In a recent interview with WSOU 89.5 FM, former Megadeth bassist David Ellefson was asked if he believes metal musicians today are dealing with a lot of issues.
The bassist shared a pessimistic view about the future of guitar music, questioning whether young people will still be interested in plugging an axe into an amp two decades from now.
“I don’t think in metal there’s a problem,” he said. “Honestly, what I think about — I think about, like, so after we die, whether that’s 20 years from now or whatever, our generation pushes through, are young people gonna even care about playing guitar anymore? Like putting a guitar into an amp…”
“‘Cause for me, to have a flying V, a Marshall stack, grow your hair, go be a rock star, that was something to aspire toward, and I don’t feel like that’s something to aspire toward now,” he continued, “because people are into their phones and devices and they’re just into different things. You see people on YouTube, there’s people who are bedroom shredders who just play circles around all of us.”
However, Ellefson admitted that online guitarists are getting a lot of attention these days, so maybe YouTube and other social media platforms could play a similar role to books and records for his generation.
Starting his career at an early age, the bassist gave pieces of advice to young musicians. “Be committed to what it is you wanna do,” the rocker said during an interview with KBAD 94.5. “My first thing is, man, play with everybody; play with as many different people as possible when you’re young.”
“As you get older and your career goes on, you will start to focus and define your style and your sound. And from there, you try to get really united, like I did with Dave. I mean, he and I have hung together pretty much most of the Megadeth career,” he added.
Ellefson first joined Megadeth when he was 19. He left and rejoined the band several times. He was with Megadeth from the band’s start in 1983 until 2002, and then again from 2010 until he was later fired in 2021.