ELLEFSON On His Return To MEGADETH: This Time Around, We're Putting The Focus On Friendship

Steven Patrick of Uweekly.com recently conducted an interview with MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Uweekly.com: So how is the healing process going between you and Dave (Mustaine)?

Ellefson: It's been good. Yeah, it's been really good. You know, he and I have talked several times over the years and I think of it like we got to develop a friendship we never got to have the first time around (Ellefson left MEGADETH in 2002 and rejoined in 2010). The first time around, it was always about the band so the band came first and the friendship suffered. This time around, we're putting the focus on the friendship and the band stuff comes pretty easy and falls into place.

Uweekly.com: You've played with so many different lineups of MEGADETH. How does this one stack up to the rest?

Ellefson: It's really good. I love the way Shawn Drover plays drums especially on this "Rust In Peace" stuff. He's got a really good, laid-back pocket which makes the music sound really good live. And Chris Broderick, he emulates the past guitar players so well. [He plays] with such perfection, and of course his own original stuff that he's been doing with MEGADETH is just ferocious.

Uweekly.com: How did the whole 20th anniversary of the "Rust In Peace" live album/DVD project come about?

Ellefson: It was cool. Originally, the "Rust in Peace" tour was put on sale to just be a one month sale in March, and so very early on, the reviews were just great. Everybody was so thrilled that I was back and that me and Dave were playing together again. Doing it was kind of the one-two punch. We thought we need to "record this and capture that." Then it turned out, as the tour carried on, the next bunch of dates we were going to be doing in South and Central America. Over in Europe, everybody's requesting "Rust In Peace", so we just started playing it everywhere because that became the fan-favorite setlist for the whole tour this year. That's why we've carried on playing the whole "Rust In Peace" album throughout the whole year.

Uweekly.com: I'm sure this question is on every MEGADETH fan's mind, but when can we expect another MEGADETH record with the mighty David Ellefson back on bass?

Ellefson: Well, we've started working on some stuff already. We started to work on some new tunes, you know, just over the course of the last few months. Just cataloging some ideas away, which is how the process starts. It's been cool. There's been some good things coming up and we're gonna finish the touring through the rest of this year, but then as we flip the calendar into 2011, we're going to start to get more serious about cutting a new record at some point.

Read the entire interview from Uweekly.com.