Bassist David Ellefson had a highly publicized split from Megadeth around five years ago after a questionable and explicit interaction with an 18-year-old fan was leaked onto the internet. Ellefson has since rebounded with a variety of projects, but his former band and its founder, Dave Mustaine, recently announced that their upcoming album will be their last followed by a 2026 farewell tour.
In a new interview with AlternativeNation.net, Ellefson shared his thoughts on Megadeth calling it quits. “Honestly, I don’t think about it that much,” he said. “I think probably everybody else thinks about it more for me than I do for me. It’s been a rocky road, for sure, obviously, and there have been moments sublime and there have been moments that I just scratch my head over, but at the end of the day… Look, Dave said four and a half years ago he doesn’t wanna play music with me anymore, so I just left it there and just moved on. I’m not sitting around waiting for a call. I’ve already offered, if it should come my way, I’d be happy to participate on some level.”
Ellefson then said it’s possible Mustaine made the announcement in an effort to increase ticket sales. He explained: “If it really is a farewell, if it really is, and it’s not just an attempt to boost ticket sales, ’cause we’ve seen this movie before — boost ticket sales, go away, then the bigger offers come after everybody’s gone away for a couple years; I mean, we’ve seen how this works — but, look, if Dave needs to shut it down and call it quits because he is just had enough and he’s been through it all, then hey, you know what? As a still friend to him, even we haven’t spoken almost five years — you know what? God bless you, brother. Put it away with grace and go enjoy the rest of your life. So if he really is shutting it down and he’s really gonna put it away, then please do so with dignity and grace and do what you say and mean what you say. ‘Cause I think that farewell thing has been thrown around so much by so many people that it doesn’t have much weight to it. We’ve just seen it over and over again. So, if you’ve really gotta shut it down, shut it down and put it away and go enjoy the rest of your life.”
Ellefson’s interview can be viewed below.
