David Ellefson indirectly compared himself to Jesus, when discussing the aftermath of the sex scandal that resulted in the bassist being dismissed from Megadeth.
Ellefson said in a recent appearance on That Metal Interview podcast when discussing how he’s doing six months after his dismissal, “I’m okay. I just went dark. I took the time to just sort of process it all, heal up from it. I’ve obviously never had anything quite like that happen to me before. And the fact that it was happening like that was just… I couldn’t believe the level of just s—-iness of humankind; I just couldn’t even believe it, man.”
He continued, “Not to use a religious reference, but I guess I know how Jesus felt. Carry your cross and then kill him. S—, we got the wrong guy. Not to make it a religious thing, but it’s just one of those things, I couldn’t even believe it. I’m not gonna lie — I deserve better than that. Which is why I got off social media and I got away from all that stuff. And I was just, like, you know what? I have poured my whole life into my craft and my work and my art and being a performer and entertainer, and no one deserves to be treated like that. That’s just absolutely uncalled for on any level.”
Back in May, graphic texts and video exchanged between Ellefson and a young woman leaked on Twitter, which led to allegations of grooming. Ellefson issued his own statement following the leak and said in part, “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.”
The woman involved issued her own statement which she said in part “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.”
About two weeks following the initial leak, Megadeth announced they were parting ways with Ellefson issuing a statement saying in part, “We are informing our fans that David Ellefson is no longer playing with Megadeth and that we are officially parting ways with him. We do not take this decision lightly. While we do not know every detail of what occurred, with an already strained relationship, what has already been revealed now is enough to make working together impossible moving forward.”