Former MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson has revealed that he played a significant role in the creation of the band’s 2022 track “Soldier On!”—but never received credit for it.
In a new appearance on The Delz Show, Ellefson reflected on his time in MEGADETH and touched on the long-standing debate over songwriting credits involving his former bandmate and MEGADETH frontman Dave Mustaine. While much of the conversation focused on “Mechanix”—the Mustaine-penned song that METALLICA reworked into “The Four Horsemen” for Kill ’Em All—Ellefson used the opportunity to draw a sharp contrast between METALLICA and MEGADETH when it comes to sharing credit.
Ellefson pointed out that METALLICA, despite kicking Mustaine out of the band in 1983, still credited and paid him for the material he brought in. “They used your songs, they put your name on the credit, and you got paid. It’s, like, f**k, that’s like a triple win, man,” Ellefson said.
He then contrasted that with his own experience in MEGADETH.
“Look, when members got kicked out of MEGADETH, their songs weren’t used and [they weren’t] credited and paid,” Ellefson claimed. “I mean, the song ‘Soldier On!’ on the last MEGADETH record, I brought the lyric and the melody in for that, and then me and Dave were working on that together. He changed the title of it to ‘Soldier On!’ and then when he kicked me out, he just took my words off and kept the whole song to himself and took all the credit. He didn’t pay me or put my f**king name on it.”
The track in question appeared on MEGADETH’s The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!, released in 2022—over a year after Ellefson was dismissed from the band following a highly publicized scandal.
Despite the frustration, Ellefson took a philosophical approach to the broader feud between the two metal giants, calling it “the folklore and the legend of MEGADETH and METALLICA.” Still, his comments are likely to fuel further conversation about credit, compensation, and creative ownership in heavy metal’s most notorious rivalries.
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