Five years after his departure, David Ellefson wasn’t sure how he’d react to watching Megadeth at this years Louder Than Life, afterwards, he described it as a “rearview mirror moment”.
The bassist played the festival in Louisville, Kentucky, with Metal Church on September 17th before joining drummer Ken Mary at front of house for Megadeth’s set. He recounted the experience on the October 23rd episode of The David Ellefson Show.
“As I always said, it doesn’t, to me, sound like my Megadeth; it sounds like Dave with three other guys playing the songs,” he said, as reported by Loudwire.
He said the observation wasn’t a positive or negative judgement. During ‘In My Darkest Hour’, he recognised stage movements from his own time in the band.
Asked by co-host Joshua Toomey whether he’d compared current bassist James LoMenzo’s playing with his own, Ellefson said he hadn’t expected his replacement to copy him.
“No. James does a perfectly fine job playing the parts, [but] it doesn’t sound like me. He’s got a different tone.” He drew a comparison with Kings Of Thrash, where he and ex-Megadeth guitarist Jeff Young perform songs by Megadeth alongside musicians who were never members.
He recalled Dirk Verbeuren’s audition, saying the band knew they’d found their drummer by the first chorus of ‘Symphony Of Destruction’. “And look, Dirk sounds great. He’s always played great [and] he’s a fantastic player,” he said.
Backstage at the festival, he introduced himself to guitarist Teemu Mäntysaari and complimented his playing. He said he and frontman Dave Mustaine did not cross paths.
Ellefson spoke about plans to perform Countdown To Extinction again for three weeks across Europe on his Bass Warrior tour.
“I’ve moved on; I’ve done so much other stuff. My era of Megadeth is my era, right? That’s an era that I’ll always be attached to.”
Before heading out to watch Megadeth, he stopped for a chat with Alice Cooper. He recalled telling Cooper: “Hey, listen, I gotta bail. I’m gonna go out and watch my very first Megadeth concert.”
“Yeah, you should. They’re pretty good,” Cooper replied, according to Ellefson.
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