Former MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson recently spoke about his split with the band on an appearance on SiriusXM’s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk”.
Ellefson was fired from the iconic thrash band just days after video of him and a young female fan engaging in virtual sexual activity made it’s way online.
At the time, Ellefson released a statement on Instagram denying all social media talk that he “groomed” an underage fan. He also filed a report with the police department in Scottsdale, Arizona alleging unlawful distribution of sexually explicit images of him by unknown offenders. Ellefson admitted that he had been exchanging messages of a sexual nature with a Dutch teenager pand engaging in virtual sexual acts with her online. These “meetings” were being recorded and the young girl shared them with friends. (According to Ellefson, the woman was 19 at the time of their first virtual sexual encounter.)
Ellefson was made aware of the footage on May 9 was notified on May 14 that his services as bassist for MEGADETH would no longer be required.
Speaking about the split with MEGADETH, Ellefson said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I ran toward the bullets and dealt with it right away. The night [the messages and video were leaked online], a couple of people said, ‘Hey, don’t say anything.’ In particular, the MEGADETH camp didn’t want me to say anything. But my legal [advisers] 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. Ultimately, that led to my dismissal from MEGADETH. But I have every right, as anyone does, to defend yourself, especially when somebody is making 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. But then, as the MEGADETH camp in particular jumped in and had addressed it — and not that they shouldn’t, but they did. That pretty quickly led to them making the decision to part ways with me and to move away from it.
“We had originally talked about doing a joint statement of sorts, and, of course, that was not what happened,” David continued. “So I was disappointed in probably the way it went down.
“Ironically, things are fine between [me and MEGADETH]. 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, that was 20 years go — lawsuits and all that crap.
“Look, they moved forward [with ‘The Metal Tour Of The Year’],” Ellefson added. “I wished them well in my [original] 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 that I see come up are songs that I had a participation 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.”
Ellefson also touched on on the statement Dave Mustaine released on May 24 announcing the bassist’s departure from the band, which red: “We do not take this decision lightly. While we do not know every detail of what occurred, with an already strained relationship, what has already been revealed now is enough to make working together impossible moving forward.”
Asked if he was aware of any tension between him and Mustaine and whether he “felt like the ice was getting ready to break again,” Ellefson said: “I did not. I think one of the things — and this probably started 20 years ago, when MEGADETH was disbanded in 2002 and then put back together in 2004, it was very clear in 2004 that it was gonna be reframed around Dave unilaterally, one hundred percent being the boss and running the show. Gone were the days of the partnership, the ’90s, where it was me, Nick [Menza], Marty [Friedman], Dave — kind of ‘the four horsemen ride again’ kind of mentality… That day was done; it was not gonna be that anymore. And that’s where we fell apart in 2004 and I wasn’t with the group through those years. Coming back to it in 2010, now we’re a few years older, [with] a little more maturity in the situation, realizing that we’re better together, that even though it’s not, on paper, a partnership, there’s a kind of visual partnership — the optics of it are kind of, like, ‘Yeah, this looks better as MEGADETH with me and Dave together. We’re one of those bands that, although Dave is the quarterback and the quarterback still plays, the overall feeling and likability and I think everything about it just feels better when it’s Dave and Dave together, because we’ve been together from the beginning for so many years. And I think that worked really well for the last decade. At the same time, Dave and I are grown men, and we have opinions. It’s not the thing where it’s just Dave and three side guys when it’s me and the band. And apparently, they didn’t want that anymore — they wanted it to not be that. And I can’t speak for them, ’cause I don’t know. I’m not trying to put words in anybody’s mouth about that. But it just seemed like ‘there’s just too much history here, and let’s just part ways now and let MEGADETH move forward on a new day with kind of a new marching order.’ So rather than fight it, which is what happened 20 years ago, ’cause we were dissolving a partnership at that point, we’re not dissolving a partnership [this time]. It’s, like, ‘Hey, we don’t want you here. There’s the door. Don’t come to work on Monday.’ So, it’s, like, ‘Okay. Fine.’ And that’s just how I viewed it, and that’s how I view it today. I don’t have any sour grapes over it, and I’m not bitter about it.”