Former Megadeth bassist David Ellefson continues to shed light on the internal friction that ultimately led to his dismissal from the band. In a recent interview with Argentine journalist César Fuentes Rodríguez, Ellefson detailed a major disagreement with frontman Dave Mustaine regarding a proposed project involving Metallica‘s early material.
According to Ellefson, the rift began long before his controversial firing in 2021. Back in 2018, as Megadeth was preparing to write what would become 2022’s The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!, Mustaine pitched a surprising idea to the band: re-recording the legendary 1982 Metallica demo tape, No Life ‘Til Leather, which he originally played on.
Ellefson explained that the rest of the band, including drummer Dirk Verbeuren and then-guitarist Kiko Loureiro, were caught completely off guard.
“In 2018 when he comes into the tour in Oslo, Norway, we were gonna start [touring again] that summer, he announces [to the rest of us], ‘Hey, I wanna re-record the Metallica‘s No Life ‘Til Leather demo’ [on which Mustaine played on while he was briefly a member of Metallica]. I was, like, ‘What?’ I mean, me and Dirk [Verbeuren, Megadeth drummer] and Kiko [Loureiro, then-Megadeth guitarist] were definitely [taken aback]. ‘What? We’re supposed to be writing a new album.’ And to me, Megadeth doesn’t cover Metallica songs because — just because of the history [between Mustaine and Metallica], number one, but because they’re Megadeth and they’re Metallica. [Metallica are] not covering Megadeth songs, and you don’t cover their [songs]. Iron Maiden doesn’t cover Saxon and Judas Priest. These are separate lanes, if you will,” he said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth).
Hoping the idea would simply fade away, Ellefson eventually realized he had to push back when Mustaine kept bringing it up. He felt the move would be a massive insult to their thrash metal peers, especially after Metallica had previously tried to officially release the demo with Mustaine‘s blessing following the “Big Four” shows—a deal that ultimately fell through.
“Finally, I stood up and said, ‘Dave, we are not doing that. You can’t do this. Especially since they offered it to you [to have ‘No Life ‘Til Leather’ officially released] after the ‘Big Four‘ [shows], and you didn’t get on board and they took it off the table.’ I said, ‘It’s extremely disrespectful to those guys.’ After all that they did for us, I felt, for him and for everything else, it’s, like, ‘Leave it alone, man. Just leave it alone.’ And I love ‘No Life ‘Til Leather’… So that was really the beginning. Dave didn’t talk to me for six months after that. He didn’t talk to me for the rest of the year.”
The tension spilled over into the recording sessions for The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!. Ellefson claimed that Mustaine actively rejected most of his contributions, except for an acoustic ballad that became a point of contention when others praised it as the best track on the album.
Shortly after those sessions in May 2020, explicit messages and videos involving Ellefson leaked online. A year later, he was fired from the band, and Mustaine publicly announced that Ellefson‘s bass parts would be wiped from the album. Steve DiGiorgio (Testament) stepped in to re-record the tracks, and James LoMenzo eventually rejoined as the full-time touring bassist.
When asked if wiping his tracks was “necessary,” Ellefson did not hold back:
“It was stupid. There was never any legal trouble [stemming from the explicit videos which were posted online]. There was never any — there was nothing. And I said that: this is nothing at all. Dave chose to make that decision — for whatever reason or whatever influences he had behind him that made him make that decision, that is entirely on him. His own lawyer on the phone said, ‘Don’t fire David. It doesn’t seem necessary.’ … So, for whatever reason, but it certainly wasn’t from anything on my side. In fact, if anything, I felt like when someone tried to cause trouble for me, I stepped up at the handle and then I dealt with it. I don’t f**king back down from it. I f**king deal with it. I don’t wait or hire a publicist. No — you just f**king deal with it. You deal with your stuff and you make it right. So, again, it was, to me, unwarranted, unfair and unnecessary. But with that said, Dave made his decision about it. I haven’t talked to him since. And to me, that was not a very friendly thing to do, and how it was handled afterwards, the statement that was made [by Mustaine announcing that I had been fired from Megadeth] — not cool.”
Adding fuel to the fire, Megadeth recently surprised fans by including a cover of Metallica‘s “Ride The Lightning“—a track Mustaine holds a co-writing credit on—for their upcoming final album. Reacting to the news, Ellefson expressed confusion over the timing and the execution:
“So, “Ride The Lightning” — I wasn’t gonna there when they were putting it together, but it seems to me that if that song was done [while Dave was still in the band], it would’ve been on [Metallica‘s debut album] Kill ‘Em All. So to me, to whatever degree that tune was there, and I know Dave had a couple riffs — that spider chord [in the bridge], he used to play that one in the apartment, so I knew that was riff of his. I didn’t sense it was in a song, but whatever. He has a whole different memory of it. It’s his song, it’s his moment. I’m not here to argue it. Whatever. So I just found it interesting that that would go on a final record. But whatever. It’s his band. He can do whatever he wants.”
Despite the bad blood, Megadeth has recently announced a “farewell” tour. Unsurprisingly, Ellefson was asked if he would ever consider returning to the stage with Mustaine for one last run. Displaying a sense of professionalism and dedication to the music, he left the door wide open:
“I put it out there to the fans: hey, if I got the call to be part of a reunion, to celebrate with the fans, the farewell, the end, of course I would do it. Because we would do it for that very reason… These songs are gonna outlive us. They are. They’re gonna be around long after we’re gone. So why not perform them together every chance you can? That’s why I’m here [in Argentina] with [my] ‘Basstory’ [show]. It’s why I do Kings Of Thrash. It’s why I do these things. When people ask me, Metal Allegiance, ‘Hey, let’s play “Hangar 18“.’ It’s, like, what a treat. What an honor. You get to perform a song that has meant so much to so many people for so many years. That is a beautiful thing to have.
But, again, Dave owns Megadeth and he will do whatever he wants,” Ellefson added. “So, again, that’s why I don’t fight my way out the door. It’s, like, ‘Bye.’ Even in my statement, it’s, like, ‘Well, too bad for that. I wish you well.'”
