Although an anonymous accuser on a now-deleted Instagram account made allegations that Megadeth bassist David Ellefson had groomed a woman he met when she was 17, both Ellefson and the woman in question have released statements denying those allegations. There had been reports of leaked conversations and recordings of their video calls.
Ellefson has since made his Instagram account private, but released the statement first, which reads “As you may or not know, some private and personal conversations and interactions have surfaced online, released with ill intention by a third party who was not authorized to have them or share them. While certainly embarrassing, I want to address it as openly and honestly as possible. As much as it’s not something I’m proud of, these were private, adult interactions that were taken out of context and manipulated to inflict maximum damage to my reputation, my career and family.”
He also reposted the woman’s statement, in which she states, “I’m the girl people are talking about in the posts about David Ellefson right now and I just want to tell my side of the story because people are sharing misinformation and the situation is getting out of hand without the truth being out there. Yes, those video calls did happen, but I was the one to initiate them and never was I underage, I was always a consenting adult. Nothing inappropriate ever happened before that. It was all consensual, I’m not a victim and I have not been groomed in the slightest as I was the one to initiate it. I was just naive enough to record him and share it with a friend without his permission.”
Both the woman and Ellefson deny that anything illegal happened between them. Each of their statements indicates that the relationship was allegedly completely consensual and completely online. However, on the note of Ellefson’s family, he has been married for the past 28 years to his wife Julie. He has also been outspoken about his Christian faith and runs a church service as a Lutheran pastor.
Aside from frontman Dave Mustaine, Ellefson is the only other founding member of Megadeth who still plays with them today. He had taken a break between 2002-2010 due to a dispute over royalties and Mustaine’s decision to release his solo album The System Has Failed under the Megadeth name, but has played bass for the band for the rest of their history since they formed in 1983 to their last album Dystopia (2016). They also have another album underway, with the working title The Sick, The Dying and The Dead.
Megadeth has a co-headlining tour with Lamb of God planned for August-October 2021. They’ll be supported by two other popular acts, Trivium and In Flames. Due to the starpower, it’s being billed as ‘The Metal Tour of the Year.’ It will be Mustaine’s first full tour since recovering from throat cancer.
Ellefson has a solo “Bass Chronicles” tour set for September 2021, in which he’ll tell some stories from his career and play some of his music. It also intends to promote his forthcoming horror film Dwellers and book Rockstar Hitman, both of which he created with writer/director Drew Fortier, who will also play guitar in Ellefson’s backing band on the tour. The bassist has released two solo albums the past few years, including Sleeping Giants and a covers album called No Cover.
Photo credit: Raymond Flotat
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