Ex-MEGADETH Bassist DAVID ELLEFSON Likes Gun Shooting But Isn’t ‘Big’ On Hunting

In a recent Cameo video message requested by Jonathan Montenegro of Sobre La Dosis, former MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson was asked to name his hobbies and interests outside of music. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “It’s funny. I live here in Arizona, which, as you can see, is very sunny and nice out. So I play golf, on and off. And I do some shooting once in a while; I go to the gun club here. I’m not big on hunting myself, but I do like shooting, which is kind of cool. And, of course, Netflix binge watching, which I started during the pandemic.”

Last November, Ellefson, who was fired from MEGADETH nearly a year ago following a sex video scandal, returned to Cameo, the online platform that allows fans to buy personalized video messages from celebrities. The 57-year-old bassist is charging purchasers $30 per video and he is offering a “24-hour delivery.”

Ellefson was born and raised in in the small Minnesota town of Jackson, located near the Iowa border, just under three hours southwest of St. Paul. After leaving Jackson in the early ’80s to move to Los Angeles, he met former METALLICA guitarist Dave Mustaine, and the pair co-founded multi-platinum, Grammy-winning hard rock act MEGADETH, going on to become one of the “Big Four” of thrash metal. Ellefson‘s smalltown Jackson roots have been immortalized in MEGADETH lore as the subject of classic songs including the smash hit “Foreclosure Of A Dream” and the underground classic “Mary Jane”.

Ellefson, who has lived in Scottsdale, Arizona since 1994, was dismissed from MEGADETH last May, just days after sexually tinged messages and explicit video footage involving the bassist were posted on Twitter.

David, a Christian who launched the Mega Life Ministries worship group in 2007, studied for a year at Concordia Lutheran Seminary in St. Louis a decade ago.

Last October, Ellefson told SiriusXM‘s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk” that there is a perception that people of faith must set a higher standard of how they live with and treat others. “It’s almost like you’re this entity that’s floating up toward the heavens: ‘Oh, he’s such a wonderful man. He’s a man of faith. He’s got his family. And then this happens.’ It’s, like, ‘What the hell is this?'” he said.

“I mean, look, admittedly I’ve sort of trained the public to think that I’m one of the more well-behaved rock stars out there, and for the most part I have been,” he continued. “But at the same time, and this isn’t to claim anything other than just, oops, shit happens. That is what it is.”

Ellefson was in MEGADETH from the band’s inception in 1983 to 2002, and again from 2010 until his latest exit.

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