{"id":111281,"date":"2025-08-26T12:55:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T12:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/111281\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T12:55:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T12:55:08","slug":"heavy-metal-icons-ex-member-wants-back-in-for-farewell-tour-says-legacy-isnt-just-1-guy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/111281\/","title":{"rendered":"Heavy metal icons\u2019 ex-member wants back in for farewell tour, says legacy isn\u2019t just 1 guy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Megadeth<\/a> recently announced the band was calling it quits after one final album and tour forthcoming in 2026. There\u2019s a least one former member who would love to partake before the clock strikes midnight on the long-standing metal band\u2019s active legacy.<\/p>\n

David Ellefson, who was Megadeth\u2019s only other consistent member of the band, other than guitarist\/vocalist \u200b\u200bDave Mustaine, spoke on his The David Ellefson Show<\/a> podcast this past Friday and expressed that he would like to be a part of the farewell (contingent on an invite from Mustaine).<\/p>\n

\u201cFor Dave to call it quits or to retire, I should say\u2026 Farewell\u2026 I don\u2019t even know if he\u2019s retiring,\u201d said Ellefson as transcribed by Lambgoat<\/a>. \u201cHe\u2019s just basically saying Megadeth\u2019s over,\u201d Ellefson said. \u201cWould I like to be a part of it? Yeah, of course. Who wouldn\u2019t? I\u2019m a founding member of it. I\u2019m a 30-plus-year member of it. Is that gonna happen? Who knows? It\u2019s too early to tell. I don\u2019t know what they have planned. I have no idea what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Ellefson spoke about his motivations, he drew inspiration from Black Sabbath\u2019s final show and benefit concert in July, \u201cBack To The Beginning,\u201d where the four original members of the band played together for the final time before lead singer Ozzy Osbourne<\/a>\u2019s passing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I strongly stand against the notion that Megadeth was only Dave Mustaine, \u2018cause it wasn\u2019t,\u201d Ellefson said when speaking about the band\u2019s legacy. \u201cAnd everybody knows that. So, if Dave needs to retire, wants to retire, I get it. I understand. He\u2019s given a lot. It\u2019s taken a lot out of him. It\u2019s certainly taken a toll on him, as anyone can imagine. Someone made a point: we\u2019re all fans of Megadeth music, even if we\u2019re not fans of a particular lineup or certain members. We still all love Megadeth music. And I thought, okay, I\u2019m down with that. I can get behind that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bassist maintains that he is \u201ctechnically<\/a>\u201d a founding member of the band, while Mustaine has disputed these claims<\/a>. Ellefson played with Megadeth from 1983 to 2002 until Mustaine announced the band was dissolving<\/a> due to his problems with radial neuropathy, rendering him unable to play guitar.<\/p>\n

After extensive physical therapy, Mustaine reformed the band in 2004. At that time, the founder and Ellefson were unable to come to an agreement for the bassist to come back. Ellefson<\/a> did eventually rejoin Megadeth in 2010.<\/p>\n

For his second stint, he remained a member until 2021, when he was ultimately dismissed in 2021 <\/a>after sexually explicit videos and messages of Ellefson and a then 19-year-old fan leaked to social media. Ellefson went on record to deny grooming allegations, <\/a>to which the other party confirmed in a statement.<\/p>\n

Related coverage:<\/p>\n

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Murjani Rawls may be reached at mrawls@njadvancemedia.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Megadeth recently announced the band was calling it quits after one final album and tour forthcoming in 2026.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[58055,68977,88,72860,57724,216],"class_list":{"0":"post-111281","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-dave-mustaine","9":"tag-david-ellefson","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-founding-member","12":"tag-megadeth","13":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}