David Ellefson discussed Dave Mustaine complaining backstage to Steven Tyler about stage issues during an Aerosmith and Megadeth tour that Megadeth were later fired from on the Waste Some Time with Jason Green podcast,
“That was an interesting sobriety transition around that too. And of course, Aerosmith guys were sober at that time – about four years – and Steven Tyler came into the dressing room and was very gracious. He goes, ‘Guys, what’s up? What’s the problem?’ And Dave kind of laid out his grievances about soundcheck and backdrop, and all these other normal production stuff we would normally get on a regular tour.
And I thought it was commendable that Steven would at least make the effort to do it, and you know, it didn’t change anything really because nothing changed out on the deck. And at that point, Dave was not happy being there, and it was a very odd mix of a tour. Our managers were trying to work that out, like, ‘Hey, let’s get Megadeth on a sober tour to keep the band clean.’ It was a lot of that.
And again, I will say as much as I live a sober lifestyle, making decisions, especially in business only based on sobriety, not always the best idea. There’s a lot that goes with it, especially with music. It’s like, is the same fan going to show up and want to hear both of these bands? We’re up there playing ‘Hangar 18,’ and they’re playing ‘Love in an Elevator,’ that’s a very different audience, and you could feel it when we were on stage.
You could sort of point out the random Megadeth fans and a lot of other people going, ‘Megadeth? Who are these guys?'” Ultimate-Guitar transcribed his comments.
