David Ellefson Talks Megadeth Split: ‘I Haven’t Spoken To Dave In Four Years’

Summary

• David Ellefson calls Megadeth’s farewell plans ‘a little shocking’, but admits Dave Mustaine has always been a tough mule on stage.
• Ellefson says he’d join a final bow if asked, while Jeff Scott Soto insists Mustaine should include past members for true closure.
• Megadeth’s last album is due next year via Tradecraft/BLKIIBLK, with pre-orders starting September 25 and a 2026 farewell tour to follow.

Former Megadeth bassist David Ellefson says the band’s “last album” and 2026 farewell tour announcement hit him as “a little shocking,” even if the news wasn’t completely out of the blue. He shared his reaction on the Rock ‘N’ Blues Experience podcast with host Tim Caple, noting he’d heard rumblings because, well, he’s still in the business.

According to Ellefson, Dave Mustaine has always been a grinder. “He’s a pretty @#$%! tough mule,” Ellefson said, praising Mustaine’s habit of getting on stage and powering through setbacks. Credit where due.

A memory from a Mexico festival stuck with him. Pam Mustaine looked over and quipped to Ellefson, “The old horse is slowing down.” They were sharing a bill with Judas Priest and Scorpions, and Rudolf Schenker bounded around like a human jackhammer. “What the @#$%! did they put in the water in his house?” Ellefson joked. Schenker is in his 70s and still hugs like a freight train.

Ellefson hasn’t spoken to Mustaine in roughly four years. He says he only knows what the public knows. The announcement is out there. The reasons are not.

One last bow

Asked what would happen if he called Mustaine, Ellefson shrugged it off. Numbers change. Bridges burn. He did float the idea on his own podcast that he’d be open to returning in some capacity, if the moment called for it.

He pointed to Birmingham’s ‘Back To The Beginning’ event as a model.

Black Sabbath got to say goodbye. The audience got to say goodbye back. That two-way closure mattered. “In a perfect world there would be at least a moment” for former Megadeth members to share a final bow, Ellefson said. Not a demand. More of a wish.

Jeff Scott Soto, Ellefson’s ELLEFSON-SOTO bandmate, jumped in with the full thesis statement. If this is truly the end, Mustaine should include Ellefson for proper closure, even if it’s one show or one song. Soto compared the pair to Joe Perry and Steven Tyler, or Lennon and McCartney.

The idea? Bring back key players like Chris Poland and Jeff Young too. A real farewell, not a technicality.

Mixed feelings

On “The David Ellefson Show,” Ellefson unpacked the swirl of memories. Gold records on the wall. “Countdown [To Extinction],” “Peace Sells,” “Beavis And Butt-Head,” “Rust In Peace.” Good years with cohesive management and collaborative music.

Grammy nods. Festivals opening worldwide. Then the flip side. Addictions. Rehabs. Canceled tours. Lost millions. “Not being part of the final farewell of something I started” stings, he admitted, even as he stays grateful for the ride.

He also revisited an ugly chapter. Mustaine’s 2002 arm injury, the brief breakup, the 2004 relaunch without him, and the lawsuit that followed.

He says he learned a lot about business structures, credit splits, and getting paid directly. Bands are families until money flows through the pipes. Then the pipes matter. Creative outlets like F5 and solo records helped keep him sane during those years.

Ellefson described Megadeth as a Mustaine-run business by the time he returned in 2010.

Writing together wasn’t the old room-full-of-amps vibe anymore. Shawn Drover used to remind him those days were gone.

When “Th1rt3en” came up, Ellefson told Mustaine to write the songs and he’d play bass to keep the lanes clean. Fewer blurred lines. Fewer fights. A practical call, not a romantic one.

Old wounds

Ellefson pushed back on the cartoon version of Megadeth as pure Metallica revenge fuel. He credited Mustaine with songs like “Mechanix” before and after that chapter.

The rivalry colored things. It didn’t define everything. Nuance exists, even in thrash.

He would like to be part of a farewell if invited. He also knows he’s not holding the pen. The phone call in 2021 that ended his tenure followed the leak of sexually tinged messages and explicit video on Twitter.

He still feels it didn’t have to go that way. Disagreements happen. Not all of them need a public guillotine.

Bobby Blitz from Overkill once told him, “No matter how we go into the room with separate ideas, we come out as one voice.” Ellefson says he tried to live by that with Mustaine.

The leader leads. The band moves as one. Most of the time, it worked.

Founding debate

The “who founded what” question refuses to die. In a 2022 LifeMinute chat promoting “The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!”, Mustaine said he was the sole founder, noting an early bass player who left. Years earlier he suggested Ellefson wasn’t a founder because Megadeth was already forming before they met.

Ellefson’s counter is simple. He was in the room the day the name Megadeth stuck, switching from Fallen Angel at Greg Handevidt’s suggestion. He and Mustaine quickly became the two Daves at the center.

Labels aside, he argues Megadeth was never only Mustaine, and that many lineups helped build the catalog fans love.

For perspective, Mustaine said in 2016 that he and Ellefson had been friends even through the lawsuit, that he forgave him, and that working together again had been fun.

He also took a shot at gossip sites twisting words.

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Title, release date, and tour routing for the final Megadeth cycle are still under wraps. In the press release announcing the band’s last studio album and global farewell run, Mustaine thanked fans and framed this as going out on his own terms, on top.

“We can’t wait for you to hear this album and see us on tour,” he said, while calling it the last studio record.

The follow-up to 2022’s “The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!” will arrive via Mustaine’s Tradecraft imprint on Frontiers Label Group’s BLKIIBLK label, expected next year.

Chris Rakestraw is back in the chair after working on “Dystopia” and “The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!” Fans can register for early info and offers on Megadeth’s site, with pre-orders opening September 25 and initial tour dates coming later this year.

Ellefson’s tenure tells its own story. He was there from 1983 to 2002, exited when Mustaine’s injury paused the band, sued in 2004 over money disputes, saw the case dismissed in 2005, and rejoined five years later.

It has been complicated.

It has also been historic.

Check out the full chat 👇

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