During a recent appearance on SiriusXM‘s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk”, David Ellefson opened up about his dismissal from MEGADETH five months ago.
As previously reported, Ellefson was fired from the group after sexually tinged messages and explicit video footage involving the 56-year-old musician leaked.
When asked if his family was “supportive” and “understanding,” Ellefson responded: “Not so supportive, not so understanding… I mean, dad’s in a rock band, and not just any band — MEGADETH. Let’s face it: we’ve been a band with a history. And this isn’t to discolor or paint anything on the current MEGADETH at all, because, obviously, 2021 is not the way it was in 1986. But there’s a reason we had a ‘Behind the Music’ [special from VH1].
“Look, I’ve tried to be very transparent, and I think we kind of did in that band over the years,” he continued. “We were very transparent in things — when things happened in our personal lives and things happened in the group, we were always pretty open about it. And I’ve talked openly about getting clean from drugs and booze years ago and all of these things. “On the home life, again, look — I was in MEGADETH to start, and then the families come after.
“And again, I think there is a reconciling of the lifestyles, that it’s like, ‘OK, dad’s off at the circus being the rock ‘n’ roll guy and all that comes with that,’ including a very comfortable life that affords you opportunities you would not get in any other life. At the same time, it certainly doesn’t give license to go out and misbehave. So I think there is that.
“And again, that’s probably you and me just talking as husbands and fathers and all that we are in a show biz lifestyle,” Ellefson added. “And again, that’s just the reality of that. And we’ve seen a lot of our friends be successful with it, struggle with it, et cetera, et cetera. I remember Ace Frehley years ago, and this isn’t to discount it at all, but I remember there was a quote from Ace, he said, ‘Drugs and girls are an occupational hazard.’
“And I remember reading that when I was a kid. And I didn’t understand it at that time. And then later in life, I would understand, that’s it’s like, hazard pay,-if you will. And in every life, there is that, and that happens to be one in our way of life over here in the creative world, especially touring rock ‘n’ rollers.”
