Dave Mustaine and David Ellefson have made no secret of the bad blood between them since the latter was fired from Megadeth last year. However, Ellefson has taken their ongoing feud one step further, stating that the relationship he shared with Mustaine was “abusive”.
Ellefson was a founding member of Megadeth in 1983 and stayed with the band until its dissolution in 2002. Megadeth reformed in 2004 and Ellefson rejoined the band in 2010.
Ellefson was dismissed from Megadeth on May 24th, days after sexually explicit messages involving him were posted on Twitter. The longtime Megadeth bassist, who joined the fold during its formative years, admitted to police that he had been sexting with a Dutch teenager who had captured video of their communication without his consent and shared them with friends.
The former Megadeth member claimed that Mustaine was set on firing him, even before the graphic texts leaked, calling the incident ”the perfect opportunity” to so.
“I kind of saw the events of last year as just the perfect opportunity to choose box office over brotherhood. I look back at it now and I feel like I got kicked out of hell. So, whatever,” said on 2020’d podcast.
He added, of his relationship with Mustaine; ”It was abusive, for sure. It was just abusive. It was unnecessary. … Dave even said he had a resentment toward me that he couldn’t let go, and I didn’t know what it was.”
However, despite the animosity between himself and Mustaine, Ellefson hasn’t ruled out the idea of rejoining Megadeth one day.
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“I never say never to anything. And in fact, I’ve learned in life. [Producer] Max Norman taught me this, by the way, on [Megadeth’s] ‘Youthanasia’ record. We were doing some lyrics, and he goes, ‘Man, don’t ever fucking use words like ‘never’ and ‘forever.’
“They’re fucking bullshit words, man. They don’t mean anything. They’re not sincere. They’re not true.’ And I’ve come to think about that over the years, and it is true. Is love forever? Well, I don’t know. ‘Well, I’ll never play with that guy again.’ I mean, didn’t we see that in ‘Spinal Tap’. ‘Nigel and I shall never work together again.’ I mean, c’mon — it’s silly,” he recently said on the Mike Nelson Show.
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