Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine has given a brief glimpse at the band’s new bassist.
In a private Cameo video gone public, Mustaine takes the video’s recipient on a tour around the studio where the band is recording their new album. Passing engineer Chris Rakestraw, he landed on a mysterious man hiding behind a swivel chair. Mustaine introduces him by saying, “And you’ve got our mystery bass player hiding behind the chair down there on the floor, so you can’t see him. But we will be saying who that is soon. And you actually saw him before anybody else — even though you can’t really see him.”
Mustaine said that the new bass player’s identity will be revealed soon. The only real clue from the video, since you can’t really see his face, is an Ibanez bass sitting in front of the chair.
Megadeth has been without a bassist since May when they parted ways with founding member David Ellefson following a scandal involving the leaking of a sexually explicit video of him sexting with a teenager. According to a police report filed in June, the video was taken without consent by the Dutch teen, who was confirmed to be 19 at the time of the interaction, then shared with friends. Ellefson is suing the person who leaked the video for revenge porn.
According to another Cameo video addressed to Rock Feed, Mustaine says that there is no chance of Ellefson returning to the band. He also revealed that Jason Newstead is not the mystery bassist.
Ellefson is even being replaced on Megadeth’s upcoming 16th studio album, tentatively titled The Sick, The Dying…And The Dead!. Mustaine revealed earlier this month during an episode of his Gimme Radio program ‘The Dave Mustaine Show’ that the band would be re-recording Ellefson’s already-finished bass parts. Said Mustaine of the album’s progress and future,
“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. 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.”
The Cameo video can be seen here. To read who Metal Insider thinks should take on bass duties for Megadeth, check out our Headbanger’s Brawl on the subject.
Megadeth is slated to hit the road with Lamb Of God, Trivium and In Flames on the ‘The Metal Tour Of The Year’ starting August 20. They will also make an appearance at Slipknot’s 2021 Knotfest in Iowa this September.
