Ellefson was dismissed earlier this year
Former Megadeth bassist David Ellefson is speaking out about his dismissal from the band earlier this year following an explicitly sexual video and messages with a younger woman. Ellefson spoke with Eddie Trunk via Trunk Nation on SiriusXM Volume 106 earlier today (Tues, Oct 19th), sharing his thoughts on the situation.
“I ran toward the bullets and dealt with it right away. The night it happened, some people said, ‘Hey, don’t say anything.’ In particular, the Megadeth camp didn’t want me to say anything. But my legal [team] said, ‘Hey, I think you should say something. I think some people have done some really shitty things here and made some false allegations about you, and you have every right to defend yourself.’ And I did,” Ellefson says.
“Ultimately, that led to my dismissal from Megadeth. But I have every right, as anyone does, to defend yourself, especially when somebody is making, you know, false allegations about you like that. So I dealt with it that night, and quite honestly, that was it, it was over, and it was really kind of done. I think the Megadeth camp in particular jumped in and had addressed it — and not that they shouldn’t, but they did. You know, that pretty quickly led to them making the decision to part ways with me and to move away from it. There’s obviously the tour that they just did — The Metal Tour of the Year — coming up.
“We had originally talked about doing a joint statement of sorts, and, of course, that was not what happened. So I was disappointed in probably the way it went down.”
He continues, “Ironically, things are fine between us. You know, we parted ways, and they took their road, and there’s not ill will between us, believe it or not. And I think any fights and those things, you know, that was 20 years go — lawsuits and all that crap, but honestly… Look, they moved forward with the tour. I wished them well in my statement to them, and I mean it. It’s a group I helped form almost 40 years coming up here for the band. And the songs that are on the radio — ironically on Sirius — half the time, you know, that I see come up are songs that I had a participating in, and we built a big legacy. I still consider them family, and my DNA is all over that. I don’t think you build something of that size together and then suddenly you’re just out and that’s it, so I think, ultimately kinda cooler heads prevailed and everybody’s moved on. And I took some time to just chill out.
“This probably was a necessary season for me to just slow down, go off the grid, relax, and spend time at home with my family, recorrect some just kinda lifestyle things with my family. So, that’s been a good season for me to do that.
“This last month has been kinda, sorta slowly coming back online again, and letting everybody know, ‘Look I’m okay. Megadeth’s okay. Everything’s okay,’ you know. I think that’s important. There are no fights. There is no ill will. Everybody’s just moved on, and maybe that’s just — you know, look, we’re all a little older. We just get on with our lives and we move into the next season with our lives. And that’s it really.”
In May 2020, Ellefson had laid down bass tracks for Megadeth’s 16th studio record, The Sick, the Dying and the Dead. However, in July 2021, Mustaine shared that Ellefson’s tracks would be replaced. The band has since tapped James LoMenzo, who was with the band from 2006-2010, as touring bassist.
Ellefson has been with the band since its formation in 1983 to 2002, when Mustaine disbanded the group due to suffering severe damage that left him unable to play. He reformed the group while recording what was set to be a solo album in 2002. Ellefson rejoined in 2010, following a dismissed $18.5 million lawsuit that alleged Mustaine shortchanged him on profits and turning over the band name upon breaking up.
During the Trunk Nation interview, Ellefson also discussed his new band, The Lucid, which just released its debut album.
