DAVID ELLEFSON Rips DAVE MUSTAINE Over 'Past Behavior' Comments: 'You Know What? F*** Off. Just F*** Off.'

During a new appearance on "Quemar Un Patrullero", the podcast hosted by Gustavo Olmedo, a prominent Argentine journalist, radio host, and author specializing in rock and heavy metal music, former MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson discussed his relationship with the band's leader Dave Mustaine. He said in part (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET):  "When I went back to MEGADETH in 2010, [Dave and I] were close — we were really close. I was helping him with some personal things. He became a good friend to me during that time. So there were periods of closeness as men, as brothers. And I found those opportunities were always the best when it was just me and Dave, when there wasn't another person in the room. We didn't have to sort of be on stage performing for anyone. It was just me and him being brothers, [at] Starbucks drinking coffee, whatever. And those moments were genuine, they were sincere, they were heartfelt."

Referencing MEGADETH's 2022 album "The Sick, The Dying... And The Dead!", the original version of which featured his bass tracks on it before he was kicked out of the band and his tracks were replaced by those of Steve DiGiorgio, Ellefson said: "[Dave] didn't wanna use any of my music [for that record]. I could tell he resented me. He didn't want me to be on that album. And I finally wrote a song [that was originally going to be included on it]. It was a ballad that I've kept, 'cause I had Kiko [Loureiro, then-MEGADETH guitarist] play the guitar on it. And it was a very good song — I think an extremely good song that has a place somewhere. But it didn't make the record."

Elaborating on his working relationship with Mustaine during the making of what became "The Sick, The Dying... And The Dead!", Ellefson added: "Dave and I even had a really close moment. We were writing the lyrics for the song that became 'Soldier On!' He eventually took my lyrics off of it and then used the song without [my lyrical contributions]… He wrote the music — it was his song — but I was invited to write the lyrics for it, which I did. And he decided to call it 'Soldier On!' We collaborated from there, which I say, well, look, when Dave got fired from METALLICA, at least they kept his words and his music and they paid him and gave him credit. Dave wasn't so kind to me. He kicked me out, took my performances off the record, and took my lyrics and everything off the record. So I think I have a horse in that race when I speak about how properly METALLICA handled things and how I think improperly things were handled on my behalf. 'Cause I saw it; I lived it."

Ellefson went on to say that his "farewell with MEGADETH was really in 2018. That was my farewell. That was my farewell tour," he explained. "I feel like I played on the last great MEGADETH record, which was [2016's] 'Dystopia'. Dave announced from the stage in Buenos Aires in November 2017, he said, 'We're gonna go home and start working on a new album.' So I feel like that was kind of a good closure for me with MEGADETH, which is why I've moved on and done so much other stuff. I don't have bitterness in my heart. I almost feel like I was set free to not have to deal with that anymore. Whereas Dave had bitterness toward METALLICA, I don't have bitterness toward DaveorMEGADETH. I really don't."

Ellefson also once again opened up about his dismissal from MEGADETH nearly five years ago, just days after sexually tinged messages and explicit video footage involving the bassist were posted on Twitter. 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. In the report, Ellefson admitted that he had been exchanging sexual text messages with a Dutch teenager, who captured a video of several of their virtual "masturbating encounters" without his consent and shared them with friends. (According to Ellefson, the woman was 19 at the time of their first virtual sexual encounter.) Ellefson, who lives in Scottsdale, first became aware of the video on May 9, 2021, when the claim "David Ellefson of MEGADETH is a pedophile" appeared on Instagram. Ellefson told police he was notified on May 14 by MEGADETH that the band would be parting ways with him. Three days later, he was fired.

David told Olmedo: "[The MEGADETH camp] called me to fire me. And I told 'em, 'Guys, there's nothing here. There's no reason to let me go. This is all just nonsense on the Internet. It's all it is. It's nothing at all. And I will maintain that position all along,' and I have.

"At some point you could just stay going after people on the Internet and trolls and all this kind of shit. It's endless," David continued. "There is no Internet police, there's no Internet human resources, where you can go and say, 'Hey, this guy said this' and 'this person said this', and da, da, da, because you should, because it's highly defamatory. And defamation is when something harms your reputation, maybe even prevents you from getting more work. Those are real things. And the fact that it can happen on the Internet, which is kind of a fake place. It's not even real. It's kind of a fake place, yet that that could somehow come over to your reality. I'm fortunate that the fanbase stood by me. They said, 'Dude, that is bullshit. How dare you do that to Ellefson?'"

Addressing the fact that Mustaine seemingly gave the story "legs" in the media by releasing a statement at the time in which he said "there are clearly aspects of David's private life that he has kept to himself," Ellefson said: "The statement that was put out, what Dave personally signed, was deflectionary, to kind of keep it away from him. And I said, 'There's nothing to keep away. There's nothing here.' I mean, my own legal team even said, 'Hey, if you wanna open up on the Internet and blast that guy, you have our [blessing]'. And this is a top-level law firm in Phoenix, and they said, 'We have never seen something so unconscionable' as a legal word, meaning unconscious — not thinking, with no, basically, human heart. 'You have our blessing.'

