“How f**king metal is that, to have carpet on your stage?”: The unexpected thing that impressed Dave Ellefson about Rush
‘How fucking metal is that, to have carpet on your stage?’
Those were the thoughts that went through the mind of a young David Ellefson when he first laid eyes on the iconic cover of Rush’s All The World’s A Stage album.
The former Megadeth bassist speaks of his admiration for the Canadian rock band in a new interview, and shares how a chance encounter with their 1976 live record had left an indelible rock and roll-shaped mark on his young mind – though perhaps not for the reasons one would expect.
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Speaking on The Pick show, Ellfeson says [via Blabbermouth]: “There was a local drug store where I used to buy, like a pharmacy on main street in Jackson, Minnesota, that’s where I used to buy a lot of my records. And then, finally, a record store opened.”
“But All The World’s A Stage just beckoned to me. It just called to me — Marshalls, a killer drum kit, the Ampeg amps. And most importantly, they had carpet on the stage. I was, like, how fucking metal is that, to have carpet on your stage? And then I’d look at it and finally one day I bought it.”
“I think probably the most striking thing for me was Geddy’s [Lee] voice,” Ellefson recalls. “That really high, screeching, shrilling voice was so different, so unique to everything, but, of course, as a bass player myself, as a young musician, hearing Geddy and [Rush drummer] Neil Peart’s, their drum combination, bass-and-drum thing, was just incredible.”
Besides sounding cool, the members all “looked cool” to Ellefson as well: “And to me, that was what rock and roll was for me growing up. It was this fantasy,” says the musician. “Some people play fantasy football. If I had a fantasy gang to go join, it would be a band. So I think that’s what my tribe did… What’s my fantasy band that I could probably be in?”
He continues: “I think that was, and it still is, my life pursuit… like, ‘Where is that fantasy band?’ I’m still putting one together, and I’ve been in a gazillion of them. And that’s just what it is.”
“Even if we’re in bands that are successful, you kind of go, people would ask us in interviews, ‘Who’s that one person you still haven’t played with yet?’ So there’s always kind of this bucket list. So, that, to me, is kind of my overarching sort of career deal with music and Rush has always been a part of that for me.”
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