DAVID ELLEFSON: How I Discovered RUSH's Music

In a new interview with Mike Gaube and Shaggy of 94.9 and 104.5 The Pick and Mike Gaube's Headbangers, MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson spoke about how he first discovered RUSH's music. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I grew up in the Midwest where, ironically, most of my favorite bands from the '70s who got me into my love of hard rock and then eventually metal, and then my professional career started in '83 when we started MEGADETH. But growing up in the Midwest, most of the bands that I listened to — from KISS, Ted Nugent, RUSH, STYX, REO SPEEDWAGON, CHEAP TRICK, that whole kind of hard rock contingent — they pretty much cut their eye teeth on gigging and touring through the Midwest. And so I guess for me, KISS was kind of the first big love affair of hard rock music for me. Everything about it — the fantasy, all that stuff. And then, once I kind of got over that, then it was VAN HALEN, BOSTON, then RUSH, CHEAP TRICK and all the rest of the stuff, Ted Nugent, and everything that came after that. But for me, RUSH, I used to see that 'All The World's A Stage' album cover. There was a local drug store where I used to buy, like a pharmacy on main street in Jackson, Minnesota, that's where I used to buy a lot of my records. And then finally a record store opened. But 'All The World's A Stage' just beckoned to me. It just called to me — Marshalls, a killer drum kit, the Ampeg amps. And most importantly, they had carpet on the stage. I was, like, how fucking metal is that, to have carpet on your stage? And then I'd look at it and finally one day I bought it. I think probably the most striking thing for me was [RUSH bassist/vocalist] Geddy's [Lee] voice — that really high, screeching, shrilling voice was so different, so unique to everything, but, of course, as a bass player myself, as a young musician, hearing Geddy and [RUSH drummer] Neil Peart's, their drum combination, bass-and-drum thing, was just incredible, But they all looked cool, they sounded cool. And to me, that was what rock and roll was for me growing up. It was this fantasy. Some people play fantasy football. If I had a fantasy gang to go join, it would be a band. So I think that's what my tribe did… What's my fantasy band that I could probably be in? And I think that was, and it still is, my life pursuit, is to, like, 'Where is that fantasy band?' I'm still putting one together, and I've been in a gazillion of them. And that's just what it is. Even if we're in bands that are successful, you kind of go, people would ask us in interviews, 'Who's that one person you still haven't played with yet?' So there's always kind of this bucket list. So, that, to me, is kind of my overarching sort of career deal with music and RUSH has always been a part of that for me."

Asked what's more complicated, Lee's bass parts or Peart's drumming parts, Ellefson replied: "It's interesting because when you're growing up, you hear all this proggy stuff and you don't really know what it is. But then, as you get in the studios, you're working with professionals, and in the beginning, we're always working with everybody who's far ahead of us and advanced — and not just the musicians, but the producers and the engineers… So as a 15-year-old in my basement in Minnesota, I'm going, 'Oh my God. I have no frame of reference. I'm in jazz band and I'm learning all this stuff.' But now I hear it and I'm going, 'All right, it's not that hard,' 'cause it's pentatonic riffs. So everything's kind of in these pentatonic boxes. And I think for all of us, whenever you're playing someone else's music or learning their parts, or maybe as I have done, you're filling in for somebody famous, you find… Where's kind of the center of what they do? I watch guitar players. You can tell they've listened to Michael Schenker. For me, Geddy… Geezer Butler from BLACK SABBATH, Steve Harris from IRON MAIDEN, Geddy Lee from RUSH, they're kind of in this pentatonic box. And once you kind of figure out what that is, it's like statistics. Where's the means and the mode and the deviation? There's the center of it. So there's the center. And I think for me, that's kind of how I… all of a sudden it's like you unlock the Geddy box, like, 'Ah, that's what he's doing. Okay.' And then on every song, you're, 'Ah, there it is again.' And probably how I play as well. You kind of find the center of where I live in my parts on the fingerboard and that, and then you kind of go, 'Oh, that's how he plays.' So then it's easier to figure out someone's parts. That, for me, is kind of the key to studying someone's playing."

This past February, Ellefson praised Lee's memoir, "My Effin' Life", calling it "one of the greatest books ever written".

Released in November 2023 via HarperCollins, "My Effin' Life" explores not only Geddy's decades with RUSH, but growing up as the son of two Holocaust survivors. In the book, Lee charts his story from his humble beginnings outside Toronto in the 1950s and 1960s to achieving worldwide success with one of the biggest rock bands of all time.

On February 13, 2024, Ellefson shared a couple of photos of him holding a copy of "My Effin' Life", and he wrote in an accompanying message: "What a great effing book !!!!!

"Not only is this a fantastic memoir from one of my all-time favorite Bass influences, Mr. Geddy Lee, but also a harrowing detail of World War II and his family's archival facts & history within it. And of course, the inside scoop of one of the greatest rock bands of all time... RUSH!

"Geddy so accurately describes that moment, when during our most awkward formative years growing up, many of us discover that a-ha moment when our instrument of choice (the bass!) comes into our lives and changes everything we do, and how we view the world from that point onward....finding purpose and meaning to it all through our love of music.

"I don't know if it's a Bass player thing or what, but Geddy you have penned one of the greatest books ever written! Thank you for sharing your life's story, and your life's work with us!"

Upon its release, "My Effin' Life" was No. 1 in the Canadian bestselling books list and had spent five weeks on the New York Times non-fiction best sellers.