DAVID ELLEFSON On Watching MEGADETH Play Without Him At This Year's LOUDER THAN LIFE: It Was 'DAVE MUSTAINE And Three Other Guys Playing Our Songs'

During the latest episode of "The David Ellefson Show", former MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson, who is currently playing with METAL CHURCH, confirmed that he stuck around to watch MEGADETH play when the two bands shared the main stage — approximately five hours apart — on September 17 at the Louder Than Life festival in Louisville, Kentucky. David said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I did see [most of] the guys [in the current lineup of MEGADETH]. I went in to catering. Dave [Mustaine, MEGADETH leader] was not there, so I didn't see him. I'd heard he was there, and he walked out — maybe when I walked in. I don't know if that was related or not. [Laughs] But anyway, we did not run into each other. I did say 'hey' to Teemu [Mäntysaari, MEGADETH guitarist]. I introduced myself and said, 'Hey, we all really like your guitar playing. Good job.' And Dirk [Verbeuren, MEGADETH drummer] and James [LoMenzo, MEGADETH bassist] I've known for a bit. Of course, I helped get Dirk in the band."

Ellefson continued: "I went out and I watched the [MEGADETH] show [at Louder Than Life]. And I didn't know how I was gonna respond to it. I mean, it's been five years-plus since I've been in the band. I've moved on. I've done so much other stuff. My era of MEGADETH is my era. That's an era that I'll always be attached to. I'm getting ready to go [on my solo] 'Bass Warrior' [tour]. We're gonna play [MEGADETH's classic fifth album, 1992's] 'Countdown To Extinction' again for three weeks across Europe. Some cool new spots, actually… So, that's my era. As [former MEGADETH touring and recording drummer] Chris Adler always used to say, 'My MEGADETH.' 'Would my MEGADETH do that or not?' But I watched the band play. Me and [current METAL CHURCH drummer] Ken Mary went out front, sat front of house, watched it, and it was, like, 'Well, there's Dave and three other guys playing our songs.' That's all, really, that it was. And some things I went, 'Yeah, I remember we did that. Da, da, da, okay, they move like that. They come together in 'In My Darkest Hour',' whatever."

David added: "I was actually texting with my friend Greg Handevidt [early MEGADETH guitarist]. I said, 'It's funny, I'm actually watching my very first MEGADETH show right now.' In fact, I saw Alice Cooper right before that. I went to say 'hey' to him, and I said, 'Hey, listen, I gotta bail. I'm gonna go out and watch my very first MEGADETH concert.' And he goes, 'Yeah, you should. They're pretty good.' So, Alice is always kind of a safe harbor. He's a solid guy, and he's got a great, great spirit and energy around him. So it was kind of nice to connect with him before I went out there."

Asked if he was thinking, during MEGADETH's performance, that LoMenzo was playing the parts differently from the way he used to play the songs, Ellefson said: "No. James does a perfectly fine job playing the parts. It doesn't sound like me. He's got a different tone. It's a different thing. And I didn't look at him expecting him to be me. He's not. He's very clearly said that. He's his own guy. I guess it's maybe like me with [the] KINGS OF THRASH [project]. It's me and [former MEGADETH guitarist] Jeff Young playing some songs we played together, some that we didn't. I'd like to think we do a very good job of it, representing. And a lot of that is 'cause our drummer Fred's [Aching] amazing, and our singer Chaz [Leon] is, like, a very, very amazingly great singer, who's a diehard fan who gets into the character. And with that said, look, those guys are not MEGADETH members. Me and Jeff were. So people probably look, 'Okay, there's the two guys.' I looked at Dave's version of MEGADETH and went, 'Well, there's one MEGADETH guy — Dave.' You know what I mean? And look, Dirk sounds great. He's always played great. He's a fantastic player. As soon as we auditioned him, right away — we got to the first chorus of 'Symphony Of Destruction' and went, 'Yep, that's the guy.' And so that was fine."

David added: "So yeah, [it was] just a different era [of MEGADETH]. It was a rear-view mirror moment. It was kind of, like, 'Yeah, I remember being in that band years ago.' And we had a different sound. As I always said, it doesn't, to me, sound like my MEGADETH; it sounds like Dave with three other guys playing the songs. And that's not critical 'yay' or 'nay'; it's just that's what it seemed like to me. You know what I mean?"

Last month, Rolling Stone magazine shared an excerpt from Mustaine's latest memoir, "In My Darkest Hour", in which he discusses how Ellefson became the focus of online speculation in May 2021 when footage of him masturbating leaked, prompting MEGADETH to fire him and hire another bassist to re-record his parts for what became the band's MEGADETH's sixteenth album, "The Sick, The Dying … And The Dead!"

Mustaine wrote in part: "I found out about the scandal the same way that everyone else found out: I heard about it online. On May 10, 2021, sexually explicit videos of David Ellefson masturbating appeared on Twitter. The videos resulted from an online interaction with a nineteen-year-old MEGADETH fan with whom Ellefson had engaged in some sort of relationship. When more details were revealed, the story quickly went viral.

