It’s been more than 40 years since Dave Mustaine was fired from Metallica, but he still very much harbors some resentment, according to ex-Megadeth bassist Dave Ellefson. So much so that, Ellefson alleges, Mustaine wanted to re-record some early Metallica demos that he’d played on.
On the latest episode of The David Ellefson Show, Ellefson reflected on the making of the band’s sixteenth album, The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead! Released in 2022, Ellefson recorded bass tracks for the LP at a studio in Nashville, Tennessee, in May 2020. Ellefson was subsequently fired from the band, and his bass tracks were not used; rather, Mustaine had the bass tracks re-recorded by Testament bassist Steve DiGiorgio, before James LoMenzo rejoined the band as their permanent new bassist.
“That was a brutal record. I’m glad to be away from it, to be honest with you. It was a terrible process. It was five years in the making,” Ellefson said of the recording sessions for The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!, as transcribed by Blabbermouth. “Every song I wrote for it got taken off — every riff I added, every lyric I added. It was spiteful, it was vengeful, and it was hateful. And it was not my record.”
Ellefson then claimed that it wasn’t just bass track that Mustaine wanted to re-record. “There was clashes all the way down,” he said, “and for me, it started in 2018 when Dave came in to — we started a tour in Oslo, and he came in and he said he wanted to re-record [Metallica’s] No Life ‘Til Leather demo.” Mustaine performed guitar on the NLTL demo with Metallica before he was kicked out of the band in 1983.
“I’m, like, ‘Are you kidding me? This is where we’re at? After all this time?’ We’re supposed to be writing a new album and new songs,” Ellefson continued. “And I was just, like, ‘I am not down with that.’ As fun as it would be to play those songs, ’cause that’s one of my favorite Metallica recordings, I was just, like, ‘Yeah, I ain’t down with that.’ I’m sorry. I couldn’t kiss the ring for that one. I was, like, ‘I’m out.’”
“I think our problem started then,” Ellefson added. “So as we went into the record, he knew I wasn’t willing to just fucking say, ‘Yes, Dave,’ and go along with shit. So, eventually, I’m out of the band. So it goes. Bands are what bands are, and it is what it is.”
Ellefson has since gone on to start three new bands since leaving Megadeth: The Lucid, Dieth, and Kings Of Thrash with former Megadeth guitarist Jeff Young.
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