When it was announced earlier this week that Dave Ellefson is returning to Megadeth, I expressed interest in hearing more of the story of how he and Dave Mustaine patched things up beyond the usual press release “Happy to be back!” bullshit. And look, it only took a couple of days! Jon Wiederhorn interviewed Mustaine about the make-up for Noisecreep. And for once, I feel almost no desire to make fun of Mustaine!

Here’s an excerpt from the interview:

A lot of people thought Hell would freeze over before you played with Dave Ellefson again. How did you two bury the hatchet?

When I became a Christian, my life really changed. Unlike a lot of people who say that they’re Christian and really are hypoChristians, I’m not a guy that goes around, tells people how to live their life and then lives a double life behind closed doors. So, when I was forgiven I realized I needed to forgive. We had that incident with the lawsuit, and I forgave Dave for that. Several years ago when I went out to Phoenix on a business trip, I asked him if we could go out to dinner. He said, “Yeah.” And we sat down at California Pizza Kitchen and had some food and talked a little bit. I told him, “I still love you.” And he said, “I love you, too.” And I put that behind me, because he’s a little brother to me. So I’m looking at this as an opportunity to do the right thing for Dave and show him that I am a good leader and we are a great band, and we do belong playing together.

Are there any lingering animosities?

No, I can’t stay mad at him. He’s one of my best friends. Sometimes we do things in the heat of the moment. And trust me, I have done more things that were wrong that affected him than anything that he did to affect me. And again, like I said, I was forgiven, so I needed to forgive.

And now here’s the part that really gets me choked up. Says Mustaine:

So a couple days ago I asked him to come back. Now, I know a lot of haters are gonna say, “How could [Ellefson] do that?” But anybody that really sees how hard I’m trying to live my life differently right now — and I’m really trying hard — this is just another one of the little things that you get. It’s a perk for me to have one of my best friends back.

Now, of course, this could all be hype and bullshit. For one thing, based on a lot of things I’ve heard (and in one unfortunate circumstance, seen), I’m not 100% convinced that Mustaine is the good Christian he says he is; also, even Mustaine admits that he’s unsure if Ellefson is back for good or not, so no one should be completely shocked if these two are suing one another again right around this time next year.

But it’s nice to see Mustaine taking some of the blame for a change. Hearing the guy say “I’m trying to live my life differently” and talking about wanting to be forgiven… that doesn’t sound like the usual Mustaine, who seems to blame everybody else for his problems. I guess what I’m saying is, not only am I thrilled to have Ellefson back in Megadeth, I’m really happy to see Mustaine man up.

Let’s hope this lasts. If Mustaine can spend the latter part of his career making awesome music and being a cool dude, well, geepers, that’d be swell!

-AR