Dave Ellefson Scales Back Expectations for Megadeth Reunion
What every Megadeth fan really wants is for Dave Mustaine to undergo cult de-programming the Rust in Peace-era line-up of the band to reunite, and after Chris Broderick and Shawn Drover quit the band last November, it started to look as though that might actually happen: Nick Menza said his return to the group would “be final when it’s final,” suggesting he’d at least been talks to come back, while Dave Mustaine admitted during an interview that “the fans don’t want [Marty Friedman and Nick Menza’s replacements] in Megadeth.” So that all sounded very promising…
…only now Dave Ellefson has implied that the reunion is not happening in a new interview with Full Throttle Rock:
“There are some developments with [regards to the new line-up] and I think I’ve come to realize – we’ve certainly spent the last several months, kind of [since] late November, sorting things out. I think, what I’ve come to is that we need to make a great record, cause that should always be… the songs have always determined who’s going to be in the band; from day one. And nothing should change with that. To go back and chase some glory day is like chasing fool’s gold. I think that the songs, and the album, are going to determine what the line-up is and I think that’s the proper order of putting the horse in front of the cart.”
That mostly sounds like BS to me (“The songs have always determined who’s going to be in the band”? Huh? Friedman and Drover have songwriting credits on the albums on which they appeared, so how does that work?), but I think the main thing to take away from it is, y’know, maybe don’t get too excited about the idea of Menza and Friedman coming back.
Which is a bummer, but not really surprising. It always seemed plausible that Menza might return because, frankly, what the hell else does he have going on?, but Friedman is very happy living in Japan and doing his thing. So… yeah.
That being said, there are no shortage of guys named “Friedman” in the world. Surely, at least one more of them must be a guitarist named Martin. So maybe if they can’t get THE Marty Friedman, they can at least get A Marty Friedman, right? That’s not a dumb idea, is it?
