David Ellefson Explains Why Dave Mustaine Wasn’t Happy While Megadeth Was Opening For Aerosmith

In an interview with Waste Some Time With Jason Green, Megadeth bassist David Ellefson looked back to the time they joined Aerosmith as the opening act on their Get a Grip Tour in 1993 and talked about the problems Dave Mustaine had which led to their departure from the tour.

As you may recall, after Dave Mustaine left Metallica, he founded his own band along with David Ellefson in 1983. The band released their first album, ‘Killing Is My Business… and Business Is Good!,’ in 1985. Yet, the band’s first major success was gained with the release of their second studio album, ‘Peace Sells… but Who’s Buying?.’

While they were at the peak of their career, Megadeth members joined the iconic band Aerosmith as the opening act on their Get a Grip Tour, which was put on in support of the band’s ‘Get a Grip’ album. The second-longest tour in Aerosmith’s history began on June 2, 1993, in Kansas and ended on December 19, 1994, in Boston, Massachusetts.

Megadeth members opened Aerosmith’s first few shows in June 1993, yet later they were fired by Steven Tyler. The reason why Tyler didn’t want to have Megadeth as the opening act anymore was about the comments Dave Mustaine made in a radio interview. Dave stated that they should have been headlining but they didn’t mind since it would be the ‘last hurrah’ of Aerosmith.

Recently, in an interview he joined, Ellefson talked about the time they were fired from the Aerosmith tour and explained why Mustaine wasn’t happy and made such comments about the shows. David stated that Megadeth members were in an interesting sobriety transition around that time while Aerosmith guys were already sober.

Ellefson mentioned that when Steven Tyler visited them in their dressing room and asked if everything was okay, Mustaine ‘laid out his grievances about soundcheck and backdrop, and all these other normal production stuff.’ However, nothing was changed about the problems he mentioned to Tyler and, according to Ellefson, Dave was not happy being there anymore.

Here is what David Ellefson stated about issues Dave Mustaine had during the Aerosmith tour:

“That was an interesting sobriety transition around that too. And of course, Aerosmith guys were sober at that time – about four years – and Steven Tyler came into the dressing room and was very gracious.

He goes, ‘Guys, what’s up? What’s the problem?’ And Dave kind of laid out his grievances about soundcheck and backdrop, and all these other normal production stuff we would normally get on a regular tour.

And I thought it was commendable that Steven would at least make the effort to do it, and you know, it didn’t change anything really because nothing changed out on the deck. And at that point, Dave was not happy being there, and it was a very odd mix of a tour.

Our managers were trying to work that out, like, ‘Hey, let’s get Megadeth on a sober tour to keep the band clean.’ It was a lot of that. And again, I will say as much as I live a sober lifestyle, making decisions, especially in business only based on sobriety, not always the best idea. There’s a lot that goes with it, especially with music.

It’s like, is the same fan going to show up and want to hear both of these bands? We’re up there playing ‘Hangar 18,’ and they’re playing ‘Love in an Elevator,’ that’s a very different audience, and you could feel it when we were on stage. You could sort of point out the random Megadeth fans and a lot of other people going, ‘Megadeth? Who are these guys?‘”

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