More Life With Deth

David Ellefson

Description

I can’t wait to read this book and figure out how he does it all! Keep going, David! – Brian ‘Head’ Welch (KoRN)

In this follow-up to his 2013 memoir My Life With Deth, Megadeth bassist and co-founder David Ellefson carries on where he left off, charting his mid-2000s departure from Megadeth through his triumphant return in 2010, and offering an inside look at the continuing saga of one of the world’s biggest and most enduring heavy-metal bands.

Co-written with his business partner, Thom Hazaert – a celebrated music-industry figure, radio personality, and music journalist – More Life With Deth chronicles Megadeth’s record-shattering ‘Big Four’ shows alongside Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax, and the release of their Grammy-winning Dystopia – their highest-charting record in over twenty-five years – and the massive two-year world tour supporting it.

Far more than your typical rock star tell-all, More Life also delves deeper into the origins of Megadeth and David’s roots in rural Minnesota, and tells the stories behind the creation of his hugely successful EMP Label Group, Ellefson Coffee Co., and the relaunch of the famed metal label Combat Records, as well as his continued personal journey of spirituality and sobriety.

Told through the words of Ellefson, Hazaert, and friends including Alice Cooper, Brian ‘Head’ Welch (Korn), Kristian Nairn (Game Of Thrones), Mark Tremonti, K.K. Downing (Judas Priest), Brian Slagel (Metal Blade Records), Frank Bello (Anthrax), Jason McMaster (Dangerous Toys), Dirk Verbeuren (Megadeth), Kiko Loureiro (Megadeth), Chris Adler (Lamb Of God, Megadeth), Dan Donegan (Disturbed), and many more, More Life With Deth is an insightful and personal look at one of the most revered rock musicians – and preeminent heavy-metal entrepreneurs – of our time.

Sujets

• Musique
• Culture musicale
• Histoire de la musique
• Heavy Metal
• Styles
• Genres
• Music

Informations

• Publié par: Jawbone Press
• Date de parution: 16 juillet 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781911036524
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 8 Mo

Extrait

A Jawbone book
First edition 2019
Published in the UK and the USA by
Jawbone Press
Office G1
141–157 Acre Lane
London SW2 5UA
England
www.jawbonepress.com
Volume copyright © 2019 Outline Press Ltd. Text copyright © David Ellefson. All rights reserved. No part of this book covered by the copyrights hereon may be reproduced or copied in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles or reviews where the source should be made clear. For more information contact the publishers. Unless otherwise stated, all photographs used in this book are from the author’s collection.
Jacket design by Melody Myers
Ebook design by Tom Seabrook

