Bassist of MEGADETH Recalls ‘Not Feeling Cool’ at ‘Weird’ Show With TOOL

MEGADETH bassist recalls their concerts ‘not feeling cool’ and ‘weird’ when they touring together with TOOL and Limp Bizkit.

During an interview on The NFR Podcast which is hosted by Machine Head frontman Robb Flynn, Megadeth bassist David Ellefson talked about the ’90s and the 2000s. He talked about the band’s struggles back in the days and mentioned things you may haven’t heard from him!

When the interviewer asked about the “music changes in the ’90s” and David Ellefson replied:

D.E: “You’re right, and you know you are fighting against – Seattle shows up, and then it’s Korn, Disturbed or Godsmack, it’s a new sound in metal…”

• You were always cool, but now not cool for whatever reason.

D.E: “I remember not feeling cool. When we were in Ozzfest in 1998, sandwiched between Limp Bizkit and Tool. So you would see Limp Bizkit and they are doing the shenanigans that they had, big Dickeis pants, they are all swaying, that was a hip-hop thing. And Tool, they were like Rush, this whole new sound. And in the middle, here we are, playing the guitars in skinny little jeans, headbanging while playing thrash metal and it felt so weird. Of course, our fans were there, and a lot of them, but it just felt weird. We just felt what a weird time that was. And that was the first time I noticed it. And around 6 o’clock at night, the sun was coming down over the valley, and the amphitheater is scaring your eyes. I remember ‘Turbo’ K.K. wearing sunglasses, and he explained the story about popping himself in the head with the guitar string and he had sunglasses to save him. On that tour, every time we go on stage and the sun is out, we look at each other and go, ‘OK, who is going K.K.?

Who is going to wear sunglasses on stage?’ The stage look – the K.K. look! But you are right, you are battling from within and without. Within, you’re trying to keep your band together, things are changing; from without, you go, ‘Fuck, Nirvana is here, nu-metal is here! What the hell else is going on? Limp Bizkit is here, how do we cut through that?’ And you’re right, the late ’90s through mid-2000 was treacherous. Eventually, we broke up in 2002, Dave said he was quitting Megadeth, it was over, he wanted to do a solo record, and he was allowed by the record label.

It was weird, he and I didn’t really connect and we went our separate ways for a couple of years. We wouldn’t reconnect until 2010. However, we did talk a lot during that time, despite having legal disillusion about the business.”

You can also watch the entire interview below!

Here’s a video of Tool singing live from The Ozzfest in 12998: