DAVID ELLEFSON clarifies his comment that he doesn't “ever have to work another day in his life”
20-08-2025
In a new interview with the Brutally Delicious podcast, former MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson clarified his recent comment that he “literally doesn’t ever have to work another day in his life.” The 60-year-old, Scottsdale, Arizona-based musician, who runs several other businesses outside his various music projects, including heading up a record label, creating a line of coffee blends, producing horror and documentary films and writing books, explained: “Part of that comment was I never have to work ’cause I don’t go to work; I play. (Laughs) You know what I mean? I don’t work music; I play music. So it was kind of a double entendre. I didn’t say that to go, like, ‘I’m bloody rich and, fuck, I never have to work.’ That was not the point of that. And you know my style — that’s not my nature to say that.
“But I don’t do these projects to go make money,” he continued. “In fact, if anything, I’m investing in them. I’m always putting my own money into these things. And it’s kind of like when you buy a car — as soon as you buy it and you drive it off the lot, you’re already upside down; you already owe more than it’s worth. And that’s how bands are, man. Until they start to have some financial value at the box office and with record sales and merchandising, you’re probably upside down. Even in MEGADETH, we were upside down up until about ‘Countdown To Extinction’, you know, five albums into our career, because we take everything, we invest it. I see my friends on big tours and I can pretty much count how many trucks and buses and how many people, and then I can count and go, how many people are in the building, and go, yeah, they’re either making money or they’re not making money, or some nights they’re breaking even. And that’s just how it is, man.
“Moving rock bands around the world costs a lot of money,” Ellefson added. “It’s not cheap. And everybody thinks that there’s all this money. And, look, hopefully we end up a little further ahead at the end of it than we did when we started. And I did. I’m lucky with that. Not everybody does, man. And like I said, KINGS OF THRASH, DIETH, these new bands that I start, they’re totally for the love of doing it. And look, they’re profitable enough that we can keep it going. Otherwise, at some point, who can afford to just keep throwing money at something if it’s just not working? But to me, as long as they’re sustainable, I’m good. Let’s go. Let’s book another show. Let’s book another flight. I’ve got a bass sitting right here. Let’s rock, man. So, to me, as long as the songs are fun, people are fun, there’s enough loot to pay the bills so everybody feels like they got a little something out of it. What more could you want, man? I mean, to me that’s like the perfect life.”
This past April, David was asked by Meltdown of Detroit’s WRIF radio station if he gets involved in so many things nowadays out of necessity or if he is doing it because he genuinely enjoys it. He responded: “I literally don’t ever have to work another day in my life. I’m fine. Financially, I’m good. So I do this purely for fun and for joy. And it’s great that my phone rings and people still wanna hang out with me [laughs] and we still wanna invite me over to their party.”
He continued: “(Former MEGADETH guitarist) Al Pitrelli told me years ago when MEGADETH disbanded in 2002, he said, ‘Listen, brother. Say ‘yes’ to everything. It’s better to be overbooked than underbooked.’ And as I’ve talked about in other interviews, I said ‘no’ to a couple things. And boy, the phone stops ringing quick. And it was pointed out to me, it’s, like, ‘David, they’re calling you ’cause they wanna hear you say ‘yes’.’ It’s like when you hit me for this interview. You don’t go, ‘Hey, let me hit up Ellefson. Hopefully he’ll say ‘no’.’ It’s, like, ‘No. I hope he’ll say ‘yes’.’ The Jim Carrey ‘Yes Man’ movie, I’ve talked about this over and over, it’s so poignant because it opens up all the doors. Yes leads to five more yeses, which leads to 10 more.
“These things are all fun for me,” Ellefson explained. “They’re passion projects. A couple of them make me a little money here and there. Usually I end up investing my own money into these things. But money is just a tool, and used wisely can go to help many other people and do other great things.
“I remember reading that book from Dave Ramsey years ago, or part of it anyway, or some of his podcasts — he’s a guy in Nashville, the Christian guy who talks about getting debt free —and he said the real reason to get debt free isn’t to just go buy more shit for you. It’s to go be charitable to others. So I took heed of that, ’cause I was probably pretty heavily in debt at that time. There comes a point in your life — you’re raising a family, building MEGADETH over the years… Every rock group has its expenses and, as I’m reading the Geddy Lee (RUSH) book, as I’ve read the Alex Van Halen (VAN HALEN) book, we’re all in the same band. We invest into the group to keep the group going and building, and I do that now with my own life. I invest in myself, and I invest in my life to be able to be where I’m of best service to other people.”
Ellefson was originally in MEGADETH from the band’s inception in 1983 to 2002, when the group briefly broke up because MEGADETH leader Dave Mustaine suffered severe nerve damage that left him unable to play.
Mustaine reformed MEGADETH 21 years ago. Originally setting out to record a solo album, Mustaine enlisted studio musicians to play on what ultimately became MEGADETH‘s 2004 “The System Has Failed” comeback album, subsequently recruiting former ICED EARTH bassist James MacDonough to take Ellefson‘s place for the album’s touring cycle.
Ellefson sued Mustaine in 2004 for $18.5 million, alleging that the MEGADETH guitarist/vocalist still owed him substantial merchandise and publishing royalties. In January 2005, the case was dismissed in court, and five years later, Ellefson rejoined MEGADETH.
In his first book, Ellefson admitted that he became a salaried employee upon his return to MEGADETH 15 years ago. He told Metal-Rules.com in an interview: “Going from being a co-founding owner to just a sideman musician was initially why I didn’t come back in 2004. I was not happy with the participations that were presented to me. In recent times, coming back, I found great joy in doing music with a lot of other people in other settings that helped me fall back in love with playing music. Now I can come back into or go into musical situations and be able to be there for a purpose and level of pay. Being a sideman absolves you from being involved in all the other stuff. At this point in my life, I would rather leave that stuff on the sidelines. Like American Express says, ‘membership has its privileges,’ being a sideman has its benefits. In my case, it helps retain a friendship too. In order to have a friendship, I had to give up some ownership.”
In his 2004 lawsuit against Mustaine, Ellefson claimed that he “attempted to resolve his differences with Mustaine on an amicable basis and offered to continue to perform with [MEGADETH].” However, his “offers were met with verbal abuse, threats, lies and continued invective from Mustaine.” Ellefson also said that Mustaine — a veteran of at least 17 drug rehab stints, according to the bassist — resented Ellefson, a former drug addict, for having kicked his own habit. According to Ellefson‘s court papers, the battle of the band spread to the Internet when Mustaine posted on Megadeth.com that Ellefson was trying to extort him.
Mustaine gave his version of why the 2004 reunion with Ellefson didn’t pan out in a message posted on the MEGADETH web site. In lengthy essay, Mustaine claimed that Ellefson missed several deadlines to accept his offer, which included 20% of the artist royalties on “The System Has Failed”, none of the publishing royalties and a $2,500-a-week salary while the band was on the road.
Ellefson was fired from MEGADETH nearly four years ago after sexually tinged messages and explicit video footage involving the bassist were posted on Twitter.
In September 2023, MEGADETH‘s latest album, “The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!”, debuted at the top of the charts during its first week of sales, taking the No. 3 spot on the Billboard 200 as well as number ones on Top Album Sales, Top Current Albums Sales, Top Rock & Alternative Albums, Top Rock Albums and Top Hard Rock Albums. “The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!” was the highest-charting MEGADETH album of all time around the world, notching No. 1 In Finland, No. 2 in Australia, Poland, Switzerland, and Scotland, No. 3 in the U.K., and more.
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