{"id":516465,"date":"2026-03-11T05:56:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T05:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/516465\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T05:56:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T05:56:07","slug":"david-ellefson-fires-back-at-dave-mustaine-over-his-megadeth-firing-i-didnt-do-anything-that-would-prevent-me-from-coming-back-at-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/516465\/","title":{"rendered":"David Ellefson Fires Back At Dave Mustaine Over His Megadeth Firing: “I Didn’t Do Anything That Would Prevent Me From Coming Back At All”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Megadeth bassist David Ellfeson has pushed back against recent statements made by the band\u2019s vocalist\/guitarist Dave Mustaine. While Ellefson\u2018s original tenure in the thrash metal outfit was followed by a royalty lawsuit in the early 2000s, Ellefson would return to active duty in 2010. He maintained that position until he found himself abruptly dropped from the group in 2021<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ellefson\u2018s dismissal came about as the result of a sex scandal. The then 58-year-old bassist was found to have conducted a sexual relationship online with a 19-year-old fan. The news came as a bit of a shock, putting increased scrutiny on his marriage and is Christian faith . Given the nature of the scandal, allegations of grooming, sexual misconduct and more also emerged.<\/p>\n

Ellefson\u2018s online encounters came with graphic footage, as videos of him pleasuring himself leaked out online from the aforementioned activities. With the authorities involved, Ellefson was cleared of any legal wrongdoing<\/a>, and at the time expressed concerns that he was a victim of revenge porn.<\/p>\n

The relationship between Mustaine and Ellefson has remained frosty since that incident and subsequent firing, with both direct and thinly veiled barbs being exchanged in the press since. With Mustaine announcing the upcoming end of Megadeth, Ellefson\u2018s indignation of being left out of the band has exacerbated.<\/p>\n

Mustaine stirred the pot in an interview with Eddie Trunk in December of 2025<\/a>. In it, Mustaine ruled out inviting back any former members of Megadeth to take part in the farewell touring cycle. Mustaine\u2019s reasoning for that was attributed to the actions of an unnamed past member. He stated:<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t really do that, because of the behavior of one of the band members in the past. I just can\u2019t. Because, first off, it would be unfair to the other band members if I didn\u2019t play with them as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many presumed that member to be Ellefson. However, Ellefson, for his part, has previously speculated that his ousting from the band and the enduring cold shoulder from Mustaine were caused by \u201cpersonal grudges and resentments<\/a>\u201d more than any unforgivable wrongdoing. Last month, Ellefson went so far as telling UnDinamo<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cI would [play with Megadeth again] because I think any reason that I\u2019m not there now is unfounded. It\u2019s untruthful and it\u2019s unfair because clearly there\u2019s nothing wrong. So, I would hope and even pray to [God] that any misunderstanding, any bitterness would be removed, that that would somehow be dissipated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now in a new interview with \u2018Quemar Un Patrullero<\/a>\u2018, Ellefson has further expressed his frustration with the impasse he finds himself in with Dave and the forced exile he endures from a band he helped to define. Speaking in this new chat of getting fired over the matter, Ellefson stated: [transcribed by Blabbermouth.net<\/a>]<\/p>\n

\u201c[The Megadeth camp] called me to fire me. And I told \u2019em, \u2018Guys, there\u2019s nothing here. There\u2019s no reason to let me go. This is all just nonsense on the Internet. It\u2019s all it is. It\u2019s nothing at all. And I will maintain that position all along,\u2019 and I have. At some point you could just stay going after people on the Internet and trolls and all this kind of sh*t. It\u2019s endless. There is no Internet police, there\u2019s no Internet human resources, where you can go and say, \u2018Hey, this guy said this\u2019 and \u2018this person said this\u2019, and da, da, da, because you should, because it\u2019s highly defamatory.<\/p>\n

And defamation is when something harms your reputation, maybe even prevents you from getting more work. Those are real things. And the fact that it can happen on the Internet, which is kind of a fake place. It\u2019s not even real. It\u2019s kind of a fake place, yet that that could somehow come over to your reality. I\u2019m fortunate that the fanbase stood by me. They said, \u2018Dude, that is bullsh*t. How dare you do that to Ellefson?’\u201d<\/p>\n

Ellefson later went on to address the comment made above by Mustaine which ruled out a live reunion with former members due to the actions of one member. Ellefson said of that:<\/p>\n

\u201cTo have it end where it did, and then [for Mustaine] even recently to say, \u2018Oh, because of what one person did, I can\u2019t bring anyone back.\u2019 You know what? F*ck off. Just f*ck off. Who is that one person? It wasn\u2019t me, \u2019cause I didn\u2019t do anything that would prevent me from coming back at all. At all. And so this sort of deflectionary thing, to sort of get on some moral high ground, it\u2019s, like, gimme a break. Really?<\/p>\n

And look, I had rock stars much bigger than Dave coming to my side and coming to my aid, standing by me, saying, \u2018Man, just let me know if you need anything at all. That\u2019s really f*cked up.\u2019 It\u2019s f*cked up about how I was handled being discarded. People saying, \u2018I\u2019m really disappointed that they chose business over brotherhood,\u2019 \u2019cause at the end of the day, the brotherhood will always last beyond the business of owning a rock band \u2014 especially something we started and built together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, with that said, at one level, again, I could call a lawyer, I could go back into defamation lawsuits, and I have every right to \u2014 trust me. But at the same time, there\u2019s two ways to win in tug of war. I either pull you over the line or I just drop the rope and let you fall on your ass. [Laughs] And that\u2019s what I\u2019ve chosen to do \u2014 drop the rope. Drop the rock.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Megadeth bassist David Ellfeson has pushed back against recent statements made by the band\u2019s vocalist\/guitarist Dave Mustaine.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":516466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[58055,68977,88,57724,216],"class_list":["post-516465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-dave-mustaine","tag-david-ellefson","tag-entertainment","tag-megadeth","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516465","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=516465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}