Dee Snider Says People Should Be Forgiving of David Ellefson
The fallout from the David Ellefson sex scandal has produced some spirited debate, and from what I’ve witnessed, a whole lot of it has been surprisingly civil, an internet rarity. The prevailing sentiment I’ve seen: while Ellefson most certainly fucked up big time — there’s the infidelity, which is obvious, and further, carrying on with someone so much younger than him is creepy, even if she was technically “legal” — he is a human being worthy of forgiveness and was the victim of bad luck insofar as those video leaks are concerned. I’m not saying that’s necessarily what I think; that’s the opinion I’ve most often seen expressed on social media and in the press.
Dee Snider made essentially that argument on a recent episode of The MetalSucks Podcast. What’s more, he asserted that Ellefson’s body of work should not be thrown out because he ended up being a sketchy dude… which is an argument I don’t think even needs to be made, because I’ve not seen a single person calling for the deletion of Ellefson’s tunes with Megadeth. But, in our chat, Dee stresses that point fervently nonetheless.
Dee explained:
“Creatives are damaged goods by definition. We choose to be actors, performers, writers, artists, painters, comedians – all those things – because we’re damaged. And that’s driven us to find these outlets.
“I don’t know why people are so shocked when the evidence of that damage showing itself. When Dave from Megadeth gets caught masturbating, well…
“First of all, you know a lot of you are doing the same thing. But second of all, he’s a musician. He’s not a priest. You can’t expect him to be priest-like – hell, you can’t expect a priest to be priest-like.
“But people are so shocked. And I don’t get why the art is thrown away with the artist. If we found out that Michelangelo was a pedophile, would we stop going to the Sistine Chapel? Would we paint it over? It’s no longer good art because the painter turned out to be a pedophile? I’m saying it hypothetically.
“All artists and creatives have got some skeletons in their closets, and suddenly the skeleton is shown and we’re like, ‘Well, he’s not funny anymore.’ ‘He’s not a good actor anymore.’ ‘Kevin Spacey, we can’t watch his movies anymore.’ He’s one of the great actors of his time, but he’s dead because he was…
“And I’m not saying he was right. But he’s a damaged, broken person – he always was. It’s what made him a great artist. I just don’t get that we throw away the baby with the bathwater, as the saying goes.
“I’m not saying making excuses or whatever. I’m just talking about the art being dismissed, thrown out, devalued, and disqualified because the artist turned out to be a fallible human being. And people should be very careful. Most of us live in glass houses.
“When I went to the Senate back in the ’80s, they talked to me like I was the scum of the earth. Well, cut to all these years later, I’m still married and the Gores [Al and Tipper] are divorced.
“One of their kids was busted for possession. None of my kids have been busted. Maybe they just got lucky. But the fact of the matter is – judge not, lest ye be judged.”
I wholly agree with the last part of Dee’s statement. That’s why we’ve long said here at MetalSucks that it’s how our favorite musicians respond to being called out for wrong doing that will determine how we think of them going forward, not the acts themselves.
But still, Dee’s comment reads like he’s trying to prove a point that has nothing to do with Ellefson altogether. I’m sure someone somewhere is saying we ought to forget about him forever, but no one I’ve spoken to or read has any disrespect for his legacy in Megadeth. Maybe that’s because he’s not the main dude in the band, though… I dunno. If it were Mustaine accused of such behavior, how would we feel?
Mull that over as you listen to the podcast episode with Dee below or right here.
