Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine has opened up about the 2021 scandal that led to David Ellefson’s firing from the band. He shares his side of the story in a new excerpt. Mustaine suggests that Ellefson’s departure may have been inevitable, scandal or not.
The excerpt details how Mustaine first learned of the scandal. He also reflects on the long, complicated history he shared with his former bandmate long before the controversy erupted.
“I found out about the scandal the same way that everyone else found out: I heard about it online. On May 10, 2021, sexually explicit videos of David Ellefson masturbating appeared on Twitter. The videos resulted from an online interaction with a nineteen-year-old Megadeth fan with whom Ellefson had engaged in some sort of relationship. When more details were revealed, the story quickly went viral,” Mustaine said.
“It was impossible to separate fact from fiction, truth from fantasy, as the Internet exploded in typically histrionic fashion. But this much was clear: that was definitely David Ellefson, Megadeth bass player, in the videos.”
Mustaine then went on to describe the deep history and tension that had long defined his relationship with Ellefson.
“I was reevaluating my nearly 40-year relationship with David and the turbulence it had so often caused in my life. As original members of Megadeth (David likes to say he was a ‘founding’ member. I don’t view it that way. I started Megadeth and invited him to join), we had been friends and creative partners; we had fought like enemies. We had played a lot of great music together. We were codependent junkies, feeding and fueling each other’s addictions. Ultimately, we had grown apart, trust shattered (at least for me) by David’s 2004 lawsuit after the band’s breakup. We fought in court. The outcome was not nearly what he hoped for — let’s leave it at that,” he continued.
“To the surprise of the vast majority of the Megadeth universe, we patched things up in 2010 and David returned to the band, albeit as a salaried player and not a creative partner. But things were never great between us; there was too much history, too much anger, too much behavior that I found distasteful.”
Mustaine also touched on how their sobriety journeys diverged. He said this further widened the gap between them.
“Part of the problem was that our initial friendship was based primarily on two things: music and drugs. David and I were never on equal footing when it came to Megadeth; it was my band and mostly my songs, and that was always a source of friction. When we both got sober, the distance increased, in part because we had lost the awful, unhealthy thing that had bonded us, but also because we approached sobriety and recovery from different places, with different points of view. I tried not only to be substance-free, but also to live a more honest and spiritual life. There are plenty of people in the fellowships who want to be better human beings and to provide support for their fellow travelers, people who are committed to genuine transformation. And there are others who mostly just talk the talk,” he said.
“I try to stay away from these folks. Sometimes unsuccessfully. All of this is by way of saying that by the time those embarrassing videos turned up on the Internet, my relationship with David — and David’s relationship with Megadeth — had already begun to deteriorate. Again.”
Mustaine concluded by weighing in on whether the scandal itself was truly the deciding factor in Ellefson’s exit.
“Would David have remained a member of Megadeth if that video had not surfaced? Who’s to say? I’ve seen enough guys come and go with Megadeth, and I’ve experienced enough upheaval with David to know that the end was likely near. But, certainly, the scandal hastened the process,” Mustaine said.
The timeline surrounding Ellefson’s actual departure sheds further light on how quickly things moved behind the scenes once the videos surfaced.
Megadeth did not immediately confirm Ellefson’s exit to the public. The band initially issued a statement saying it was “watching developments closely” before making any formal decision. Behind closed doors, however, the wheels were already turning. Ellefson was informed of his impending dismissal on May 14, 2021, just four days after the videos leaked online. The band withheld public confirmation for another ten days.
Megadeth finally announced Ellefson’s departure to the public on May 24, 2021. The announcement closed the loop on a saga that had played out largely away from fan scrutiny. The gap between Ellefson’s private notification and the public announcement fueled further scrutiny of how the band handled the fallout internally. Some have questioned whether the decision had already been made well before the scandal fully unfolded in the media.
Ellefson has pushed back on the narrative that the scandal alone justified his firing. He has accused Megadeth of using the incident as a pretext, arguing that longstanding personal grudges played a larger role in the decision than the band has publicly acknowledged. He has also described feeling abandoned by the band during the fallout, saying he felt “kicked to the side of the road” once the controversy broke.
Mustaine’s memoir, titled “In My Darkest Hour,” revisits this chapter of Megadeth’s history in detail. It frames the Ellefson fallout as the culmination of decades of friction rather than a sudden falling-out triggered solely by the 2021 scandal.
