David Ellefson Plays “(Anesthesia) – Pulling Teeth” on No Life 'Til Leather

0:04 Hi, you have done to censure Wow for you you. This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man W four c Y Radio. And I'm pretty excited about our next interview here because we're going to talk about a great new album coming out. That's a compilation album and one of the best bases out there. I don't think anybody else could pull off pulling Teeth. And this guest right here, David Ellison, how's it going.

0:58 Hey, it's it's going well. Man. Thank you for your kind words. Yeah, like I think it takes a lot of balls to try to pull off. Cliff Burton and you did it masterfully. Well, thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah, it was not something to go into lightly. You know. It's like playing Jocko Pastorius Birdland or Eddie Van Halen eruption. You know, there's just some things that are like you don't just caval literally like walk into it. Sure, I'll do that, you know, you know, but uh, you know, to whom much is given, much is expected, right, So you know I I you know, I honestly, when Silver Linings Records came to me about it, I was kind of like, are you sure, I mean, really, it's like, can't you ask Geezer or Steve Harris or you know, It's like, you know, I was just like going, you know, I just like, look me and Cliff, you know, I mean, look, Cliff joined Metallic in what December eighty two. We started Megadeth June eighty three, so you know, I was six months behind them. Obviously, Metallic it was already a force to be reckoned with, and we were starting Megadeth from the ground up. But you know, Cliff and I were friends, and you know, we play very different, you know, and you know, so I was just kind of you know, asking, and they said, no, like you're the guy, like you you are the guy we want to do. What There's a list, you know, like if I was like, I'm too busy, it was like there was a list. Like

2:29 they really they were very focused on who they wanted to do the songs, and they wanted me to do this one. So I thought, okay, this is one where you just you step up. And you know, I sat here in this very room, you know, with my Jackson basses plugging in, just going all right, like we're how do I get into this song? Right? Because it's it's a unique creation, right, It's not only as it's a very expressive piece. And as I watched a bunch of video clips, you know that there's the nucleus of the of the composition. But you know Cliff would take some liberties and go off and add lib a little bit, and you know, some days, if it was a big festival like that day on the Green Thing, he was pretty aggressive and getting you know, pretty wide with it as we would, you know, in front of that kind of a crowd. But for the most part, you know, it's a composed piece. So I hit up my friend James chen Over at aria Pro who I had met at NAM a few years ago, and Ray Burton was Derek Cliff's dad, and they were rolling out the new aria Pro Cliff Burton signature model, which is a beautiful, very nice instrument. Ario Pro makes some really good quality stuff and it was neck through. It had a lighter gauge proto sound round round strings on it. They also distribute the Morley Cliff Burton signature Wallah the distortion wah wah pedal, which is a big signature of Cliffs and for sure is the drive of this whole piece. This

4:02 anesthesia pulling tee piece right. So once they kindly sent me all that stuff because I told him what it was for, and they were super excited. They sent me the whole package. I opened it up, I plugged it in here, and as soon as I had it, I heard the distortion and I was like, ah, all right, this isn't going to be so hard after all, you know, because it isn't. This one wasn't just learning the notes. This was getting inside the song and really, you know, becoming part of it, which I think you really have to do in any song. You know, if I'm going to play an Iron Maiden song, it's like, okay, let me think like Steve. Let me think like a writer, a bass player, a performer, you know, you kind of visualize who he is or Geezer, you know, in any of your heroes, Gene Simmons, you know what I mean, put yourself on seven inch platforms. You're ready to breathe fire.

4:51 That's how you play the Slide and Cold Gino, you know what I mean. It's like you're ruling the earth as the god of thunder, you know. So you know, you have to get into the character of the person because the song is just an extension of the character. So this song is just an extension of Cliff Burton's character. And you know, to some degree, you kind of got to dress the part, look the part, play the part, you know, in order to really execute it properly. I think, well, what I loved about too is you definitely did justice, but you also gave a little bit your spin on it, and I think that's important. You know, you can't just I think anybody that tries to play it exactly like the original person, you're never gonna like match that because you're not that person. So it's cool that you delved in and you got the spirit of the Cliff, but then you added the David to it to make it unique.

