellefson. You left our favourite band. Fuck you. We do not care.’ Individuals know that that was not my resolution; it is not the best way I might have dealt with that in any respect.
“Clearly I am not mad concerning the previous,” he continued. “I am not disrespectful. I did not simply shut the door on MEGADETH and say ‘fuck you’ and transfer on to one thing else; I did not try this in any respect. I’ll at all times be an envoy for that group and for these songs and for that music, as a result of I am part of that. So I believe that is the distinction. I believe I am being very respectful towards it regardless of how my dismissal was dealt with. I believe I’ve gone above and past being respectful. I can guarantee you a lot others wouldn’t have [laughs], however I did. On the similar time, there’s new music. There is a ahead path. And I am not simply gonna stay in my previous, my glory days of the previous.
“Look, I can simply stop and never do any extra music — to be sincere with you, I might,” Ellefson added. “And there are some days I take into consideration that and go, ‘Yeah, fuck all this shit. Perhaps I ought to simply cease and simply fucking do away with all my guitars and simply name it a day.’ I imply, there actually are days I take into consideration that. However then I flip round and I’m going, ‘I am gonna seize an instrument,’ and I begin enjoying. So it is that pure intuition to wish to play. That is why there is one other David Ellefson band. It is as a result of I am enthusiastic about it and I am sincere and I am real about it. I am not forcing one thing. I am actually not doing it for the cash. All these bands fucking price me cash. I put my very own a reimbursement into these items.”
Requested if he thinks he was “a sufferer of pointless criminalization” when he was fired from MEGADETH in Could 2021, simply days after sexually tinged messages and specific video footage involving the bassist had been posted on Twitter, Ellefson stated: “One hundred percent. Fucking 100% I used to be. All the things about that was simply not okay. [Laughs] However you may spend your life attempting to get justice, attempting to go down that highway, and it is form of prefer it at all times simply follows you. I had some good advisors round me, and in some unspecified time in the future, it is, like, ‘Look, it’s what it’s. What occurred, occurred. Simply transfer on.’ Life is lived ahead, not backward… Personal your shit and transfer on. Which is what I did. The night time {that a} video was put out of me that I knew nothing about, and there it was. And unexpectedly, it is, like, hey, personal your shit. All proper. No matter. That occurred. Transfer on. And do not sit there and take a look at to return and do some spin management or name the publicists. ‘Trigger that is what some individuals needed to do. And I used to be, like, ‘Fuck that.’ It’s what it’s. Simply fucking personal it and transfer on. And I would prefer to assume there’s extra integrity in simply ‘personal your shit and transfer on.’ … Let that scenario aid you get higher slightly than simply sit round and hate on everybody.”
Shortly earlier than Ellefson was fired from MEGADETH, he launched an announcement on Instagram denying all social media chatter that he “groomed” an underage fan. He additionally filed a report with the police division in Scottsdale, Arizona alleging illegal distribution of sexually specific photos of him by unknown offenders. Within the report, Ellefson admitted that he had been exchanging sexual textual content messages with a Dutch teenager, who captured a video of a number of of their digital “masturbating encounters” with out his consent and shared them with buddies. (In keeping with Ellefson, the girl was 19 on the time of their first digital sexual encounter.) Ellefson, who lives in Scottsdale, first grew to become conscious of the video on Could 9, 2021, when the declare “David Ellefson of MEGADETH is a pedophile” appeared on Instagram. Ellefson advised police he was notified on Could 14 by MEGADETH that the band can be parting methods with him. Three days later, he was fired.
Pressed about whether or not he appears to be like again on what occurred and thinks what he did was “dangerous”, Ellefson stated: “To begin with, I am entitled to a private life, and I did not do something to anybody — interval. And that is simply the underside line. And a few individuals got down to actually damage me. And I do not actually wanna maintain digging this up, as a result of now we’re doing the very factor I am speaking, which isn’t digging it up. We have moved on from it. It’s what it’s, it was what it was, and I actually got down to show what it wasn’t. And that is the trail I took.
“I believe the larger image right here… ‘Trigger I believe straight away… Look, I got here ahead and [said], ‘It’s what it’s. Sorry. It is embarrassing.’ However the truth that I used to be discounted from my band was clearly… I believe individuals can see, as a result of [the announcement that I was being fired] was personally signed [by MEGADETH leader Dave Mustaine]… There was different resentments and different issues behind that. And I believe that is what grew to become clear. And once more, I did my finest to attempt to mend that fence and to repair that, however he did not wanna find out about it. So it’s what it’s.
