Megadeth vocalist/guitarist Dave Mustaine has confirmed Testament’s Steve Di Giorgio is the bassist on the band’s upcoming new sixteenth full-length effort, The Sick, The Dying…And The Dead. Rumors of Di Giorgio swirled last year when Di Giorgio’s bass was spotted in one of Mustaine’s Cameo videos. While James LoMenzo took on bass duties for the road, Mustaine has confirmed yesterday (31st) with Jose Mangin of SiriusXM’s Liquid Metal, stating the following:
“We obviously had that weird little…well, it wasn’t little, but we had something happen that we needed to make a decision on, and it set us back a little bit timing-wise, because we needed to recalibrate and find someone to perform the bass parts, and we found who I thought was the perfect fit for us while I decided what to do… Do you know who it was? …It was Steve DiGiorgio. You’re the first person I told.
It was a good choice. I didn’t think about anybody else at the time. I was thinking about ‘who’s the hottest guy out there that can play these new songs?’ [Mustaine’s son] Justis told me one of the fastest songs we’ve ever written is on this record. I don’t care what anybody says — bass may be less strings than guitar, but it’s difficult to play, if you’re like me. I have a real hard time playing the bass. I wrote the riff for ‘Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?’ for Pete’s sake, but you know… having to jam some of those parts that fast, it just kills your fingers.”
Megadeth bassist David Ellefson was fired from the band after sexually explicit videos leaked online. Ellefson has since formed a new band, The Lucid, and released their self-titled album in October, 2021.
