Megadeth’s David Ellefson says Satan is “a small fry guy”
As christian as his fellow co-founder David Mustaine, Ellefson finds it weird that bands would take the subject of Satan beyond lyrical entertainment.
Here’s an excerpt from an interview in Goldmine Magazine:
Does your songwriting still match with Dave (Mustaine) nowadays?
Ellefson: We’ll tell, I guess, as we move forward. Sometimes I pick up a bass but right now I’m in performance mode when I pick the instrument up. The other day I was at my house and some ideas fell out. I was in Megadeth but not around Megadeth, so a certain kind of thing came out and it made me go ‘Wow, this would probably work well on a future Megadeth record.’Are you still interested in the same subjects? I mean, are you a fellow Christian?
Ellefson: I am.Oh, okay, so you can still relate to each other as songwriters.
Ellefson: Absolutely. And you know it’s funny with Megadeth, because even years ago Dave would draw from scripture to come up with ideas and they would be very inspirational. It’s interesting. The whole Book of Isaiah, you could write an entire Iron Maiden album out of that, you know. It’s definitely a good source for inspiration. The history books are just ripe soil for writing metal records.There had been too much of an unfair attack on metal in the past, especially in the ’80s, as far as it being Satanic.
Ellefson: It’s funny. Even when the thrash thing started, with Venom and all that, even if you listen to those things, none of those guys were Satan worshipers. They talked about Satan. Worshiping Satan, it’s like, ‘Is that the best you can do?’ He’s kind of a small fry guy. You’re kind of limiting your resources a little bit there, if you go down that road.
Was all that hard work of the PMRC in the ’80s for naught?
Probably so.