This book is in memory of Gordon, Frances, and Eliot Ellefson.
Dedicated to the people of Jackson, Minnesota.
CONTENTS
FOREWORD BY JOEL MCIVER
PREFACE BY DAVID ELLEFSON
INTRODUCTION BY THOM HAZAERT
PART 1: REINVENTION
1.1 NECESSITY: THE MOTHER OF INVENTION
1.2 CLIMBING THE CORPORATE LADDER
1.3 MOVING PICTURES
1.4 NEW BANDS, NEW ADVENTURES
PART 2: MUSIC
2.1 TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS
2.2 COMING HOME TO MEGADETH
2.3 HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT
2.4 THE BIG FOUR BEGINS
PART 3: BACK IN THE GAME
3.1 TH1RT3EN
3.2 THE SUMMER OF MAYHEM
3.3 BASS MASTERS
PART 4: HEAVY METAL FAITH
4.1 HEAVY METAL SEMINARIAN
4.2 METAL ALLEGIANCE
4.3 WATCHING THE WARHEADS RUST
4.4 GET IT OUT
PART 5: A NEW MUSICAL JOURNEY
5.1 DYSTOPIA
5.2 MY MEGADETH
5.3 JUST SAY YES
5.4 NEVER SAY NEVER
PART 6: RENAISSANCE MAN
6.1 WITHOUT A LEG TO STAND ON
6.2 THE RETURN TO MY ROOTS
6.3 DYSTOPIA CONTINUED
6.4 MUSICIANS IN CARS SELLING COFFEE
PART 7: THE NEXT FRONTIER
7.1 FULL CIRCLE
7.2 ‘AND THE GRAMMY GOES TO...’
7.3 GRAMMY-WINNING RECORDING ARTISTS
PART 8: FROM WHENCE WE CAME
8.1 FROM THE CORNFIELD TO THE HALL OF FAME
8.2 UNLEASHED IN THE MIDWEST
8.3 METAL MASSACRE
8.4 HOLLYWOOD SQUARES
PART 9: BEHIND THE CURTAIN
9.1 NO BIG DEAL
9.2 KILLING IS MY BUSINESS...
9.3 MORTAL COMBAT
PART 10: WHEN ROCK’N’ROLL GETS REAL
10.1 BILLION-DOLLAR BABIES
10.2 SO FAR SO GOOD
10.3 IN MY DARKEST HOUR
PART 11: THE NEXT LEGACY
11.1 MINNESOTA NICE
11.2 BASSTORY
11.3 DAVID ELLEFSON DAY
EPILOGUE: MAY IT GO WELL WITH YOU!
TIMELINE: BY THOM HAZAERT
BONUS CHAPTER: ELLEFSON FAMILY HISTORY
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
FOREWORD
BY JOEL MCIVER
Rock’n’roll eats its young. Very few musicians reach a significant level of success within the industry without losing something, whether it’s their minds, their health, their material possessions, or simply their humanity. I’ve been navigating the murky waters of heavy metal for a couple of decades now, and I’ve yet to meet anyone who hasn’t disappeared into the rabbit hole.
One notable exception comes to mind, though: David Ellefson. Whether in or out of Megadeth, the titanic metal band which he still anchors after all these years, the man has held onto his fundamental decency as a human being. You’re going to love this book, his third so far; as with the previous two, Ellefson has a ton of wisdom to share, and he’s generous about sharing it.
I first met the man at Winter NAMM in California in 2008. He was out of Megadeth at the time and working for Peavey, at whose stand we talked about bass guitars. As I chatted with him, I wondered to myself if I was revealing any fan-boy nervousness; as a teenager, I’d been a huge fan of his bass playing, spending hours figuring out his bass parts. I’d even seen Megadeth play at the UK’s Donington festival in 1988, unaware that Ellefson was at a particularly low point at the time. Twenty years later, as I talked with him at NAMM, my impression was that this was a genuinely good guy in an environment populated with damaged people.
Two years after that, I met Ellefson at the first Big Four show in Poland. We talked bass again, and this time my focus was on staying coherent despite rather too many shots of free backstage vodka. (If he noticed my intoxication, he was polite enough not to mention it.)
Back in the UK, I dropped him an email suggesting that we work together on a book. I’d recently written the memoir of Glenn Hughes, and I knew that Ellefson’s autobiography would be an eye-opening read. He was keen, so we recruited a literary agent and got started. The book, My Life With Deth , came out in 2013 and was a critical and commercial success. I remember holding the first copy and casting my mind back to that Donington gig in 1988. We had both come a long way …
A life and career as productive as Ellefson’s can’t be contained in a single book, of course, and I’m delighted that Ellefson has compiled a second volume of autobiography with his talented business partner, Thom Hazaert, at the helm. Enjoy More Life With Det h ; if more of us heeded the lessons within it, perhaps the rock’n’roll world would be a better (and safer) place.
PREFACE
BY DAVID ELLEFSON
Welcome back for More Life With Deth ! The idea for this book was presented to me by my record-label and coffee-company partner, Thom Hazaert (more on him later), as I came home from a Midwest coffee tour with an Ellefson Family History 1600s–1979 under my arms. That history seemed to conveniently mark the beginning of this new archive of my life.