5:49 Yeah, I mean, thank you for that. And I agree. I watched some YouTube clips and there's some of these, you know, very educated musicians who could really break it down. They had manuscript on YouTube so you could watch, you know, the little bouncy ball on the notes, and you know, and I'm like thinking, man, these guys, you know, these are very educated, studied players, you know, who can do this kind of stuff. And you know, I've been more of an artist and a performer as a bass player. You know, I'm not so much of a professor in that respect. So I watched those guys that I went, I'm doomed, you know what I mean, because you know there's guys, there's guys that you know, don't look the part, but they can sit there with their bass up by their gin and play the part pretty much perfectly, you know, And I'm like, sounds pretty good. But you know, I had the advantage, you know. I went. I was in Europe last year, twenty twenty four, and I went down to see Metallica in Munich and I got some time with Lars after the show and I told him about this cause I said, look, when I go home here next week, I'm going to be going into this this session and recording this. And he even said, he goes, now, that's it's kind of weird, like, you know, you're a pick player and clips of the figure guy and you guys play very differently. I said, I know, I tried to tell them this and they won't take no for an answer, you know, and thank god they didn't. But you know, so he you know, he he gave it his blessing and he's just like, well, he goes you know what, make it your own, you know, and you know Lars, you know is you know, he is the masterful composer, you know what I mean? And I thought, look,

7:19 you know he was in a band with Cliff. He knew Cliff is a person, a bandmate, a bus mate, you know, a backstage drinking beer, eating off the deli trade mate. You know, he really knew Cliff, and you know, so to get to get his blessing and so and wasn't this his blessing? But it was also sort of a creative you know, he's the maestro of you know in a sense, you know, Metallica. And so it's like, okay, what, maestro, any any suggestions to me? What what do you think? You know, how would you approach this? You know? And so it it. It helped to get you know, not only his blessing on it, but sort of give a little creative direction, even if it was just make it your own, which, as you just brought up, kept me from having to be so tied perfectly to it. I better get every bend and every note, or some guy in Ohio or some guy over in Turkey is gonna be up my ass about how I messed it up, and and and so one of the things I did is, you know, there's some other riffs of Cliff that I think are very definitive. You know. For me, of course, it's peace Cells. That's my riff, right, that's my star that was blessed upon me in the musician you know, you know, Geezer is the guy, you know, but and I you know a bunch of stuff, right. So you know, Steve Harrison has got you know, wrathchild Killers. So we all kind of have our identified signature riffs, right, And so I thought about Cliff's signature riffs, and of course there's several inside of this piece of music with anesthesia,

8:52 but I also thought, look for whom the bell tolls, that's that's his peace cells, right, that's kind of our you know, when you hear whom the bell toll, that's that's really his riff. Right. The other one is that I really like is Oriyan. You know that I love that, and Master Puppets is really one of my favorite metal records and one of my favorite Metallica records. Right. So, and I got to talk with Cliff a bit and there on tour with Ozzie Me and Dave went to go see them Michael Ilago, who had signed them to Electra Records. We were in town. Michael was courting me and Dave to sign Mega to Electra Records, and it didn't go that way. But we went over to see Metallica.

9:35 They were, you know, it was a big tour of them supporting Ozzy on a Master Puppets tour, and I got to chat with Cliff a little bit about some of his composing on Master Puppets, and then you know, of course, sadly he wasn't but a few weeks or a couple of months later he was. He was gone, you know, so you know, to just you know, I mean, Cliff and I never sat down with basses in hand and sort of browed down or anything like that, but uh, you know, you know, just just chatting as fellow musicians, fellow bass players, et cetera, seeing him perform a bunch. You know. Again, it was about just sort of cat who is the entity? And that's why I said, you know, in the little video that I shot when I did the play through, I said, this is my homage, you know, this is my homage to clip So to me, I kind of tried to make it even a little bigger than just anesthesia pulling teeth. I tried to make it really more of a you know, a salute you know, to him as an artist, and try to include a bunch of his music inside of that performance.

10:39 I love it, and you know, based on everything you're saying, I would have had a question before that I don't have now. And that is why silver Lining Music picked you and you were to want. You were the only one. I think everything you said is the reason they did. They wanted somebody I think a little different, but that's going to take it seriously. They didn't want somebody just gang up there and copy cutting. That's that's what I got out of the whole conversation is like David will put his own spin on it, make it unique, but he'll also study Cliff to make sure there is homage paid to him.

11:20 Well cool me, I know, I guess so I guess that. I mean the people at several Lightings are wonderful. Uh. They've got tremendous artists on their label, you know, with Saxon and your Eye Heap and you know bands I love. I love the bands that are on this record. You know, I mean as soon as they said Saxon and Testament and on the Almighty, I'm like done, say no more, what song do you want me to do? Of course it would have to be that one, you know, but uh but no, you're you're you're right. I think this is you know, they did a great job with it, and and it is funny that you know, there's there's history around this whole no life to letther thing. Of course, me being in Megadeth with Mustain, you know, which was recorded demo that he was on, you know.

