Former Megadeth bassist David Ellefson recently offered insights into the experience of touring with fellow thrash metal giants on the 2010 Jägermeister Music Tour. Appearing on “The David Ellefson Show” podcast, he discussed the unique lineup that saw Megadeth, Slayer, and Anthrax share the stage, a configuration reminiscent of the historic 1991 “Clash Of The Titans” tour.
Ellefson noted that despite the similar roster, the 2010 run couldn’t use the iconic “Clash Of The Titans” name. “That [2010] tour, technically it was kind of a ‘Clash Of The Titans‘ — it was Anthrax, Slayer and Megadeth. It didn’t have a rotating lineup. It was just that lineup the whole tour,” he explained (as transcribed by Blabbermouth).
He added: “But we couldn’t use the name ‘Clash Of The Titans‘. Apparently they had done another [action fantasy] movie [using that title] since 1991, and so we couldn’t get the name. So Jägermeister was the sponsor, so it just became the Jägermeister tour featuring Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax.”
Interestingly, Ellefson shared a perspective on Megadeth‘s slot in the lineup. While Megadeth leader Dave Mustaine “hated playing before Slayer” – a dynamic that dated back to their early days in 1985 – Ellefson found an advantage in their middle position. “Dave [Mustaine, Megadeth leader] hated playing before Slayer. We’ve always played before Slayer, even when we went out and did L’Amour and City Gardens in Trenton back in 1985,” Ellefson recalled. He continued: “I felt like… that middle slot is always the best slot, because, to me, I feel like, look, Anthrax fans are gonna stay, especially if they’re Slayer fans. All the Megadeth fans, of course, are gonna stay. The Slayer fans have to stay ’cause they’re waiting to see Slayer. So it’s like, we got everybody. It was the creamy center…” He suggested that after Megadeth‘s performance, some fans who weren’t also Slayer fans might leave.
This 2010 tour built on a significant reunion in thrash history. The so-called “Big Four” of 1980s thrash metal — Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, and Anthrax — performed together for the first time ever on June 16, 2010, for 81,000 fans at the Sonisphere festival in Warsaw, Poland. They shared the stage for six more Sonisphere shows that year and reunited for several dates in 2011, culminating in the last “Big Four” concert on September 14, 2011, at Yankee Stadium in New York City. While the full “Big Four” billing concluded, permutations of these bands continued to appear together at various festivals, such as the 2013 Soundwave festival in Australia and the 2014 Heavy MTL festival in Canada.
However, the “Big Four” dynamic wasn’t without its tensions, particularly from Dave Mustaine‘s viewpoint. In 2018, Mustaine expressed a desire for any future “Big Four” shows to treat all bands equally, differing from past arrangements where Metallica often had longer sets and more stage presence. Mustaine said he’d love to do another ‘Big Four‘ show—if all the bands were treated equally, rather than Metallica getting more time and stage space. He notably pointed to Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett‘s comment on “The Big Four: Live From Sofia, Bulgaria” DVD: “It always kind of soured to me when you watch [Metallica guitarist] Kirk Hammett say on the DVD, when they’re praying, and he says that ‘we’re the Big One,'” Mustaine stated. “That just kind of shows you how the mentality was there — that it really wasn’t the ‘Big Four‘; it was Metallica and then the three of us.”
Ultimately, Mustaine conveyed skepticism about such a truly equitable reunion happening, concluding, “I would love to see it done in a way where we all got treated fairly and we all played together, same amount of time, same kind of stage situation, but I don’t think that’s gonna happen. And it’s cool, because Slayer‘s gonna down in history, and they don’t need the ‘Big Four‘ to make them any more legendary than they already are. Nor do I.”
