• Home
• Subscribe
• Store
• Service/FAQ

---

All Pages |  1  |  2 

Former Megadeth bassist Dave Ellefson has formed a new band called F5. Says Ellefson: “I love the big guitars from some of the European and thrash 80’s metal era but the modern tunings F5 use certainly makes the group much more contemporary without sounding nu-metal or dated either… I’d say that creatively I’m having some of the best times of my life right now and it’s a cool thing for me now that I’m stepping out and playing with a variety of different musicians…While I don’t consider myself to be a Christian artist, I am an artist who’s Christian and have been my whole life. Hopefully my actions will represent that and I will be able to walk that talk.” The album should be released by press time. Following is an interview HM team member Tim Hallila did with Ellufson.

Could you describe your journey of coming to faith in Christ, and what inspired that search?
“My faith has been with me from birth really as I was baptized in the Lutheran Church when I was an infant and raised in that setting my whole life. My family went to church on Sundays, my dad was on church committee’s, my mom sang in the church choir and I was confirmed as a teenager, too. In fact my mother’s Wurlitzer organ was my first musical experience and how I learned to play.

With that said though, we weren’t religious zealots by any means but rather just a normal part of a Midwestern USA family culture. I certainly don’t look at myself as a “born again” or anything like that because my faith is just a simple thing I try to incorporate into the life of me and my family.

I will say that my adult religious beliefs were strengthened once I got cleaned up off dope and booze back in 1990 by way of 12 step programs. That really brought me back to putting God at the center of my life again and as a result I experienced the best years of my career, too. That was paramount for me because being 25 years old, and playing in a metal band, God was certainly not considered “cool” and is still not something most metal fans want to have their hero’s proclaim in public! However, the reality is that even in my days of drug use, for me from age 15 to 25, my Christian upbringing always haunted me a bit because I knew I was doing the wrong thing living that lifestyle. Fortunately, getting cleaned up seemed to be in the cards for me so I’m glad I was able to get thru it because so many people don’t seem to be able to make it thru that. At the end of the day there is no escaping God’s will… he will always win!

Then, once I started to have a family of my own I started to think about what setting my wife and I were going to raise our kids in especially for discipline and a benchmark for what is right and wrong. I guess I started to emulate my parents in that sense since I saw their Christian upbringing with me to be very beneficial.

Then a funny little “God shot” happened to me back in 1999, when I was recording in Nashville. My kids were real young at the time yet it seemed like all signs were pointing for my family to get more involved in church activities and I couldn’t help but take notice. In fact, it seemed just plain unavoidable. It started one night when I was getting a massage after a long day in the studio and the masseuse asked me out of the blue “Are you Christian?” This caught me off guard because I wasn’t used to people being so open about faith issues so I answered “Yes”, but it rattled my cage a bit. Then, a few days later, on the last day of my bass overdubs for the session, Whiteheart guitarist Billy Smiley stopped by the studio to see his buddy Dann Huff (the album’s producer) and he and I hit it off immediately. He said he was moving out by me soon in Scottsdale, AZ and suggested we hook up on some projects together, which we’ve now done with a few things including the recent Scott Wesley Brown and Symphony in Red albums.

Finally, I called home to tell my wife about all this bizarre “Christian stuff” that was happening to me and she said, “Well, that’s funny because the music leader at the new church we’ve been attending just called and asked if you could sit in and play bass with the band this week because their bass player can’t make it.” At that point I said, “OK God, I get the hint!” It’s funny how God gets our attention and this time it was delivered to me through music.

It’s kind of ironic now because our kids attend a small Lutheran elementary school and our family has taken up membership there in the church so basically I’ve come full circle. My kids like the community they have with their school, and that church, so I go with the flow on that one. The Christian influence in their lives is definitely noticeable and something I hope we can continue for them and our family.

If you don't mind, could you talk about your relationship with your former bandmates in Megadeth, especially Dave Mustaine?
“I’ve recently worked with Chris Poland, Nick Menza, and Jimmy DeGrasso over the last few months, which was fun as they are cool guys and great players. I also stay in touch with Marty Friedman, Al Pitrelli and have spoken to Jeff Young and Chuck Behler in recent years, too. I don’t really have any contact with anyone else.

Do you have a nice tour schedule lined up to promote the new album? What can fans expect there?
“At this point we don’t have a formal tour booked because the album is due to release this summer and it doesn’t make sense for us to go out and play until people can actually buy the album and know the songs first. Shows should follow the release of the album as we did a few last year that were fun and very well received.

F5 is a much different band than my previous one, and it should be. Bands are really a culmination of the players, writers, performers and personalities involved and F5 truly captures all those elements.

I will say F5 is certainly one of the tightest, most powerful bands I’ve had the pleasure of being in and live it really sounds huge!”

NEXT PAGE
All Pages |  1  |  2 

Return to Internet Exclusives

---