Jimmy Kay from Canada’s The Metal Voice recently spoke to Former Megadeth Bassist David Ellefson about the release and his partnership of the upcoming  documentary about the life and times of Megadeth drummer Nick Menza. Entitled This Was My Life, Nick Menza’s Metal Memories With Megadeth And Beyond. documentary.

Ellefson also talked about the making of Rust in Peace and his upcoming new Podcast The David Ellefson show.

When asked about the documentary
“Bayview updated the sort of tagline of the film, his life with Megadeth and beyond. I think for me going into it  I just viewed it as this is Nick’s life yeah Megadeth was a part of it but that was not all who Nick was even when I got to know Nick. He came in sort of as an understudy for Chuck Behler  he was on the crew driving the truck you know setting up the drums doing all that sort of biting his time waiting for  his moment when he might be behind the kit. We didn’t even know if that was going to happen or not then one day it did. That was a very rough transition you know because at that time me and Dave were getting cleaned up from our old habits and old ways Nick was new in the bands uh we were just a three-piece, we were continuing to write Rust in Peace we did the Demos in December that year with Chris Poland playing filling in playing some second guitar just to sort of give the the Imaging of two kind of a two guitar Dynamic that Megadath always was. But never with the idea that Chris (Poland) would be in the band. Around the corner into the new year we auditioned Marty (Friedman) suddenly the lineups completed and we’re ready to go take on the world. During that time  Nick was a good friend to me, he helped me get clean, he and our manager kind of had a two-headed attack on how to get the Daves (Mustaine and Ellefson) clean. I always say if a lot of dope and booze doesn’t ruin your friendship, a little bit of sobriety sure will.”
 

When asked if they were clean during the recording of the album ‘Rust in Peace’
“Yes we were clean, Dave (Mustaine) went to rehab one last time as me and Nick were actually putting the drums and bass tracks down. Dave comes back into the studio maybe a month later once he was back in the studio we you know finished the record up.  Some of the greatness of that record was the impulse and the sort of explosive energy that like here we wrote this Record  deep into our addiction and now here we are stone cold sober and anyone who’s gone through that transition knows when you get clean it’s almost like Let The Hulk out of the *** green suit.”

When asked was there a sobriety contract presented to the band
“I remember coming home from the drug dealer at Ron Laffitte  apartment and I was done.  I remember breaking down crying and I just said Ron I need help and he looked at me and he said David  I will help you I will drop everything to help you but you gotta want it I said I want it I’m done. Now it took a few months to turn the corner but that’s when he hired our band counselor John Bocanegra and we would do these band meetings at least once or twice a week. I would see John a couple of times a week myself and he kind of became my sponsor through the 12 step programs and took me through that process and then I got Sober by March 1st and stayed sober ever since. Ron  was mentoring Aerosmith’s manager at the time  who had gotten Aerosmith sober, so it’s kind of a similar Dynamic. It’s like (Steven) Tyler, like Dave (Mustaine) had to be clean like if the top guy ain’t clean it’s just we’re wasting our time but once Tyler got clean now everyone else needed to be clean so you know we went through this process.He even had Ron’s boss bring me in the office one day and say if you use, you lose, you get clean or you’re out of the band. I was pissed off. I kind of got sober out of resentment. It was like I’ll get sober, I’ll show you.There was no written agreement, it was just understood it’s like hey get clean or it’s over. I mean the band can’t work and  we got to be clean.  Marty (Friedman) wasn’t an addict, Nick  enjoyed his beer and couple of bong hits or whatever but he he wasn’t an addict so to speak. So it’s kind of these two new guys coming in with me and Dave you know cleaning it up. The 90s was kind of the sober decade. “

When asked if Dave Mustaine should be worried about the documentary and will it be a fair assessment with his relationship with Nick Menza
“I think it’s very fair and I went to great lengths to make sure that Dave (Mustaine) is viewed very fairly and he’s held in high esteem. There’s absolutely nothing slanderous toward Dave (Mustaine) at all in it. I made sure of that  because you know Dave was my partner during that time and I think it’s fair. Dave (Mustaine) and I always had a saying you know you praise in public you criticize in private.”

Screaming Butterfly Entertainment, in partnership with Ellefson Films and BayView Entertainment, have announced the new date for the red carpet premiere event of the fully authorized Nick Menza documentary, This Was My Life, Nick Menza’s Metal Memories With Megadeth And Beyond. The highly-anticipated event will happen on Thursday, April 10th at the Laemmle Royal theater in Los Angeles, CA. Located at 11523 Santa Monica Blvd. West L.A., CA 90025. Members of the cast and crew will be in attendance for a Q&A session after the screening of the film.

The film is an in-depth exploration of the life of Nick Menza, the former drummer of Megadeth, and one of the greatest thrash metal drummers of all time. It is a collection of stories from his childhood all the way through to the end of his life, recounted by those who knew him best. The documentary, authorized by the Menza family, will be the first to memorialize the drummer’s legacy.

Tickets for the event may be purchased at https://www.laemmle.com/film/was-my-life-nick-menzas-metal-memories-megadeth-and-beyond