“I’d listen to it in my bunk on my Walkman in private”: David Ellefson kept his love of Metallica’s Master of Puppets a secret from Dave Mustaine
David Ellefson has confessed that he would secretly listen to Metallica’s Master Of Puppets album away from his Megadeth bandmate, Dave Mustaine.
Mustaine was fired from Metallica in 1983, which led to him forming Megadeth. Despite Metallica ultimately being their main thrash opponents because of this, Ellefson remembers being completely wowed by their rivals’ 1986 album, which marked their third studio release and received a widely positive reception from both listeners and the media.
READ MORE: Watch David Ellefson perform Megadeth’s Countdown to Extinction in its entirety
Speaking to Metal Hammer, Ellefson recalls, “I remember thinking, ‘These guys are really fucking doing it, man.’ You had the intensity of Battery, which really upped the thrash game, then you had Welcome Home (Sanitarium), which was this dark ballad, and then you had Orion, which could almost be on a King Crimson album.
“In a way, it was the first metal prog album. The whole thing was almost an hour long, but there’s only eight songs on it, and the songs are five, six, seven minutes long. No other thrash band was doing that at that time.” Going on to address Mustaine’s rocky history with the band, Ellefson adds: “I made it known that I liked the album, but I’d definitely change the channel when he got in the car.
“When we were on tour, I’d listen to it in my bunk on my Walkman in private. I studied that record and what they were doing: ‘Fuck man, we need to do that. How do we do it?’ We were never going to sound like them, but it really upped the game for me when it came to songwriting.”
Ellefson played bass for Megadeth until 2021 when he was let go following allegations of sexual misconduct after explicit videos were shared online. Ellefson denied any wrongdoing and filed a ‘revenge porn’ lawsuit against the person who uploaded the videos to social media.
Though Megadeth are now retiring, Ellefson won’t be returning to the band or joining them on their farewell tour, as Mustaine has said he wouldn’t want their shows to feel like “puppet show Megadeth”.
Mustaine has also honoured his background with Metallica by recording a new version of Ride The Lightning for Megadeth’s final and self-titled album. Though many first believed it to be a roast of the band that let him go all those years ago, he has clarified that it was done out of respect.
The post “I’d listen to it in my bunk on my Walkman in private”: David Ellefson kept his love of Metallica’s Master of Puppets a secret from Dave Mustaine appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
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