In a recent episode of The Candid Mic With Fran Strine podcast, former MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson opened up about his relationship—or lack thereof—with MEGADETH frontman Dave Mustaine. Ellefson, who was dismissed from the band in 2021 following a scandal involving explicit messages and videos, revealed that the two haven’t spoken since his departure.
When asked if he has been in contact with Mustaine since his dismissal, Ellefson replied (as transcribed by Blabbermouth), “Nope. Not one word. No need to. After that? No, I don’t need to be your friend. I’ll move on.”
Reflecting on his final stint with MEGADETH, which began in 2010 with a tour celebrating the 20th anniversary of Rust In Peace, Ellefson described how his role had changed: “I said, ‘Look, I’ll come back for a month. Let me just get through this tour. We’ll see how it goes.’ And it went well. And I’d been there as an owner of the company. I was no longer an owner at this point. I was just a hired sideman musician, which, quite honestly, at that point I was okay with. I was kind of, like, well, as much as the owner also can get a lot of the perks, I know the owner of the business gets paid last. And if things f**k up or a show cancels or anything happens, guess what? Now you’re on the hook for all the bills too. And that happened a lot over the years. So I was, like, ‘Well, let me just try… Let me keep it simple, keep it easy.’ And as we went around the world, it was great. With the ‘Big Four’ [tour featuring METALLICA, SLAYER, MEGADETH and ANTHRAX], it was cool because I was back in MEGADETH, Joey Belladonna was back in ANTHRAX, Dave Lombardo was back in SLAYER. Everybody was back home, and the excitement for each of our bands as well as all of our bands together was huge.”
“For MEGADETH, we got another 10 years, 11 years out of it, won a Grammy. So I feel like a lot of our story together in MEGADETH with me and Dave got to be completed as well. And if that means we never play together again — oh, well. It was a good couple of chapters. And if one day we do, well, then we’ll see where that goes. But I think you don’t sit around and wait for those things. You just get on with it. You just get moving forward. And I certainly didn’t stop. I just kept going.”
Ellefson also explained that the rift between him and Mustaine had been growing long before his 2021 dismissal. “The ending of that friendship was a long time in the making,” Ellefson said. “It really started in 2018… There was some stuff that I was just — and I was vocal about it. I stood up for what I felt to be the right thing. And, of course, that was not well received… [It was] just about writing the new album, the next album that took five years to make. And every time I would try to write and put something on it, it would get taken off. And it seemed very personal. And at some point it’s just kind of, like, ‘Look, dude, if you don’t want me here, f**k it. I’ll move on.’ So I guess it took what it took and what happened, happened. And then that was the moment to just sort of abolish it and make it all go away.”
Ellefson emphasized that while he doesn’t close doors on past relationships, he also doesn’t dwell on them. “I’m the guy that I don’t close doors,” he said. “I don’t slam it in people’s [faces and say], ‘F**k you. That’s it. And you’ll never work in this town again.’ Because you’re mad in the moment. That’s all it is. Just move on. Just keep moving on.”
He concluded with a perspective that balances his respect for MEGADETH’s legacy with a forward-looking attitude: “I didn’t see coming back to MEGADETH in 2010, and suddenly there it was. It was in the front view and it worked out great. It was glorious, it was huge and we accomplished a lot of great stuff together. But that group is not about being… People always talk about the ’90s, the Rust In Peace era, where we were very much a group. It was very much a group. We worked together, we fought together, we won together. We scaled the mountains and won the battle together. It’s not that anymore. It’s the Dave show, and that’s the way they want it. And as you can see, I’ve got a lot of other things I wanna say in my life and a lot of other things I wanna do in my life. And I always try to kind of angle it so that it speaks well back into MEGADETH, rather than oppose it. Why oppose what I’ve done? That’s like s**tting on my own work. So it’s, like, hold that up in high regard, high esteem, because it is — we really did some great stuff together — and then just kind of move on from it. So, that way you’re not tarnishing your own past and your own work. It’s, like, why fight with yourself?”
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