David Ellefson revealed in an interview with Heavy Talk Dave Mustaine 's lamenting about his dismissal from Metallica in 1983, motivated by alcohol abuse, pathetic. The bassist compared the vocalist and guitarist's departure to his own dismissal from Megadeth in 2021.
“Look, I have no choice but to forgive in order to move on. I really don’t. So, I don’t know what else to say about it beyond what I’ve been saying. Look, at some point, the damage was done. So, you move on. We’re all human, and it is what it is. You can’t dwell on it. I watched how Dave handled his dismissal from Metallica, still complaining 40 years later, and I think it’s pathetic,” the musician said last Monday, the 8th (transcription via Metal Injection ).
“And it’s like, ‘You know what? Fix your shit and move on.’ And that’s how I chose to deal with it: fix your shit and move on. And so I released four albums around the time the last Megadeth album came out, and I think each one of them is as good as or better than the last. And part of that is because I’m working [in Dieth ] with great people. Whether they’re famous or not doesn’t matter. I’m working with good people. They’re safe, they’re reliable, they’re really men of integrity, and I think that really makes a big difference.”
Recently, Mustaine said that Metallica always "tried to delay" his success in Megadeth and that he had a great influence on the sound of his former band, writing many of the songs that made them famous .
The artist was Ellefson's colleague in Megadeth , but they had a more distant relationship before David's dismissal . Amidst a terrible atmosphere , the musician left the group after a sex scandal . The bassist, who defended himself and , " replaced by James Lomenzo .
The former Megadeth member, still in conversation with Heavy Talks , commented on the turbulent departure: “I got a call: 'You're fired.' And I said: 'What the fuck, man? Some shitty people just threw a bomb at my house. And that's it? It's not even true. It's bullshit. And this is how you treat me?' It wasn't negotiable. I mean, I asked. I said: 'I'll take care of it. Let me handle it. And it's going to get done, damn it. We'll be ready for the road in two months and everything will be fine.'”
“And that was it. Because they were just false allegations and bullshit. But Dave didn’t want to know. I think he was being pressured by other people around him. And it’s a shame that it was like that, because it really wasn’t anything. I took care of it. And then, when the news came out that I had been fired, it turned into this big pile of crap, which, honestly, was very damaging, very painful, and unfair. I’m glad I don’t have that damn compensation on my shoulder, because that was bullshit.”
Check out the full interview below:
READ ALSO: Dave Mustaine says he's "happier" without David Ellefson in Megadeth
