Twisted Sister singer Dee Snider has weighed in on David Ellefson’s current situation, saying people need to realise that celebrities are flawed like the rest of us.
It comes after former Megadeth bassist David Ellefson admitted to “four to five masturbating encounters” online with a young woman in a police report back in June.
Snider seemingly defended Ellefson during an interview on The MetalSucks Podcast, where he said: “Creatives are damaged goods by definition. We choose to be actors, performers, writers, artists, painters, comedians, all those things, because we’re damaged.
“And that’s driven us to find these outlets. I don’t know why people are so shocked when the evidence of that damage shows itself. When Dave [Ellefson] from Megadeth gets caught masturbating [on video], well… First of all, you know a lot of you are doing the same thing.
Snider continued: “But second of all, he’s a musician. He’s not a priest. You can’t expect him to be priest-like; hell, you can’t expect a priest to be priest-like. But people are so shocked. And I don’t get why the art is thrown away with the artist.
“If we found out that Michelangelo was a pedophile, would we stop going to the Sistine Chapel? Would we paint it over? It’s no longer good art because the painter turned out to be a pedophile? I’m saying it hypothetically.”
He continued: “All artists and creatives have got some skeletons in their closets, and suddenly the skeleton is shown and we’re, like, ‘Well, he’s not funny anymore.’ ‘He’s not a good actor anymore.’ ‘Kevin Spacey, we can’t watch his movies anymore.’
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“He’s one of the great actors of his time, but he’s dead because he was… And I’m not saying he was right. But he’s a damaged, broken person — he always was. It’s what made him a great artist. I just don’t get that we throw away the baby with the bathwater, as the saying goes.
“I’m not saying making excuses or whatever. I’m [just talking] about the art being dismissed, thrown out, devalued and disqualified because the artist turned out to be a fallible human being. And people should be very careful. Most of us live in glass houses.
Snider added: “When I went to [testify before] the Senate back in the ’80s, they talked to me like I was the scum of the earth. Well, cut to all these years later, I’m still married and the Gores [Al and Tipper] are divorced. One of their kids was busted for possession. None of my kids have been busted. Maybe they just got lucky. But the fact of the matter is — judge not, lest ye be judged.”
Ellefson was famously ousted from Megadeth following the ordeal, with the band’s singer Dave Mustaine confirming in an episode of Gimme Radio’s The Dave Mustaine Show that they’d found a “stellar bass player” to take over Ellefson’s role on the record.
“I just wanna thank you for all the kinds words and support as we get ready for this next tour and continue to hunt for a new bass player,” Mustaine said.
“We are making progress. The record’s being completed, and we’re gonna have someone coming in in a couple of weeks to replace the bass tracks that we had.
“Which should be relatively quick because the person we’re talking to is a stellar bass player. And hopefully this will be an ongoing thing after the recording. Or we will find someone prior to the recording that will be our permanent guy going forward.”
You can read more about this topic over at the Metal Observer.
Check out ‘For The Love Of Metal’ by Dee Snider:
