David Ellefson feels rejected by Megadeth in the midst of his crisis: “I was just kicked to the side of the road to just deal with it on my own”

David Ellefson, long-time bass player in Megadeth, was fired from the band in May over grooming allegations. However, the girl with whom Ellefson was chatting and making sexual video calls turned out to be of legal age. Nevertheless, the firing from the band was upheld, and Ellefson formed a new band, The Lucid.

Now, in a recent interview with The Jeremy White Podcast, Ellefson opens up a little about his feelings when the band decided to fire him following the controversy and eventually re-recorded the bass tracks for their upcoming album, despite Ellefson asking the band not to do so.

Ellefson says he wanted to address the rumours about him immediately:

“That’s why I addressed it the night it came out. Even though one side said not to, my lawyers said, ‘I think you should. I think you should just run toward the bullets, take the sword, deal with it, just address it,’ which I did. And it was done and it was over. And then the next day when the other side started putting their announcements out, that’s when it fanned the flames… The very thing they didn’t want to happen is exactly what happened. And then I paid the penalty. Now I’m not in the band. So, go figure.”

Interviewer Jeremy White raised the point that Megadeth’s leader Dave Mustaine suggested in the band’s official statement that the unfounded rumours were unfounded. Ellefson agreed and feels the band abandoned him in difficult times.

“A hundred percent. It was all based on fear. It wasn’t based on reality. They said all sides would be heard, and, quite honestly, no sides were heard. Because within two weeks, I went through the process that I told them I was gonna go through, to just walk through it and say, ‘Hey, this is a bunch of bullshit,’ and I did — I did my part. And I confessed my… [Laughs] Look, I was caught on ‘Candid Camera’; there was no hiding from it. So you just address it. You take the sword. You deal with it. It was embarrassing. Sorry about that. Move on. And that’s it.”

“I pushed back against the accusations. I said ‘This is bullshit.’ And that’s when I said [to the Megadeth camp], ‘Look, they threw a Molotov cocktail — proverbial — at my house and burned my house down. Would you please help me? Would you please support me? I could use some help right now.’ And quite honestly, I was just kicked to the side of the road to just deal with it on my own. So it’s, like, all right. Well, then now we know where the loyalties lie. And now we move on.”