Groove – Episode #74: David Ellefson

When you have a guitarist who can create riffs like Megadeth’s frontman, Dave Mustaine, you just know that the bottom end is going to be driving too. And, in this case – and for many decades – David Ellefson has delivered the goods. Listen to songs like “Holy Wars… The Punishment’s Due”, “Hangar 18”, “Peace Sells”, and the list just keeps on going.

Ellefson is not only the bass player of Megadeth, but the co-founder and second-longest serving member of the band (after Mustaine). And, while he has been active with Megadeth since 1982 (with a break from the band for a few years), he has always been busy. With various side projects like F5 and Metal Allegiance to authoring books (My Life With Deth, More Life With Deth, and even a fiction thriller titled, Rock Star Hitman), he has his own record label (where he has signed Canada’s Sword and released his latest offering – an album’s worth of covers – called, No Cover) and he even his own brew of coffee (Ellefson Coffee). For true bass believers, we can’t not mention Altitudes & Attitude (his band with Anthrax’s bassist, Frank Bello).

When we talk about the metal genre, we always talk about the “big four” (Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax and Megadeth). It doesn’t get bigger than that, and things can’t get much heavier than the deep bass chops and skills of Ellefson. Personally, Megadeth’s 1990 release, Rust In Peace, is one of my personal favorite albums of all time and all genres.

Enjoy the conversation…