DAVID ELLEFSON Says MEGADETH Has A 'Higher Calling' Around It

"The Thunderhead Show" recently conducted an interview with MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson. You can now listen to the chat in the YouTube clip below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On MEGADETH's longevity:

Ellefson: "I think if you don't quit, and hopefully you don't die, you keep going, you know what I mean? [Laughs] Even the other day… This tour's pretty long, almost two months, and there was this moment where Dave's [Mustaine, MEGADETH mainman], like, 'I think what it’s gonna be like one day if we don't do this, or when we don't do this.' And the first things that hit me was, like, well, hopefully we wrap it up on our terms and not on somebody else's terms or because of any other tragedies or anything. This is what you're born to do. And Dave and I talk about it all the time. We've kind of had this sort of anointing and blessing for us to even be together. It's kind of like MEGADETH sort of has this higher calling around it.

"We've been successful sometimes completely in spite of ourselves, believe me, and you kind of stand back and you go, 'You know what? There's no reason that the band should have survived that either lineup change, that musical transition, whatever thing happened to us. And yet here we are with our strongest record we've had in twenty-something years.' Sometimes you stand back and you go, 'You know what? My job is to wake up every day and go make the donuts. Play music. Be glad we're here. Be thankful for the life and the gifts that we have."

On how MEGADETH's difficult times have inspired the band to keep going:

Ellefson: "I've come to realize you do your best growth during times of struggle, not usually during… We need these seasons when there is no struggle and we can celebrate and rejoice and we're kind of in one of those right now, 'cause we've turned some kind of gnarly corners even in the last couple of years. You know, MEGADETH is a band that has turned a lot of gnarly corners, but we've written some of our best records in those times, we've come out of it persevering stronger, and I think that's kind of the lesson of life. This too shall pass — the good times and the bad times. So when you're in the struggles, the God's not mad at you, the universe isn't punishing you because everything's not going your way. It's not supposed to. You're supposed to go through periods… It's like when you're in school: you're learning stuff you don't know and you don't understand, and that's why you're in school. You're not in school 'cause you already know the answers; you're in school because there's some learning that you need to do so that you can come out the other side with a new understanding of things, and being in a rock band is no different."

In addition to Ellefson and Mustaine, MEGADETH's current lineup includes Brazilian guitarist Kiko Loureiro, best known for his work with ANGRA, and former SOILWORK drummer Dirk Verbeuren.

The fall 2016 North American leg of MEGADETH's "Dystopia" world tour kicks off in Casper, Wyoming on September 20 and will take them across the U.S., visiting 16 states with special guests to include AMON AMARTH, SUICIDAL TENDENCIES, METAL CHURCH and HAVOK.