David Ellefson Will Not Be on the New Megadeth Album
Following David Ellefson’s recent firing from Megadeth as the result of an ongoing sex scandal, there have been two big questions on fans’ minds:
- Who will replace Ellefson? (We know that it won’t be Jason Newsted, and we have some other suggestions.)
- Will Ellefson’s parts for the new Megadeth album be re-recorded by another bassist?
While we’re still waiting for some announcement re: #1, we now know the answer to #2, and that answer is “yes” — Ellefson’s parts for the new Megadeth album, tentatively titled The Sick, the Dying and the Dead, will be deleted and re-recorded by a different bass player.
Whether or not that bassist will be the band’s new addition or a session musician or a famous friend lending a helping a hand (y’know, like Chris Adler playing drums on Dystopia) isn’t presently clear. And not just to us — Megamastermind Dave Mustaine sounds like he isn’t quite sure yet, either.
Mustaine broke the news during an episode of his radio program, The Dave Mustaine Show, on Thursday, June 17 (listen below):
“I just wanna thank you for all the kinds words and support as we get ready for this next tour and continue to hunt for a new bass player. We are making progress. The record’s being completed, and we’re gonna have someone coming in in a couple of weeks to replace the bass tracks that we had. Which should be relatively quick because the person we’re talking to is a stellar bass player. And hopefully this will be an ongoing thing after the recording. Or we will find someone prior to the recording that will be our permanent guy going forward.”
Mustaine didn’t say anything about using or not-using material Ellefson wrote for the album, likely because it’s non-issue: Ellefson only has two songwriting credits on the last three ‘Deth offerings, neither of which are from Dystopia. It’s feasible he didn’t write anything for the new album.
Ellefson’s trouble began in May after an Instagram user, identified only as ‘woahworst,’ started sharing accusations that Ellefson had groomed an underage girl. As proof, they offered extremely explicit video of Ellefson masturbating during a video chat, as well as screen caps of text exchanges between Ellefson and the young woman in question.
The woman subsequently provided a statement indicating that while the relationship did take place, she was not underage at the time and it was consensual.
Last week, Rolling Stone revealed details from a police report Ellefson filed in Scottsdale, AZ while seeking revenge porn charges against the video leaker (not his video partner). Among the revelations in the article: Ellefson admitted to “four to five masturbating encounters” with the woman; the video chats were captured without his consent; the partner, a 19-year-old Dutch woman, admitted that she had “shared the video with some friends but wasn’t sure how it got leaked out to others;” the two only met twice in person, both before the videos were filmed, and there was no physical contact or sexual overtures at those meetings (or any physical contact at any time).
Ellefson took a polygraph test to affirm his claims and presented police with a photo of his partner’s ID to prove she wasn’t underage. He also shared screen shots of text exchanges between the two to prove the relationship was consensual, claims that both of them have made publicly.
The two first met at a signing in 2019 and later got together for “coffee and a soda” in February 2020. After the latter meet-up, the two began communicating online more often, and the relationship became sexual last summer.
Ellefson claimed in the police report that Megadeth’s management informed him the person who leaked the video had previously harassed other band members.
Ellefson either quit, made private, or shut off the comments on all of his major social media accounts a few days after the videos went public.
Megadeth commence a tour with Lamb of God, Trivium, and In Flames in August, so they’re gonna hafta hire a new bassist sooner rather than later.
[via]
