During a recent appearance on the “Talk Louder” podcast, ex-Megadeth bassist David Ellefson’s longtime business partner Thom Hazaert confirmed that the duo recorded an album of all-original material. However, he said it “probably” won’t ever be released.
Hazaert said the following while discussing his initial decision to step away from music following a sex video scandal, which involved Ellefson masturbating with a young woman online:
“I just kind of laid low the last year. I didn’t really fucking do anything. I spent all this time doing all this Ellefson shit that just went in the fucking toilet. I wrote a whole another record. I got an investor to give us a ton of money to pay for ‘No Cover’ [the ELLEFSON band’s collection of covers] and to record a whole another record [of original material]. I spent six months writing that record. I was a little disillusioned so I sort of took some time off from creativity. But now I’m slowly dipping my toe back in.”
He continued when asked if the record will still be released:
“Probably not, unfortunately. I had actually announced, before David’s whole issues last year, literally a couple of weeks before that, on Mark Mendoza’s [TWISTED SISTER] podcast, I had actually announced that [David and I] weren’t working together anymore; we just kind of went our separate ways. I had heart failure a couple of years ago from all the stress and dealing with all the bullshit, and I just was done with it. I died. At that point, you start reassessing relationships and situations in your life. And that’s exactly what I did. Certain things that caused me too much stress I had to sort of just move on from.
But no, unfortunately, I really don’t [think the ELLEFSON album will ever be released]. And the reality is the stuff was too heavy for David. He didn’t like it. David likes JOURNEY; David likes TOTO. And the record, I don’t wanna say it was ‘nu metal’ but it was very contemporary crossed with really heavy GUNS N’ ROSES. The reality is David just never really liked it. It was too contemporary for him; it was too heavy for him. David hates contemporary hard rock; it’s not his thing, really. I think musically, the pages we were on were just different. A cover record you can do, ’cause you’re just doing covers… I mean, it’s fucking awesome — the record [we were working on] is awesome, and the songs were awesome. There were some songs on it that I wrote pretty much straight out; some of it me and him wrote together. Some of it were little parts that he had that Andy [Martongelli, guitar] put together and then I kind of pulled them apart and [reworked them]. It was a lot of work; I put a lot of work into it and a lot of money… Some of the songs, I found out, after I spent tons of money working on them, he went and redid some of them with vocals with somebody else.”
Hazaert went on to say that his retirement statement was just “a venting post on Facebook.” He also added:
“Look, I’m not gonna badtalk anybody, but I moved on from that situation. And I love that record. I love the stuff I wrote with him. It’s literally some of the most brilliant shit I’ve ever written in my life lyrically.
There was so much momentum and so much stuff, and David had his personal things that happened and whatever, which I never commented on and I won’t. That’s between him and his family.”
He also confirmed that he was the one who was mainly responsible for EMP Label Group:
“EMP was just my THC label with a different name slapped on it and David Ellefson’s credibility. It’s all it was. I did all the work. I paid for everything. As much as people say it was David Ellefson’s label, it was my label and you were on the label and you know that. It was a partnership, but I did the work, I kept it alive, I kept it going. And I’m not gonna lie — that’s what fucking killed me. The stress and heart failure, that’s where it came from, man. Just out of my love for doing this and my love for the game.”
[via Blabbermouth]
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