"It was impossible to separate fact from fiction, truth from fantasy, as the Internet exploded in typically histrionic fashion. But this much was clear: that was definitely David Ellefson, MEGADETH bass player, in the videos.

"I was reevaluating my nearly 40-year relationship with David and the turbulence it had so often caused in my life. As original members of MEGADETH (David likes to say he was a 'founding' member. I don't view it that way. I started MEGADETH and invited him to join),we had been friends and creative partners; we had fought like enemies. We had played a lot of great music together. We were codependent junkies, feeding and fueling each other's addictions. Ultimately, we had grown apart, trust shattered (at least for me) by David's 2004 lawsuit after the band's breakup. We fought in court. The outcome was not nearly what he hoped for — let's leave it at that.

"To the surprise of the vast majority of the MEGADETH universe, we patched things up in 2010 and David returned to the band, albeit as a salaried player and not a creative partner. But things were never great between us; there was too much history, too much anger, too much behavior that I found distasteful.

"Part of the problem was that our initial friendship was based primarily on two things: music and drugs. David and I were never on equal footing when it came to MEGADETH; it was my band and mostly my songs, and that was always a source of friction. When we both got sober, the distance increased, in part because we had lost the awful, unhealthy thing that had bonded us, but also because we approached sobriety and recovery from different places, with different points of view. I tried not only to be substance-free, but also to live a more honest and spiritual life. There are plenty of people in the fellowships who want to be better human beings and to provide support for their fellow travelers, people who are committed to genuine transformation. And there are others who mostly just talk the talk.

"I try to stay away from these folks. Sometimes unsuccessfully. All of this is by way of saying that by the time those embarrassing videos turned up on the Internet, my relationship with David — and David's relationship with MEGADETH — had already begun to deteriorate. Again.

"Would David have remained a member of MEGADETH if that video had not surfaced? Who's to say? I've seen enough guys come and go with MEGADETH, and I've experienced enough upheaval with David to know that the end was likely near. But, certainly, the scandal hastened the process."

Back in January 2024, Ellefson opened up about the sex scandal that caused his latest exit from MEGADETH, telling Metal Hammer magazine: "There's two sides to it. One: when you bare it all, you've got nothing to hide. Fuck it, now you can truly be yourself. We all come into the world with our birthday suit on, so what are we ashamed of? What I feel the worst about is the embarrassment that it caused some people, like my family, who didn't deserve it. Out of respect for them, I'm going to keep the family dynamic off the table [during interviews]. That's at their request."

Regarding Mustaine's response to the report that sexually tinged messages and explicit video footage involving Ellefson were posted on Twitter, David said: "Dave, his manager and his lawyer [called me after the scandal]. There was a sentiment from one of them saying, 'Let's step back, let Ellefson deal with it. It leaves the door open for him to come back.' Dave didn't want that. He made his decision and it is what it is."

At the time, Ellefson released a statement on Instagram denying all social media chatter that he "groomed" an underage fan. He also filed a report with the police department in Scottsdale, Arizona alleging unlawful distribution of sexually explicit images of him by unknown offenders.

Asked in the 2022 issue of Metal Hammer whether dismissing Ellefson from MEGADETH was a difficult decision to take, given the longtime friendship between the two men, Mustaine replied: "I have made mistakes myself and so I know what it feels like to have people gunning for you. But what we had to remember is that MEGADETH has a lot of moving parts to it. There are four bandmembers; you've got their families, their management companies, the agencies, all of their technicians and on and on and on.

"I can tell you I've made decisions in the past that were detrimental to the security of the band and I know what harm that caused," he continued. "But I don't want to be saying anything about anyone who is unable to defend themselves."

"God, it's so hard to tap-dance around this...

"Let me just say this — it was a hard decision that had to be made," Mustaine added. "There were a lot of people involved and I had to make a decision, because unfortunately, when you're the leader, you're the one that has to suck it up and face the music.

"All I wanted to do was make a clean break, and not hurt anyone, not hurt the fans and not hurt him. I just wanted to move on, and I hope the gentleman concerned is doing okay. I imagine there was some adjustment that had to take place when it happened.

"It was hard for me when I lost my job," Mustaine said, apparently referring to getting kicked out of METALLICA in 1983. "But I've forgiven him before when he sued me and I'll forgive him a thousand times. I just won't play music with him anymore."

Mustaine ended up hiring TESTAMENT's Steve DiGiorgio to re-record Ellefson's bass parts on "The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!", because he is "one of those just really amazingly talented players," Dave told Rolling Stone.

In May 2022, MEGADETH announced bass player James LoMenzo as a permanent member of the band. LoMenzo was MEGADETH's bass player in the mid-2000s and initially stepped back in as a touring member for "The Metal Tour Of The Year".

Ellefson was in MEGADETH from the band's inception in 1983 to 2002, when the group briefly broke up because Mustaine suffered severe nerve damage that left him unable to play. After Mustaine reformed MEGADETH with an all-new lineup in 2004, Ellefson sued his former bandmate for $18.5 million, alleging that Mustaine still owed him substantial merchandise and publishing royalties. In January 2005, the case was dismissed in court, and five years later, Ellefson rejoined MEGADETH.