DAVID ELLEFSON Says MEGADETH Fans Don’t Want To See Him And DAVE MUSTAINE Fighting: ‘We’re Their F***ing Heroes’

Dave Mustaine David Ellefson

David Ellefson, the former bassist of MEGADETH, was recently interviewed by Gastão Moreira of Kazagastão (KZG) in Brazil. During the interview, Moreira asked Ellefson if he felt uncomfortable discussing his former band, now that two years have passed since his departure.

“It doesn’t. It really doesn’t,” he responded. “I mean, look, I spent almost 40 years — well, this year is 40 years, coming up in June, is 40 years of when Dave [Mustaine] and I started the band. If I’m gonna disrespect that, then that’s to disrespect me. That’s to say what a loser I am, what a dumb thing I did. ‘You’re an idiot, David.’ And I’m not an idiot. It was an awesome thing. Now, was it challenging? Yeah. Did it have its hardships? Of course it did. But it also, obviously, had its big successes.

“I’m sad when I see Paul Stanley and Ace Frehley [of KISS] arguing, or whatever is going on. It’s, like, these are my heroes. And we’re all grown men now, so it’s a different kind of thing. But they’re still my heroes. And I even think about that with our fans. It’s, like, they don’t wanna see us fighting. We’re their f**king heroes, man. We changed their lives. We wrote songs that got them through good and bad times. So that’s why I don’t wanna go talk smack. I’ve had interviewers who have wanted to go there with me. I try not to take the bait. I’ve turned down some big interviews with people who wanted to address that. And I’m, like, ‘Me and Dave aren’t talking about it, so neither should you.’

“My friend Dave, despite our differences and the things we’ve gone through, we’ve been friends through better or worse — it’s like a marriage; for better or worse,” Ellefson continued. “And even though you may not be talking and you may not be hanging out together now, the truth of it is we did something that was just… Basically, it was like we were astronauts who went to the moon, man.”

Ellefson was fired from the group in May 2021 after sexually tinged messages and explicit video footage involving the 57-year-old musician leaked.