“I’ve not spent the final two years strolling round saying ‘fuck you’ and ta-da-da-da-da. If something, hey, I want you properly. Get on along with your life. If that is what it’s, then it is higher to go our separate methods.”
Requested if he’s happier now than he was earlier than, Ellefson stated: “Very a lot. And in reality, exterior of you and me speaking about this, I do not even take into consideration MEGADETH anymore. I actually do not — I do not give it some thought. That entire factor, to me, it is useless to me, to be sincere with you.”
He continued: “I wasn’t sad earlier than. I knew what I used to be strolling again into once I got here again to MEGADETH. I knew what I used to be strolling again into in 2010, which is why I agreed to solely return for one month and do the ‘Rust In Peace’ [anniversary] tour. And basically I saved the day, as a result of they did not have a bass participant, and so they had been about able to go play the ‘Rust In Peace’ album. And [then-MEGADETH drummer] Shawn Drover, who lately was underneath some fairly shitty assault by a sure particular person we all know, Shawn Drover did the suitable factor bringing me to MEGADETH. It was the suitable transfer for the band, for the legacy, for the followers, for the ‘Huge 4’, for all the things round it. Shawn Drover is a hero to MEGADETH. And he introduced me again. I agreed to do it for a month. It went properly, so we agreed to go to South America. It went properly. We agreed to hold on, and we simply form of took it one tour at a time. And that carried on for an additional 11 years. In order a lot as there’s some current scrutiny about I ought to have by no means been introduced again… Properly, apparently I ought to have been, and apparently I ought to have by no means been out of there within the first place. And the 2 instances that I’ve not been there weren’t of my doing. The primary [exit] was over the change of monetary splits, after which the second time was clearly of one thing a lot larger — private grudges and resentments towards me. However that however, I knew what I used to be strolling again into. And we had loads of good instances. There was loads of enjoyable within the 11 years that I got here again. Not a lot within the current years. The final couple of years had been fairly shitty and fairly tough, particularly attempting to make that file [MEGADETH‘s 2022 album ‘The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!’]. It was very clear I used to be not invited into it. I used to be not welcomed. Clearly Dave didn’t need me to be a part of that story, of that album. And I knew it. So, once more, I am a giant boy. I get it. I see it. In order that’s why once I was dismissed, it was form of, like, ‘Properly, all proper. Transfer on from that.’ That is why I am not bitter about this. Now, it did not finish the best way I assumed it could, however oh, properly. MEGADETH‘s over once more. Properly, now what? Transfer on. So I would already been down this highway as soon as earlier than.”
Ellefson added: “I believe, for me, I at all times knew once I got here again to the group that do not search for your happiness right here. Get pleasure from it. Be grateful for it. It is gonna finish. You simply do not know when or how, but it surely will finish sooner or later, and it did. So when it occurred, I used to be in a position to simply form of transfer on from it and get away from — once more — shitty people who did shitty issues to me and simply form of shut all that down and transfer on. So I believe now there’s simply much more pleasure in my life. I make music I like with individuals I like. I am enthusiastic about it.”
Mustaine — who fashioned MEGADETH with Ellefson in 1983 — launched an announcement on Could 24, 2021 saying the bassist’s departure from the band. Within the assertion, Dave stated: “We don’t take this resolution calmly. Whereas we have no idea each element of what occurred, with an already strained relationship, what has already been revealed now is sufficient to make working collectively not possible transferring ahead.”
Two days after Mustaine introduced Ellefson‘s newest departure from MEGADETH, the bassist launched a follow-up assertion wherein he vowed to file a “defamation lawsuit” towards the one who “illegally posted a really personal video” of the bassist and made “false allegations” towards him. He additionally stated he was working with the police in Scottsdale “of their investigation into prices concerning revenge pornography to be filed towards the one who posted the video. This particular person will probably be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the legislation,” Ellefson wrote. He went on to say that he was “taking this time to be with my household” and wished his “bandmates” one of the best with their tour.
Ellefson was in MEGADETH from the band’s inception in 1983 to 2002, and once more from 2010 till his newest exit.
