David Ellefson speaks of his past sex scandal: “When you bare it all, you’ve got nothing to hide”

David Ellefson has spoken of the sex scandal that led to his termination from Megadeth. In early 2021, Ellefson was fired from the band after an online leak of several videos of himself masturbating. At first, it was thought that an underage female was involved, but police reports showed that the 56-year-old was having internet conversations and video chats of a sexual nature with a 19-year-old woman, above the age of consent in both her native Netherlands and Ellefson‘s home state of Arizona.

At the time these incidents were revealed, Ellefson said he intended to file revenge porn charges against those who leaked the footage (the woman involved had shared the footage with many friends.) A couple of weeks after the videos leaked, Megadeth fired him.

In a recent interview with with Metal Hammer, Ellefson spoke of how he dealt with the matter:

There’s two sides to it. One: when you bare it all, you’ve got nothing to hide. Fuck it, now you can truly be yourself! We all come into the world with our birthday suit on, so what are we ashamed of? What I feel the worst about is the embarrassment that it caused some people, like my family, who didn’t deserve it. Out of respect for them, I’m going to keep the family dynamic off the table. That’s at their request.

Dave [Mustaine], his manager and his lawyer [called me after the scandal.] There was a sentiment from one of them saying, ‘Let’s step back, let Ellefson deal with it. It leaves the door open for him to come back.’ Dave didn’t want that. He made his decision and it is what it is.