MEGADETH's DAVID ELLEFSON Says Some Record Companies 'Won't Sign Anybody Past Sixteen Years Old'

Sue Henry of WILK news radio 103.1 FM recently conducted an interview with MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson. You can now listen to the chat using the widget below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On what advice he would give to young rock musicians just starting out:

Ellefson: "Well, being young and getting into it is the best way. I know record companies now in Hollywood that won't even sign anybody past sixteen years old. And, obviously, we've seen this with boy bands, and this kind of stuff, and pop groups, but, you know, now it's even turning into that with rock groups. And you know what? Young people are the most intrigued with it; they're the ones that buy records, they're the ones that listen to ne, young music that's coming out. So what better to play it than new, young people? So I say, go for it."

On his autobiography, "My Life With Deth", which chronicles the story of his fall into addiction during MEGADETH's early years, followed by his subsequent recovery and the return to faith which championed the band's rise to fame over the past several decades:

Ellefson: "Alice Cooper, who's been sort of a godfather and mentor to MEGADETH — he took us out on our first big arena U.S. tour back in… I think it was 1987, right when we first got signed to Capitol Records. And he had gotten his life cleaned up and was coming out of his dark days at that time. So it was very kind of him to write that quote that became the foreword of my book — essentially saying, sometimes the most rock and roll thing a real decadent rock and roller can do is, basically, clean up and get their life together. Because is bucks the trend of what you would expect, [which is] to be this disheveled trainwreck. I'm lucky that I had those experiences early on and was able to get out of that, 'cause I've been able to enjoy the last 25 years of my life and my career. First of all, I remember it, which is nice. And, you know, to have the musical productivity that we've had is really cool, becase… And, you know, we're a band that we've always been very open with our fans, through social media… We're the very first band to ever have a web site. In 1994, I remember the meeting with Capitol Records. They came out to Arizona where we were recording our record, and they said, 'We wanna set up a web site with this new thing called the World Wide Web. We don't really know what it is yet, but we're all trying to figure it out.' So they created MegadethArizona.com, and we were the first band ever to have a web site. So we've always been into social media — it's how we [communicate] with our fans, and we've always been very interactive with them. So my book, laying out some of the real emotions and those things, that's always been a part of our MEGADETH culture."

MEGADETH recently finished recording its fifteenth album in a Nashville studio for a tentative late 2015 or early 2016 release. The production duties on the follow-up to 2013's "Super Collider" were handled by MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine and Toby Wright (ALICE IN CHAINS, KORN). The CD is currently being mixed by Josh Wilbur, who has previously worked with LAMB OF GOD, ALL THAT REMAINS and GOJIRA.

The new MEGADETH album will be the band's first to feature LAMB OF GOD drummer Chris Adler and Brazilian guitarist Kiko Loureiro, best known for his work with ANGRA. They were recruited earlier this year following the departures of drummer Shawn Drover and Chris Broderick, who have since launched a new project called ACT OF DEFIANCE.