Bassist David Ellefson was fired from Megadeth back in May after a much-publicized sexual affair surfaced between Ellefson and an unnamed woman. Ellefson recently gave his first interview since then to Aftershocks TV, though didn't really address the firing so much as he did his history with the band. Now in another interview with Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk, Ellefson directly addresses what happened and why he was fired.
Ellefson said Megadeth wasn't happy that he addressed the situation before they released a statement, which ultimately led to his firing. He also notes that he and Megadeth have no ill will toward one another, though guitarist and vocalist Dave Mustaine has made it clear that Ellefson would not be rehired.
"I ran toward the bullets and dealt with it right away. The night [the messages and video were leaked online], a couple of people said, 'Hey, don't say anything.' In particular, the Megadeth camp didn't want me to say anything. But my legal [advisers] said, 'Hey, I think you should say something. I think some people have done some really shitty things here and made some false allegations about you, and you have every right to defend yourself.' And I did. Ultimately, that led to my dismissal from Megadeth.
"But I have every right, as anyone does, to defend yourself, especially when somebody is making false allegations about you like that. So I dealt with it that night, and quite honestly, that was it — it was over, and it was really kind of done. But then, as the Megadeth camp in particular jumped in and had addressed it — and not that they shouldn't, but they did. That pretty quickly led to them making the decision to part ways with me and to move away from it.
"We had originally talked about doing a joint statement of sorts, and, of course, that was not what happened. So I was disappointed in probably the way it went down.
"Ironically, things are fine between [me and Megadeth]. We parted ways, and they took their road. And there's not ill will between us, believe it or not. And I think any fights and those things, that was 20 years go — lawsuits and all that crap."
Ellefson has since formed a new band called The Lucid and has been staying mostly quiet otherwise.
