Ex-Megadeth bassist, Dave Ellefson opened up about his dismissal from the band five months ago after explicit video footage involving the bassist and a woman that is not his wife were posted on Twitter. While talking to Eddie Trunk on SiriusXm’s Trunk Nation w/Eddie Trunk, Eddie asked Ellefson if his family, were “supportive” and “understanding” throughout the ordeal.
Here is what Ellefson had to say,
“Look, supportive, understanding… Not so supportive, not so understanding. I mean, dad’s in a rock band, and not just any band — Megadeth. Let’s face it: we’ve been a band with a history. And this isn’t to discolor or paint anything on the current Megadeth at all, because, obviously, today in 2021, is not the way it was in 1986. But there’s a reason we had a ‘Behind The Music’
Look, I’ve tried to be very transparent, and I think we kind of did in that band over the years. We were very transparent in things — when things happened in our personal lives and things happened in the group, we were always pretty open about it. And I’ve talked openly about getting clean from drugs and booze years ago and all of these things.
On the home life, again, look — I was in Megadeth to start, and then the families come after. And again, I think there is a reconciling of the lifestyles, that it’s, like, ‘Okay, dad’s off at the circus being the rock and roll guy and all that comes with that,’ including a very comfortable life that affords you opportunities you would not get in any other life. At the same time, it certainly doesn’t give license to go out and misbehave. So I think there is that. And again, that’s probably you and me just talking as husbands and fathers and all that we are in a show biz lifestyle. That’s just the reality of that. And we’ve seen a lot of our friends be successful with it, struggle with it, et cetera, et cetera.
I remember Ace Frehley years ago, and this isn’t to discount it at all, but I remember there was a quote from Ace, our beloved friend Ace, he said, ‘Drugs and girls are an occupational hazard.’ And I remember reading that when I was a kid. And I didn’t understand it at that time. And then later in life, I would understand, that’s it’s, like, hazard pay, if you will. And in every life, there is that, and that happens to be one in our way of life over here in the creative world, especially touring rock and rollers.”
According to Ellefson, he has received a lot of support from fellow musicians in the months after the episode.
“I was flying pretty high pretty fast at a high altitude and hit some turbulence, no doubt. And people reminded me, ‘Listen, we’re all human. We all make mistakes, man.’ And even more so in rock and roll.
A lot of other musicians, industry people, rock stars — from the smallest to the absolute biggest — reached out to me. Everybody was, like, ‘Hey, brother, are you okay? Anything you need, let me know.’ And it was very supportive from everybody. Which was great because everyone is on your side when you’re picking up your Grammy and you’re on the red carpet and everything is going great, but the greater judge of character is who are you, who am I when we’re kind of at our bottom, when we’ve shown some real humanness. And this was a moment where, I’m happy to say, people really rallied around me.
I’ve gone through a few dark seasons in my life over the years, as we all do — drugs and alcohol, in and out of Megadeth 20 years ago. Things happen, things go down. This was a dark one, I’m not gonna lie.”
Ellefson went on to discuss his new project, The Lucid, and his musical future. The bassist also said that he and Megadeth are good and he wishes them well. He still considers Megadeth family.