As I had contemplated writing another autobiographical book at some point, and the family history seemed to set the stage to commit these next chapters of my life to print, this book both prefaces and moves past my first autobiography, My Life With Deth , which was published in 2013. That book contains a broader-stroke overview of my early days growing up in Jackson, Minnesota, moving to Hollywood after high school, co-founding the rock group Megadeth, and much more. With this book, I thought it important to look back on the decade since I re-joined Megadeth, our triumphs and tribulations, alongside several new and exciting musical adventures that came about both organically and unexpectedly.
Additionally, this season of my life has led me to new creative and business endeavors that I’ve long sought to explore. Some of these include my EMP Label Group, Ellefson Coffee Co., a booking agency, a nonprofit organization, continued record producing, writing and recording with other acts, and even an artist-development and management firm.
I hope you enjoy these new pages as much as I have enjoyed living and sharing them with you all!
INTRODUCTION
BY THOM HAZAERT
I first met David Ellefson in the 2000s, in his time away from Megadeth, when he was working as an artist rep for Peavey. Over a decade later, we reconnected, almost certainly by divine confluence, and since then have ended up partnering on pretty much everything: record labels, a coffee company, clothing lines, a merchandise company, instruments, beverages, magazines, and now this book. (Seriously, it’s like Spaceballs .)
Originally, the book would have been me ghostwriting with him, but as it developed, we discovered that my color commentary and ‘outsider on the inside’ perspective gave a different angle to the story. So we went with it. And while I had a bit of hesitation—and a few moments of who the fuck am I? —with David’s support and glowing feedback on my initial contributions, my inner attention whore got its way, and I am now privileged not only to be a part of the story, but to be able to help tell it.
While I started my journey into this business of music as a writer, the winds of change that Klaus Meine sang about have blown me all over the damn place—management, A&R, marketing, running record labels, even brief forays into film direction and production. But wherever I ended up, I have never been far from my humble beginnings as an eager observer of the rock’n’roll condition. And Megadeth, my favorite band for the last thirty-plus years, have never been far from my heart.
For my birthday in 2016 (November 8, if you want to send a gift), David sent me the Peace Sells … But Who’s Buying? deluxe boxed set, plus a copy of his book My Life With Deth , inscribed with the words, Thom … Thank you for being part of my life’s journey . Little did we know how prophetic those words would prove to be when, just two years later, I ended up not only talking him into doing a follow-up to that book but writing it with him.
I am eternally grateful to David, his amazing family (and mine), and the rest of our team, for the opportunity to participate, and support, the amazing legacy that is David Warren Ellefson.
And now, without further ado, we present our feature attraction … More Life With Deth .
1
REINVENTION
1.1
NECESSITY: THE MOTHER OF INVENTION
Monday, February 8, 2010.
‘Hey Dale, did you hear I re-joined Megadeth today?’ I said enthusiastically to my dear friend and F5 vocalist, Dale Steele.
‘That’s great!’ he replied. ‘Now get prepared for when it ends again, because last time, you weren’t.’
It was a sobering moment of reality amid the global celebration of the triumphant reunion of ‘Dave & Dave,’ together once again in Megadeth. And the truth is, Dale was right.
At the time, I was forty-five years old, and I had skillfully rebuilt my life and career in the years since Megadeth came to an abrupt ending back in 2002, when Dave Mustaine’s arm injury brought about an enforced hiatus for the band. There is a proverb that states, ‘ As iron sharpens iron, so one man strengthens another .’ Dale Steele was practicing this very spiritual principle in his accurate assessment. In other words: learn from your past and be alert as well as prepared.
I met Dale when I produced his band NUMM in Minneapolis, just a few months after Megadeth disbanded. I was still in a career and financial free-fall after the band ended, and I had reached out to literally everyone I had ever met in the business, asking for a job or a job lead or just some way to get back on my feet again. We had made a lot of money over the years as a band, but we still had debts, outstanding bills, a