On October 19th, Former Megadeth bassist Dave Ellefson was a guest on Eddie’s Sirius/XM show, Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk, where he discussed his recent sex scandal that resulted in his firing from the band.
When asked if his family, including his wife of 27 years and their two children, both of whom are in their late 20s, were “supportive” and “understanding” throughout the ordeal, Ellefson responded (as transcribed by Blabbermout.net): “Look, [they were] 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, 2021 is not the way it was in 1986. But there’s a reason we had a Behind The Music [special from VH1].”
“Look, I’ve tried to be very transparent, and I think we kind of did in that band over the years,” he continued. “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. And again, 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, 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.”
The bassist states that has received a lot of support from fellow musicians in the months after the incident.
“I was flying pretty high pretty fast at a high altitude and hit some turbulence, no doubt,” he said. “And people reminded me, [they said], ‘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,” he continued. “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.”
In related news, Ellefson’s new band, The Lucid, just released their self titled, debut album on October 15th. To read more details about this release, and to stream their songs, Damned and Maggot Winds, please click here.
4 Responses
That was alot of words with not much information about his situation .. thankfully he has some support in the music community,
I can’t really give any opinion I don’t know the guy at all – I hope he comes through this with his family and career intact ~
What I get out of Ellefson’s word salad is that his wife/family were not happy with his behavior and rightfully angry and disappointed, but as he sees it, they put up with it because of the lifestyle that HE has afforded them. For his part, he realizes that he let his wife/family/band down, but that it’s incumbent on THEM to show their true character by understanding that it all comes with the territory of being a “rock & roller.” Sounds to me like Ellefson’s a super self-entitled guy who goes around quoting the great philosopher Ace Frehley to justify his behavior.
We all make mistakes and find ourselves in embarrassing situations and have lifelong regrets. It’s the human experience. But Ellefson sounds like he has an expectation that everyone should support him unconditionally and congratulate him for being so “transparent.” Whatever his intentions were, his answers come off like a well-choreographed PR move disguised as transparency.
…I can see why Dave Mustaine kicked him to the curb at lightning speed.
RTunes, I concur with your comments. Ellefson gave a “word hemorrhage” of a reply and said absolutely nothing. Ellefson should have behaved like a 56 year old husband and father, not like a young “rock & roller”. Family first, Ellefson….
IMO, Mustaine did the right thing to boot him from the band solely for this incident. And that’s a shame, cuz Ellefson was a primary member of one of my favorite thrash metal bands who created my favorite thrash metal album “Rust In Peace”.
I canceled my SiriusXM subscription. Hopefully this will available on your podcast.