In an interview with That Fuzzing Rock Show, David Ellefson opened up about the emotional phone call he received from Dave Mustaine after Nick Menza’s passing. Ellefson recalled how the drummer’s passing hit Mustaine hard, even after their fights.
“There is the night Nick Menza died, and I was in my hotel room. We were all in our rooms. Two in the morning or so, Dave calls me, and he’s all tore up, freaking out. He goes, ‘Junior, Nick’s dead.’ ‘What?’ He goes, ‘Nick… Nick died. Nick’s dead.’ He was a mess. He was tore up,” the rocker recalled. “He was really, really upset about it… ‘[When] we had a band breakfast the next day, Dave wanted to try to do some kind of a charity. It kind of got blocked by management at the time, because we were just heading into a cycle. A full, worldwide cycle for -‘Dystopia.’ So, it was kind of impossible to schedule that. But, you know, I’ll speak to Dave’s heart on that, man.”
“He was tore up about it. You know, he and Nick would fight a lot, but those two were like brothers, man,” Ellefson added. “They’d fight, they’d hug, they’d yell. They’d go eat sushi. Me and Marty [Friedman]… Marty said it best — there’s two types of people. There’s KISS and Black Sabbath people, and then there’s Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith people. Me and Marty were the KISS and Black Sabbath guys; Dave and Nick were the Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith guys.”
Menza passed away after collapsing on stage during a performance in California. He suffered a heart attack while playing with his band OHM at the Baked Potato, a small jazz club in Los Angeles that he regularly jammed.
Menza was a member of Megadeth from 1989 to 1998, and he played an integral role in the band’s ‘Rust in Peace’ lineup.
In other news, a long-awaited documentary about Menza is set to screen in theaters. Titled ‘This Was My Life: Nick Menza’s Metal Memories with Megadeth and Beyond,’ the film will have a ‘limited theatrical run in selected U.S. markets,’ with plans for a streaming and Blu-ray release afterward.
Further details, including premiere dates and the release of a new trailer, will be announced soon.
