DAVE MUSTAINE Shares Video Of Him 'Writing' Bass Line For MEGADETH Song 'Dogs Of Chernobyl'

MEGADETH's Dave Mustaine has shared a video of him "writing the bass line" for the song "Dogs Of Chernobyl". The six-minute track, which features lyrics loosely about animals left behind after the 1986 nuclear meltdown, appears on the band's latest album, "The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!", which came out in September.

This past summer, Mustaine reflected on the decision to fire bassist David Ellefson last year following a sex video scandal and bring in TESTAMENT's Steve DiGiorgio to re-record Ellefson's bass tracks on "The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!"

"I don't really talking about him anymore," Mustaine said about Ellefson. "I like telling the funny stories, but I really don't like talking about that part of things, because the guy that I know and love was a different person.

"Making the change to Steve, we needed to do that; we needed to do that for so many reasons. On the outside looking in, there were a few people that were saying that I did the wrong thing, but I'm sorry — for my personal convictions, I just couldn't have that around us. And even if it wasn't true, I didn't want that in my life.

"When Steve came in, he was a wonderful breath of fresh air because he could play the parts [on the new MEGADETH album]. And the parts that were on the record that were there… I did an interview recently and the girl says, 'Why did you change Dave's parts?' And I thought, 'You can't be that stupid. I have to change the parts.' I didn't say that to her, but I was thinking that.

"First off, the majority of the bass on the record I played," Mustaine explained. "And it's demo tracks — we didn't have all the record recorded yet. When I was in my studio with [engineer] Chris Rakestraw and I'm writing the guitar parts, I picked up the bass and plunked along with it. I mean, it wasn't terrific, but it was the parts. So when anybody came in to record the parts, whether it was Steve or Dave, the parts were already written and recorded.

"The part about DiGiorgio coming in, it was cool because there was just so much bad going on at the time," Mustaine added. "It just seemed like the record was gonna keep getting delayed and delayed and delayed. But I believe there's a spiritual vacuum in my life and that whenever things get really bad, there's a breakthrough ready to happen. And I know that when things get bad like that, it's kind of a challenge for the universe to see if I'm gonna stop living my life on the right side of things, if I'm gonna start trying to force things to happen again. And that's not who I am anymore. I think right now we're sitting on some of the best years ahead of us ever. I feel great. I think I'm playing really well. My relationships with most of the people in my life are really doing good. And I think that the band's trajectory has just continued to go upward."

Ellefson laid down his bass tracks on MEGADETH's sixteenth LP in May 2020 at a studio in Nashville, Tennessee.

In July 2021, Mustaine announced during an episode of his Gimme Radio program "The Dave Mustaine Show" that Ellefson's bass tracks would not be used on the new MEGADETH LP.

In October 2021, Ellefson told The Metal Voice about MEGADETH's decision to replace his parts on "The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!": "They did what they did. I don't think they had to do that. I asked them not to. But they did what they did. It's the path they chose."

Ellefson was fired from MEGADETH in May 2021, just days after sexually tinged messages and explicit video footage involving the bassist were posted on TwitterEllefson was in MEGADETH from the band's inception in 1983 to 2002, and again from 2010 until his latest exit.

"The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!" arrived on September 2 via UMe.

Even though Ellefson played the instantly recognizable bass line for MEGADETH's classic single "Peace Sells", it was Mustaine who came up with it.