Metal Anarchy

During a recent interview with Border City Rock Talk, David Ellefson (Dieth, ex-Megadeth, etc.) explained why he tends to tour more in Europe and other territories as opposed to North America. The bassist responded by saying he feels like “rock is dead in America.”

Ellefson said the following:

“Rock is dead in America — it really is. And I know people will lambaste me for saying that, but it is. When [KISS’s] Gene Simmons said it, everybody hated him for it, but he’s right. Unless you’re an established band, unless you’re LINKIN PARK and METALLICA and KISS and SLAYER, whatever, to start a new rock band — kids aren’t into that shit. They’re into Facebook and Tesla. Yeah, their lives are on their phones. Being a rock star is not cool anymore, like it was for us growing up. So, if you’ve got it established, you can keep it working.

So, for me, I enjoy South America, Latin America, [where] they love rock and roll. Asia, Australia. So you leave America and, man, rock and roll is very much alive and well. They champion the legacy stuff, they like new stuff. There’s a lot more… I did a record for Napalm Records, and they had a bunch of new groups. JINJER had just come out. There’s all this cool new stuff, as well as me and K.K. Downing, and legacy artists were putting records out. So I just find that it’s more supportive. And you look at the statistics, like the Spotify numbers, you look at that globally, outside of America, and it’s just stronger. It’s just a different culture. It is what it is.

So I play here in America, of course, too, but I find that outside of the USA, sadly, is where kind of the bread and butter is for that, as far as the bigger interest and the abilities to still keep playing and touring. And they appreciate it. Especially going to a lot of these places in Eastern Europe, the bigger bands, even MEGADETH, you’d play Warsaw, you’d play Bucharest, but you can’t go kind of deeper into the interior to some of these smaller places. And so when I do some of these smaller things, like ‘Bass Warrior’, I can be a lot more nimble and I can kind of go through the cracks and crevices and really go. People, yeah, they love it, man. Where we are here in North America, you get in your car, you drive down a freeway, you go to another town far away to see a concert. It’s not that easy for other people in other cultures. So I feel a privilege to be able to take my music to them.”

[via Blabbermouth]