Bassist David Ellefson is now accusing Megadeth of kicking him "to the side of the road" after a highly-publicized sexual affair that led to his firing back in May. In a new interview with the Jeremy White Show (as transcribed by Blabbermouth), Ellefson said Megadeth didn't back him up in any meaningful way and that Dave Mustaine essentially gave the story legs by saying "there are clearly aspects of David's private life that he has kept to himself."
"A hundred percent. It was all based on fear. It wasn't based on reality. They said all sides would be heard, and, quite honestly, no sides were heard. Because within two weeks, I went through the process that I told them I was gonna go through, to just walk through it and say, 'Hey, this is a bunch of bullshit,' and I did — I did my part. And I confessed my… [Laughs] Look, I was caught on Candid Camera; there was no hiding from it. So you just address it. You take the sword. You deal with it. It was embarrassing. Sorry about that. Move on. And that's it.
"I pushed back against [the accusations]. [I said] 'This is bullshit.' And that's when I said [to the Megadeth camp], 'Look, they threw a Molotov cocktail — proverbial — at my house and burned my house down. Would you please help me? Would you please support me? I could use some help right now.' And quite honestly, I was just kicked to the side of the road to just deal with it on my own. So it's, like, all right. Well, then now we know where the loyalties lie. And now we move on."
Ellefson later posited that the situation was Mustaine getting revenge after Ellefson sued him in the early 2000s.
"I don't know for sure 'cause I've had no further conversations with anyone since then. But I can only go back to maybe the lawsuit I filed [against Mustaine] 20 years ago, me not being agreeable to just remix the catalog — those things, for sure. I'm sure this was a longstanding resentment toward me, and this was an opportunity to settle the score. And it is what it is.
"The truth of it is when you're in a band, when you're in any relationship — brotherhood, marriages, whatever — you have to agree to disagree, 'cause you're not always gonna agree on anything. And I think when things were reset 20 years ago — this was no longer gonna be a band; it was no longer a partnership; it was his [Mustaine's] way or no way. That was very clear. That's why I wasn't in the band 20 years ago when this happened. [Mustaine basically said] 'This is the way we're doing it. There is no negotiation. It's my way or the highway.'"
Ellefson has previously stated that Megadeth removed him from the new album despite him asking the band not to, and that he and the band are on good terms.
