Since exiting Megadeth in 2021, bassist David Ellefson has been an extremely busy – and productive – gentleman. For example, recording and/or playing with such bands as Kings of Thrash, The Lucid, Dieth, and Ellefson-Soto, plus, launching his own podcast, The David Ellefson Show, along with co-host, Joshua Toomey.
Ellefson recently spoke to Alternative Nation about not only his current projects, but also, his memories of what it was like backstage after the Back to the Beginning concert, and also, his thoughts on Megadeth announcing they are calling it a day. Ellefson has also created a new in-depth Megadeth biography exclusively for Alternative Nation. Ellefson also has a new Pantera biography about the history of the band for Alternative Nation.
Alternative Nation: Let’s talk about your current projects, starting with your podcast.
David Ellefson: Yeah, The David Ellefson Show. We figured, ‘Let’s just hit it on the head and call it the obvious.’ And y’know my partner, Joshua Toomey, I’ve done a couple of really great podcasts with him over the years, and he suggested we start it. And largely to just kind of talk about Megadeth stuff and stories of my career. I like interviewing my friends and bringing a lot of them. We kind of seem to found our sweet spot with it, that we’re sort of the go to thrash metal, OG official podcast.
Because I go back to a lot of my friends when we were starting Megadeth, and throughout the years and everything. So, these things, I think, kind of find their lane, and that seems to be our lane. So, that’s a good one to be at. For it to be successful, just a few months into it, within the first year, and musicians and artists and labels and managers coming to us to see if their artists can be on our podcast, I think is a total honor. For me, I’m here to help my friends. That’s how I ran my record label. That’s how I do my podcast. It’s how I do everything.
Alternative Nation: Because I can even speak from experience, I was lucky to be a guest promoting the ‘State of the Art Speed Metal’ book that I did and it was great. It was just like a group of friends hanging out and just kind chatting.
David Ellefson: Yep. That’s exactly what I want it to be.
Alternative Nation: What are some of your other projects?
David Ellefson: So Jeff [Scott Soto] and I have put out two records now. We did Vacation in the Underworld, came out in late 2022, on Rat Pak Records. And then we put out the more recent one, Unbreakable, came out in mid-August. So, we’re four singles deep into it right now. We just put out the latest, ‘SOAB’ – son of a bitch – and we actually shot that music video at Rogue Recording, which is inside of Battery Studios in London, back in July.
The first record is just kind of getting to know each other. The second record is you feel a lot more comfortable. And I think we just sort of turned up the gas on this one. The title track, ‘Unbreakable,’ kind of says it all. And then getting into the tracks, the first video is ‘Unbreakable,’ the second was shout. The third one is a track called ‘Vengeance,’ which features Tim Ripper Owens in the video. It’s interesting, because we shot that video, Tim and Jeff were on tour in Brazil a few months back, so they got some footage together – we use Tim’s footage in the video. But the rest of it, we shot at Battery Studios. Ironically, about 30 minutes after we got the news Ozzy had passed.
We were there working on the videos, getting ready to go, and we just saw the news push through Sky News that Ozzy had passed. And so to have that sort of heaviness in the room, and then getting called, ‘Okay, David, you’re up. Let’s shoot your part.’ It was just like, it was bizarre. It was really kind of a world of emotions, to have to walk into a video shoot and perform.
Fortunately, it was dark. It was kind of one take. It wasn’t so focused on the highlights and features of anybody’s face and stuff. But when I see that video, every time I see it, it just brings me right back to that very moment, where the impact of hearing that our beloved Ozzy had had left us was just such a kind of an emotionally vacant moment. So it’s interesting to capture that on video forever now.
Alternative Nation: Playing at Black Sabbath’s final show, did you get to speak to Ozzy?
David Ellefson: I did. I spoke to him on Friday, which is the day before the show, after we did the big band…actually right as we were doing the big band photo, the group photo, and then he went out and sound checked right after that. And then I talked to him after the show back in the VIP area. And he waved me over and said hello. He was beaming. Literally, right after that, I actually wanted to try to get a picture taken with him – just me and him, real quick – and then suddenly, Jack is shushing the audience, all the people that were there, and next thing, you know, Sid [Wilson, from Slipknot]’s proposing to Kelly. I mean, that literally happened, like, 1-2-3, within 15 seconds that happened.
And you can see in Kelly’s video that she posted how happy Ozzy was. So literally, it was that moment right before she got proposed to, I was chatting with Ozzy right there in that moment. And he was so happy. It’s the aftershow glow, y’know? And he really, literally, left it all on the stage for us. It’s sort of like there was this great release, as I think all performers feel to some degree, once a show is over. It’s almost like this release of everything, all your emotions, all of your energy, all of your anxiety. So it was really great.
And I just told him, ‘Man, that was incredible, to be able to do that.’ So, what a shift from the day or so before the show, to now here we are, right after the show. The transformation that Ozzy had, and just the joy. You could see he was just so joyful and so happy in that moment. It was beautiful to see, quite honestly.
Alternative Nation: What are your thoughts on Megadeth announcing a final album and farewell tour?
David Ellefson: Honestly, I don’t think about it that much. I think probably everybody else thinks about it more for me than I do for me. It’s been a rocky road for sure, obviously. And there have been sublime moments. There have been moments that I just scratch my head over. But at the end of the day…look, Dave said four and a half years ago, he doesn’t want to play music with me anymore. So, I just left it there and just moved on. I’m not sitting around waiting for a call. I’ve already offered if it should come my way I’d be happy to participate on some level. If nothing else, what we saw in Birmingham, in my opinion, was 100% on point the right way to say goodbye. You bring back the OGs – Geezer, Tony, Bill, and Ozzy.
Look, they fired Bill…they fired Ozzy! And at some point they’re all back together, the four guys that started it all get to say goodbye together. To each other, to the fans. The fans say goodbye to them. So to me, that is the model of how it’s done. I mean, that is 100% the right way to do it. People, of course, would love to see me…if it really is a farewell, and it’s not just an attempt to boost ticket sales. Because we’ve seen this movie before, right? Boost ticket sales, go away, then the bigger offers come after everybody’s gone away for a couple years. I mean, we’ve seen how this works, right?
But if Dave needs to shut it down and call it quits because he’s just had enough and he’s been through it all, then hey, you know what? As a still friend to him, even though we haven’t spoken in almost five years, you know what? God, bless you brother. Put it away with grace, and go enjoy the rest of your life. So if he really is shutting it down and he’s really going to put it away, then please do so with dignity and grace and do what you say and mean what you say.
Because I think that farewell thing has been thrown around so much by so many people that it really, it doesn’t have much weight to it. We’ve just seen it over and over again. So, if you really got to shut it down, shut it down, and put it away and go enjoy the rest of your life.