"There's a Bible scripture. It says, 'Resist the devil and he will flee from you.' And that's where I went with it. I said, 'I could tangle with this guy again, and I could fight with this guy like I did with the lawsuit,' which I had every right to do of what happened then," Ellefson continued, referencing the $18.5-million lawsuit he filed against Mustaine in 2004, alleging the frontman shortchanged him on profits and backed out of a deal to turn Megadeth Inc. over to him when the band broke up in 2002. (The lawsuit was eventually dismissed and Ellefson rejoined MEGADETH in 2010.) "And Dave did not win the lawsuit," Ellefson clarified. "We settled out of court. That was another one. It was just another opportunity to try to kick me. And it's, like, no, we settled out of court. And I ended up in a far better position than had I not done that, so I'm glad I went through that process, as horrible as it was."

Ellefson also touched upon an interview Mustaine gave to SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk" last December in which the MEGADETH leader shot down the possibility of his band playing the final show of its farewell tour with a lineup that could include all surviving former members of the group, with Mustaine explaining, "I can't really do that, because of the behavior of one of the bandmembers in the past." Ellefson said: "To have it end where it did, and then [for Mustaine] even recently to say, 'Oh, because of what one person did, I can't bring anyone back.' You know what? Fuck off. Just fuck off. Who is that one person? It wasn't me, 'cause I didn't do anything that would prevent me from coming back at all. At all. And so this sort of deflectionary thing, to sort of get on some moral high ground, it's, like, gimme a break. Really? And look, I had rock stars much bigger than Dave coming to my side and coming to my aid, standing by me, saying, 'Man, just let me know if you need anything at all. That's really fucked up.' It's fucked up about how I was handled being discarded. People saying, 'I'm really disappointed that they chose business over brotherhood,' 'cause at the end of the day, the brotherhood will always last beyond the business of owning a rock band — especially something we started and built together."

Ellefson added: "So, with that said, at one level, again, I could call a lawyer, I could go back into defamation lawsuits, and I have every right to — trust me. But at the same time, there's two ways to win in tug of war. I either pull you over the line or I just drop the rope and let you fall on your ass. [Laughs] And that's what I've chosen to do — drop the rope. Drop the rock."

Asked in a 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."

During an October 2021 appearance on SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk", Ellefson stated about the circumstances that led to his dismissal from MEGADETH: "I ran toward the bullets and dealt with it right away. The night [the messages and video were leaked online], a couple of people said, 'Hey, don't say anything.' In particular, the MEGADETH camp didn't want me to say anything. But my legal [advisers] said, 'Hey, I think you should say something. I think some people have done some really shitty things here and made some false allegations about you, and you have every right to defend yourself.' And I did. Ultimately, that led to my dismissal from MEGADETH. But I have every right, as anyone does, to defend yourself, especially when somebody is making false allegations about you like that. So I dealt with it that night, and quite honestly, that was it — it was over, and it was really kind of done. But then, as the MEGADETH camp in particular jumped in and had addressed it — and not that they shouldn't, but they did. That pretty quickly led to them making the decision to part ways with me and to move away from it.

"We had originally talked about doing a joint statement of sorts, and, of course, that was not what happened," David continued. "So I was disappointed in probably the way it went down."

Ellefson told "Trunk Nation" host Eddie Trunk that he initially "didn't even know what" the word "grooming" was, adding that he "had no idea" about the meaning of the term experts use to refer to the actions that sexual abusers take to get close to and gain the trust of those they are interested in. "And any allegations of anything being illegal [are false]," he said. "There was nothing. And that's why I immediately hired a criminal lawyer. I went right to the police department. And just for the record, the bad guy doesn't go to the police department. Okay? So, just to be clear. The guy who didn't do anything wrong, he goes to the police department. That's why I went to the police department and filed a police report and let them deal with it.

"I think there was a big fear of — there's always this talk of cancel culture and all this stuff," he continued. "And I was, like, 'Listen, that was not me.' And I had every right to stand up against that and defend myself against it. And I just turned that over to the lawyers and police department and let them deal with it, and they did."

David also addressed his decision to step away from social media and stop doing interviews for a few months while things settled, both personally and professionally.

"Look, certainly time heals wounds in these things, which is good," he said. "And that was the thing — I was, like, look, I didn't do anything wrong; there was nothing illegal here; and you let it go. And for me to just kind of take some time away and go dark. I got off all social media. I have one Facebook account that I don't even run, just for kind of professional purposes and everything, but I'm off of that. And I think that helps."

When Trunk brought up the point that the only apparent "illegality" in this case lies with the person who actually leaked the above-mentioned video, Ellefson said: "A hundred percent. That's why I didn't hire a civil lawyer to sue people for a million bucks. I hired a criminal lawyer, and what they do is prosecute to put people in jail. 'Cause those were the crimes. You can't just go do shit like that — put stuff out there, content — and not have a penalty. That is the crime. And I think people just think they can — and not everybody; I'm not saying all people — but there is a faction that they just think that that could be just done as a joke and for fun, and it can't. Of course, it's the Internet, so people live in foreign countries; there's all this stuff. That's why the best thing, I think, is to, first of all, just get away from those platforms because that is a breeding ground for that society to do that."

Ellefson was in MEGADETH from the band's inception in 1983 to 2002, and again from 2010 until his latest exit.