Former Megadeth bassist David Ellefson recently discussed how Scott Weiland and Stone Temple Pilots booked their first major tour opening for Megadeth, exclusively with Alternative Nation. Today would have been Scott Weiland’s 58th birthday, and this story is part of Alternative Nation’s exclusive Stone Temple Pilots biography.
Megadeth Help Give Stone Temple Pilots Their Break
David Ellefson: We would get a stack of CDs that our management would kind of filter out for us and say, ‘Hey, we think these handful of bands were the best contenders based on music, based on what the record company is going to do to support the album, support the tour, blah, blah, blah.’ Because Megadeth, we never took cash buy-ons. We never did that.
All bands sort of buy on a tour to some degree – their record company is putting money into it, supporting it, radio ticket buys, etc. But Megadeth, we never personally stuck cash in our pockets. ‘Who’s got the most money?’ We never did that. We always looked at it, ‘Who’s the best sound? Who do we like? What do we feel is the best musical fit for our fans for the show?’ That always was the benchmark for us.
So, as Core came across our stereo on the bus, I remember specifically the day we listened to it on the bus. Kind of like Alice in Chains, we went, ‘Wow, this is really freaking good. This is something we like. We’d love to have this on tour with us, and we think this would be a good mix for our fans.’ And again, it wasn’t a thrash band.
By Countdown to Extinction, we were thinking sort of beyond thrash music, because thrash had had its biggest day with the Clash of the Titans Tour. And we knew that. So, we knew going into the making of Countdown to Extinction that we needed to level up to a whole new level and really create a record that was going to be timeless, that was going to be epic, and that was going to move Megadeth far beyond where we had ever gone before. And I think we did.
And so bringing Stone Temple Pilots with us was, I think, just part of that journey of how we were thinking at that time. And, of course, after our tour, they went on to again, huge heights, and they didn’t need us to sing their praises anymore. They did it all on their own after that.
