JEFF SCOTT SOTO Says His Collaboration With DAVID ELLEFSON Is 'On Hold' In Wake Of Sex Video Scandal

Jeff Scott Soto says that his project with David Ellefson is "on hold" while the former MEGADETH bassist is working through the fallout from his sex video scandal.

This past March, Soto and Ellefson announced that they had been collaborating on some new material under the moniker ELLEFSON-SOTO. The ELLEFSON-SOTO version of the RIOT classic "Swords & Tequila" was simultaneously released across all digital streaming outlets via Ellefson's Combat Records.

Asked in a new interview with Dr. Music if the rest of the material he recorded with Ellefson will eventually see the light of day, Soto said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I'm hoping it will at some point. I've given David, as many people have, the space and the time to kind of deal with his own things.

"We were full-on getting that thing ready to bounce and to drop, et cetera, and, obviously, things were put on hold for that reason," he explained. "And it's just better for things to just kind of go away and kind of calm down, because we don't need the kind of press that comes with it, especially the comments [from] the Internet cowboys out there. Let it go away, let it just kind of slip under the rug, and I'm sure that stuff is gonna resurface. And the idea of it will resurface and get us out there… I'm sure we'll revisit it when the time is right."

Five months ago, Ellefson was fired from MEGADETH after sexually explicit photos and video of the bassist leaked online along with allegations that he had been grooming a fan, which he vehemently denied. A short time after the messages and video footage involving him were posted on Twitter, Ellefson 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, 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.

When Ellefson's collaboration with Soto was first announced, David said in a statement: "Jeff and I have been friends for so many years that it's great to finally collaborate on some material together. He has such a distinctive voice and perfect style for some new ideas my guitarist Andy Martongelli and I have been composing. We are excited about the progress of it all and thought this would be a perfect time to give a little sneak preview."

At the time, Jeff added: "As COVID-19 became a big negative around the globe, it actually offered many artists a chance to finally collaborate with one another that might have never happened otherwise… As I have known David for many years, I knew from our other efforts outside of our day jobs that we could come up with some badass jams…and here we are, letting you in on our cool little secret."