Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine has revealed that fired bassist David Ellefson's bass tracks from the band's upcoming 16th album will be removed. The tracks will be replaced with new recordings done by his new replacement.
Ellefson was fired last month after a sex scandal, but he had recorded his parts for the band's follow-up to 2016's Dystopia over a year ago.
"I just want to thank you for all the kinds words and support as we get ready for this next tour and continue to hunt for a new bass player," Mustaine said in the latest episode of his "Gimme Radio" show. "We are making progress. The record's being completed, and we're going to have someone coming in in a couple of weeks to replace the bass tracks that we had."
Mustaine said that the process would be "relatively quick" as the person they plan to replace Ellefson with is a "stellar" musician.
"Hopefully this will be an ongoing thing after the recording. Or we will find someone prior to the recording that will be our permanent guy going forward," he added.
Ellefson was dismissed from the band late last month after sexual messages and explicit video clips involving the bassist were shared on social media. Ellefson, who co-founded the group with Mustaine in 1983, has denied allegations on social media that he "groomed" an underage fan. He later filed a report alleging unlawful distribution of sexually explicit images by unknown offenders.
(Photo: Carter Sterling)
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
Entertainment News
May 22, 2026 14:46 ET Minutes of the latest Fed policy session was the highlight of the week along with survey data on the U.S. housing market. In Europe, survey data signaled the trends in the euro area private sector. Further, consumer price inflation data from the U.K. was in focus. In Asia, various economic indicators from China drew attention to the health of the economy.