Just over a week ago, Megadeth announced their shocking decision to call it quits after they wrap up a global farewell tour that will begin next year. Arriving in tandem with that tour from one the pillars of thrash metal will be their final studio album, release details for which remain pending.
In a year that has already seen bittersweet live sendoffs for the likes of Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne and more, news of another big name metal band coming to an end has certainly stirred up some feelings.
However, over the past two decades, Megadeth has largely revolved around the works and decisions of frontman/guitarist Dave Mustaine. Countless musicians have shuffled in and out of the group, and while the current version of Megadeth is full of tenured players, outside of Mustaine himself, none of them have ties to the various platinum albums that establish the band’s legacy in the late 80s and early 90s.
As such, the idea of potentially closing out the group without bringing in some of the players that were integral to their biggest eras hasn’t exactly sat well with some fans. However, given Mustaine‘s well-documented penchant for holding grudges, and the various barbs traded between himself and various ex-members of the band, a grand farewell involving any more than a few past key players seems highly unlikely.
Despite that, one of those former band members who would like to take part in the sendoff is former bassist/vocalist David Ellefson. While he first signed up with the band back in 1983, he and Mustaine have had a rocky relationship. Ellefson would play with the band through to 2002 when injury forced them to go on hiatus. Things turned sour when Mustaine relaunched the band in 2004, with Ellefson going on to sue Mustaine in 2005 over a financial dispute regarding his shares of the band’s profits, before eventually patching things up and rejoining the band in 2010.
However, their relationship would once again be severed in 2021, when Ellefson was fired after being caught up in a sex tape scandal. Since then, the pair haven’t exactly had nice things to say about each other in the press.
In a newly shared episode of ‘The David Ellefson Show‘, Ellefson admitted that despite the well-documented bad blood he would like to at least have some type of participation in Megadeth‘s farewell, however unlikely that may be. He said of that:
“So, there’s a lot of history here with [Megadeth]. This band started with a resentment. It started with a ‘fuck you’, Dave‘s sort of revenge against Metallica. And it wasn’t entirely that. I mean, that gets a little blown out of proportion. To some degree, Dave was his own artist away from Metallica. He had ‘Mechanix‘ and some songs before Metallica, and he certainly wrote songs after.
So I think that that’s a little unfair to paint that entirely on Dave that Megadeth was just this revenge toward Metallica. It may have been often fueled by it, but how could it not be? He was not a founding member of Metallica. He was there for, as I always call it, a year and a half in the life of Metallica. And [he] certainly changed the course of what they did. But they went on and had their own successes.
But, look, for Dave to call it quits or to retire, I should say… Farewell… I don’t even know if he’s retiring. He’s just basically saying Megadeth‘s over… Would I like to be a part of it? Yeah, of course. Who wouldn’t? I’m a founding member of it. I’m a 30-plus-year member of it. Is that gonna happen? Who knows? It’s too early to tell. I don’t know what they have planned. I have no idea what it is. They just made an announcement about it.
Do I think there should be some sort of farewell that everybody gets to participate in? I mean, look, [the] ‘Back To The Beginning‘ with Black Sabbath. Look, they made nice. They brought all four of Black Sabbath. They brought everybody back. You had Jake [E. Lee]. Now, was everybody there? No. There were some key people — Bob Daisley — some people that weren’t there.
But for the most part, they brought a lot of the people back. And just speaking of Black Sabbath, they brought the original, the core four back, and they said goodbye. Not only did they say goodbye, everybody got to say goodbye to them. And I think when you’re doing a farewell, that’s important, that you get to say goodbye and everybody gets to say goodbye to you. I think that that’s an important part of it. But that’s me. I’m not in the band anymore. I have no say in it. So that’s just me. That’s just one guy with an opinion, quite honestly.”
When co-host Josh Toomey expressed his thoughts that, “everyone that was ever in Megadeth should also be able to say their farewell too”, Ellefson replied:
“Well, I strongly stand against the notion that Megadeth was only Dave Mustaine, ’cause it wasn’t. And everybody knows that. So, if Dave needs to retire, wants to retire, I get it. I understand. He’s given a lot. It’s taken a lot out of him. It’s taken certainly a toll on him, as anyone can imagine. So, look, God bless you, brother. If you’re done, this is it, you wanna go do something else with your life, spend time with your family, just not play guitar, I get it.
I mean, dude, believe me, I’m 60. There’s some days I just kind of go, ‘God, really? Should I write another album, another song? Do I really wanna go on stage?’ And the answer always comes back to yes, I do. So I do. So I can’t speak for him, and I’m not gonna speak for him. But, look, again, I haven’t talked to the guy now in four and a half years, so I have no idea what his reasoning is, what the thinking is behind it.”
[via Blabbermouth.net]
