MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine recently sat down with Metal Hammer and discussed his decision to dismiss his longtime bandmate and friend David Ellefson from the band,
Ellefson was fired from MEGADETH in May of last year after footage emerged online of the bassist engaging in what he admitted were “private, adult interactions” with a young female fan.
At the time, Ellefson said that the video footage and texts were “taken out of context and manipulated to inflict maximum damage to my reputation, my career and family”. He would also add at the time that he would be seeking legal action against the source of the leaked footage.
When Mustaine was asked if letting go of Ellefson was a difficult decision to make, given the pair’s long-term friendship, he replied: “I have made mistakes myself and so I know what it feels like to have people gunning for you. But what we had to remember is that Megadeth has a lot of moving parts to it. There are four bandmembers, you’ve got their families, their management companies, the agencies, all of their technicians and on and on and on.
He continues: “I can tell you, I’ve made decisions in the past that were detrimental to the security of the band, and I know what harm that caused. But I don’t want to be saying anything about anyone who is unable to defend themselves.”
Mustaine then says: “God, it’s so hard to tap-dance around this…” before offering to clear up the matter once and for all. Let me just say this – it was a hard decision that had to be made. There were a lot of people involved and I had to make a decision, because unfortunately, when you’re the leader, you’re the one that has to suck it up and face the music.
Mustaine adds: “All I wanted to do was make a clean break, and not hurt anyone, not hurt the fans and not hurt him. I just wanted to move on, and I hope the gentleman concerned is doing okay. I imagine there was some adjustment that had to take place when it happened. It was hard for me when I lost my job. But I’ve forgiven him before when he sued me [Ellefson sued Mustaine in 2004 over apparent unpaid royalties which was eventually dismissed) and I’ll forgive him a thousand times. I just won’t play music with him anymore.”
You can read the full interview with Dave Mustaine in the latest issue of Metal Hammer.
