DAVID ELLEFSON Says 'Rock Is Dead In America': 'I Know People Will Lambaste Me For Saying That, But It Is'

In a new interview with Ernest Skinner of Canada's Border City Rock Talk, former MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson spoke about his recent "Basstory" and "Bass Warrior" tours which saw the now-60-year-old musician performing cherished classics, deep cuts and providing insightful storytelling from his illustrious career. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET):  "I wrote my memoir, 'My Life With Deth' back in — I think it came out in 2013 or something. And a friend called me and said there was a promoter who wanted to bring me to Australia to do a spoken-word tour. And I thought spoken word was, like, Mike Myers and that movie 'So I Married An Axe Murderer', where everybody's sitting around in the coffeehouse and they're drinking coffee and reading poetry… So I thought, 'Well, let me take my bass with me 'cause maybe, if worse comes to worse and it all falls apart, I can play some basslines and everybody will be happy.' So I created this thing ultimately called 'Basstory'. So it was a little bit of a performance, it was a little bit of storytelling, it was all this kind of stuff. So, as time moved along, I did that around the world, actually, a whole world tour of that. And then last year I created this thing called 'Bass Warrior', which is really more of a performance. My band's Italian, my solo records that I make under the ELLEFSON name, with Ellefson and Jeff Scott Soto, ELLEFSON SOTO, we do all of that with Andy Martongelli there in Verona, Italy. So we've got a nice little group of Italians that we write and produce the music [with], and they're my touring band as well. And we can go out. We'll kind of dip into my catalog, my body of work of all my stuff. And it's fun, man. And we go to some places — kind of like what we just did with KINGS OF THRASH. We go over into the Balkans area. We go into kind of Eastern Europe, we go into Poland, Prague, bits of Germany, et cetera."

Addressing the reason he has taken his solo tours out on the road in Europe and other parts of the world more frequently than he has in his home country, Ellefson explained: "Rock is dead in America — it really is. And I know people will lambaste me for saying that, but it is. When [KISS's] Gene Simmons said it, everybody hated him for it, but he's right. Unless you're an established band, unless you're LINKIN PARK and METALLICA and KISS and SLAYER, whatever, to start a new rock band — kids aren't into that shit. They're into Facebook and Tesla. Yeah, their lives are on their phones. Being a rock star is not cool anymore, like it was for us growing up. So, if you've got it established, you can keep it working.

"So, for me, I enjoy South America, Latin America, [where] they love rock and roll," he continued. "Asia, Australia. So you leave America and, man, rock and roll is very much alive and well. They champion the legacy stuff, they like new stuff. There's a lot more… I did a record for Napalm Records, and they had a bunch of new groups. JINJER had just come out. There's all this cool new stuff, as well as me and K.K. Downing, and legacy artists were putting records out. So I just find that it's more supportive. And you look at the statistics, like the Spotify numbers, you look at that globally, outside of America, and it's just stronger. It's just a different culture. It is what it is.

"So I play here in America, of course, too, but I find that outside of the USA, sadly, is where kind of the bread and butter is for that, as far as the bigger interest and the abilities to still keep playing and touring," Ellefson added. "And they appreciate it. Especially going to a lot of these places in Eastern Europe, the bigger bands, even MEGADETH, you'd play Warsaw, you'd play Bucharest, but you can't go kind of deeper into the interior to some of these smaller places. And so when I do some of these smaller things, like 'Bass Warrior', I can be a lot more nimble and I can kind of go through the cracks and crevices and really go. People, yeah, they love it, man. Where we are here in North America, you get in your car, you drive down a freeway, you go to another town far away to see a concert. It's not that easy for other people in other cultures. So I feel a privilege to be able to take my music to them."

Last month, Ellefson announced his "Bass Warrior" tour across Europe for spring 2025. The trek will feature Ellefson and his solo band performing select cuts from his well-known catalog of MEGADETH hits, solo material and other hard rock and metal favorites which inspired him during his 40-year music career.

To coincide with the announcement, Ellefson teamed up with "American Idol" contestant James Durbin to release a powerhouse version of the JUDAS PRIEST classic "Metal Gods". The song also features Ellefson's solo band of musicians, including his longtime friend and musical director Andy Martongelli. The song is now available across all digital platforms.

James Durbin was a contestant on the tenth season of "American Idol" and performed alongside JUDAS PRIEST during the show’s finale that year.

Ellefson's version of "Metal Gods" was produced by Ellefson and his solo band guitarist Andy Martongelli and mixed by Alessio Garavello at Rogue Recording Studios in Wembley, U.K.

Ellefson was fired from MEGADETH more than three years ago after sexually tinged messages and explicit video footage involving the bassist were posted on Twitter.

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

In 2004, Ellefson filed an $18.5-million lawsuit against Mustaine, alleging the MEGADETH leader 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.