Does DAVID ELLEFSON Envision A Time When He And DAVE MUSTAINE Will Play Together Again? He Responds

In a new interview with The Classic Rock Podcast, former MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson was asked if he envisions a time where he and the Dave Mustaine can get back together and work on MEGADETH again. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Well, I suggested that in 2004, when he was coming back from his hand injury, talking about putting it back together again. I said, ‘Why don’t we do…?’ ‘Cause ASIA and YES had just done it. I thought it was so cool. They brought everybody back — Steve HoweandTrevor Rabin. And I’m a Trevor Rabin fan. I’m kind of more of a fan of that era. But there’s some that are the fan of the other guy. So, I thought, ‘What a cool thing [it would be] to bring [former MEGADETH guitarist] Marty [Friedman] and [former MEGADETH drummer] Nick [Menza].’ Nick was still with us. At that point, Gar [Samuelson, former MEGADETH drummer] was the only deceased member the legacy. And I just thought, ‘Man, how cool would it be to bring everybody back?’ Even if it was a tour, to just do something like that, because as the years go on, it’s harder and harder to do that. I guess now they save that shit for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction. Then they get everybody there.”

Ellefson continued: “Look, the truth of it is we’ve all had a great journey. We’ve had our own personal journeys, our journeys together. Look, Dave‘s doing his thing. He seems happy where he’s at doing that. Jeff [Young, former MEGADETH guitarist] and I are happy over here doing our thing [with KINGS OF THRASH and other projects]. And when you spend some years and some miles together in the yellow submarine, the tin can of a tour bus and hotels and planes, look, it’s easy to get on each other’s nerves. You just need some space. And especially, I think, as we get older and we’ve done it a lot more. As I told the guys [in KINGS OF THRASH] last week — we were on the bus — I was, like, ‘Guys, I’ve been bouncing around in these tin cans for 40-plus years.’ And it’s fun… But for people that haven’t done it as much, it’s thrilling. And it’s still fun for me, man. Get on a bus, lay in your bunk, lay in your coffin and go, ‘All right. I guess if I die here, I’m just driving 70 miles an hour down the road tonight.’ That’s the journey. That’s where the journey ends. That’s the life of a troubadour, the life of a musician. So, I think for us to just be out doing what we love to do, and the fact that people still actually wanna pay us to do it, and still ask us to go to the stage, I mean, that is a real gift. It’s a real treat that they still wanna hear that from us. So we’re lucky that we all got to be in one of the cool bands, that people still wanna see and hear us do this.”

A little over a year ago, Ellefson was asked by Loaded Radio podcast if he would consider returning to MEGADETH if he was ever asked again. He responded: “Well, look, I’m not the one who closed the door. [Laughs] You know what I mean.

“Dave‘s always gonna be my brother, man. And it’s funny, when I think about Dave — I’m just walking around the house, I’m thinking about some moment in our friendship and our history together — they’re usually fond memories. And look, brothers fight, brothers hug and make up, and that’s the journey. As a musical gig, it’s, like, oh, well, set that off. That’s off the palette now. Clearly I’ve moved on with other things that you can see I really enjoy. So… whatever.

“I’ve talked to other friends of mine about this who have had bands, and they’re in other bands where members have come and gone and whatever, and especially when you’re a principal, key member and a founding member and all these different things, you have a deferent kinship to your fans.

“I always say this: when you make a record, you’re making it for you. But when you put that record out, that record is for your audience,” he explained. “And at that point, it now becomes bigger than you; it becomes bigger than the four or five or three of you, whatever are in the band — it’s bigger than you now. And those songs are gonna outlive us. And everything about that legacy and the stories we just talked about here are now in infamy; they’re gonna last forever.