David Ellefson has continued to open more about his removal from Megadeth.
In a new interview with “The Jeremy White Podcast,” the ousted bassist expressed some resent toward the Megadeth camp for the lack of empathy and support they provided in the aftermath of Ellefson’s compromising online sexual encounter.
After explaining that he felt it best to address the scandal head-on, Ellefson explained that Megadeth took a different approach, instead issuing a statement that further incited backlash against the bassist. Particularly the statement’s wording: “There are clearly aspects of David’s private life that he has kept to himself.”
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Ellefson said that the reactionary statement was “based on fear” on the part of Megadeth.
“It wasn’t based on reality,” he continued. “They said all sides would be heard, and, quite honestly, no sides were heard. Because within two weeks, I went through the process that I told them I was gonna go through, to just walk through it and say, ‘Hey, this is a bunch of bullshit,’ and I did — I did my part. And I confessed my… [Laughs] Look, I was caught on ‘Candid Camera’; there was no hiding from it. So you just address it. You take the sword. You deal with it. It was embarrassing. Sorry about that. Move on. And that’s it.”
Ellefson has only just begun to discuss the incident in detail during recent interviews. After treading lightly around the topic in his first post-Megadeth interview, he was more forthcoming in a conversation with SiriusXM’s Eddie Trunk, even taking a positive tone regarding his current relationship with Megadeth and Dave Mustaine. At the time, he said he was “disappointed” but “not bitter.”
However, in this latest interview, Ellefson expressed more resentment about the way his former band reacted to the scandal.
“I pushed back against [the accusations],” Ellefson added. “[I said] ‘This is bullshit.’ And that’s when I said [to the Megadeth camp], ‘Look, they threw a Molotov cocktail — proverbial — at my house and burned my house down. Would you please help me? Would you please support me? I could use some help right now.’ And quite honestly, I was just kicked to the side of the road to just deal with it on my own. So it’s, like, all right. Well, then now we know where the loyalties lie. And now we move on.”
Ellefson’s firing was swift and immediate, with Mustaine going so far as to axe the bass parts and have them re-recorded for the band’s forthcoming album. Mustaine then welcomed back bassist James LoMenzo to fill in for the band’s 2021 tour dates.
Meanwhile, Ellefson has already launched a new project in the form of supergroup The Lucid. The band dropped its self-titled debut last month.
Watch the new interview with David Ellefson below.
