Former Megadeth bassist David Ellefson has given his first interview since he was ousted from the band back in May.
David Ellefson, and the three members of his new project The Lucid — Vinnie Dombroski (Sponge), Drew Fortier, and Mike Heller (Fear Factory) — recently sat down with Aftershocks TV in promotion of their self-titled debut album.
During the interview, Ellefson was asked if he has experienced a kind of musical “freedom” since his departure from Megadeth.
“I’ve always been free and I’ve always been exploring,” he said. “I think probably the first 20 years, up until 2002, when that band [Megadeth] officially disbanded, everything was always for that one singular cause. And then one day, unexpectedly, that ended.”
Ellefson credits the 2000s as a time of musical freedom and experimentation. Musing that following the success of Megadeth, he felt compelled to “make music for music’s sake and just do it because I enjoy it, because I like it.”
“The 2000s, having that time away to just kind of reinvent and just, again, fall in love with making music again, to me, that has always been there,” he continued.
“And I’ve been active — I’ve been active making records and doing stuff these last bunch of years anyway. And I wouldn’t say out of necessity, because, honestly, I’ve been okay to not have to just go make music for money, but to make music for fun, which has been nice”
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“It’s fun to create for creation’s sake and not because it has to be motivated from anything else,” David said. “So I guess I’m kind of glad to just be right where I’m at. To be honest, I’m perfectly content and happy where I am right now. I’m not gonna lie — it’s perfectly fine. So I’m all good.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUSbluXrvJQ&feature=emb_title&ab_channel=TheCMSNetwork
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.
Several screenshots and a video later surfaced online, with allegations that they involved an underage girl, a catalyst for his dismissal from Megadeth.
However, Scottsdale Police Department, who investigated the incident, confirmed that the woman involved was 19. In response to the leaked messages, Ellefson filed revenge-porn charges against the person who leaked the video, not his sexual partner.