12:04 Then which I have. It's great. I love it, I love and I love Ron McGovney. I mean really, you know, I got to know Ron McGovney as a person. We used to go down to Orange County and go Drake beer with him and his girlfriend and have like parties, have parties down in Orange County with Dave and his buddies, you know. So I got to know him personally and have remained you know, friends with him. But more than that, as a bass player, I got to know his basslines throughout those songs. And I remember when excuse me, when Kill them All showed up a h at the apartment there where me and Dave were living, and you know, we sat and studied. Of course, Dave was studying more kirk Havit's guitar solos and already, but I was, I was paying attention to Cliff, and I went, you know, I would have probably done that too, you know, to slow the mechanics, you know, which was renamed four Horsemen, to slow it down and then be able to play that, but baka deca deca deca, deca, dega da da da da, you know, to play that bass riff along with it.

13:10 Ron mcguvney didn't do that. He played more kind of like Ian Hill. He played a straighter you know, writing the e string. Of course the song with the tempo was much faster on the No Life to Leathers, so demo, so I can ab the two right. And to me, I was listening, okay, what did Ron do? What did Cliff do? You know? And and just as a bass player, as a fan now learning this new genre of music that Dave is a part of, and it's going to be, you know, sort of the bedrock upon which we're going to start our new band, Megadeth and build you know, our our empire upon that. You know, I was. You know, I wanted to take the time to study that because you got to realize the eighties, especially that era, you know, was a lot of left hand fingerboard acrobatics. You know.

13:58 Of course Billy Sheen was just in not even human the stuff he was doing. Right. So, you know, I spent a lot of time in Minnesota growing up studying these guys all this stuff. You know, l Dmola as a guitar player. His guitar playing came into my bass work. You know, that really fast saccado left hand, your right hand, you know, plectrum mark that he that he does. Obviously, Jocko was essentially Jocko was to the bass world what Eddie van Halen was to guitars, you know, he he I mean really he was more of a Jimi Hendrix, I guess, you know, just turning the bass, the sort of conservative stand in the back, you know, be this guy Jock go's up front. You know, like I guess maybe we're like Hendricks lighting his bass on fire and you know, just being a maniac. You know. And even though it was jazz and I was, you know, a rocker in a metal head. I borrowed from everybody, you know, so as I was hearing that that Clifford had spent some time in college or something or taking a course on some classical music, you know, I listened to it.

14:59 And even though those are pigiar rissa, dude, do do do do do do do? You know, those are kind of some it's kind of the entry way into some of that type of playing. So when I heard cliff doing and I'm like, all right, so we've all we're about the same age. He was a little older than me, I guess three years three four years older than me. But again we'd all kind of come into you know, music, you know, through some of this these same records, you know, and you know, so I was always looking for I always looked for the little details that set somebody apart and give them their unique character and their unique voice. I think that's a big thing of the metal of the eighties, to be honest. I was talking about that recently. Like, take a lot of these new metal bands, they kind of use this like I call it an algebraic equation because they use this like formula, and nobody had a formula back then, you know, And that's why you take the Big Four, none of you guys sounded the same.

15:59 You know. It wasn't like, oh, they're for the same type of band because they're in the same genre. Really it was like four totally different bands in a close miss of the genre. You know. Yeah, I would agree, And and you know, I think with meganev having Garciamerson and Chris Poland for our first recording lineup, really, you know, raised the bar because again I understood what jazz what a Guard and Chris were doing with jazz music because I had studied, I'd played in jazz band in high school. I had a trombone player buddy of mine from jazz band and orchestra band who was really into spiral gyra and uh, you know weather Reports. We went to go see weather Report.

16:45 It was right after Jocko and Peter Erskine had left the band. It was Omaha Kim and Victor Bailey, God Rest his Soul, who I got to meet years later at Berkeley College through my friend Steve Bailey. So even when I go to Berkeley College, what I've been hired in there for things, I can speak their language. I understand the language. You know, even Nick Menzo's Daddad Menza, you know, is a just a badass icon, not just as a woodwind player, but as a writer and a ranger. He wrote, and he wrote one of Buddy Rich's biggest hits. He was an arranger for Buddy, for Louis Belson, you know. So he worked with the you know, the fathers of the band Toto. He worked with them in their generation, you know, writing and you know, we're talking about trying to do a documentary on him because I think he you know, he that's a whole other world of where that you know, where this all this stuff goes to. Right, So, you know, different genre, but you know, even inside you know, even inside the Big four let's call it, right which you know, let's call it the early thrash team, because really ect of this was just as much a part of this. They were really the drivers of this whole thing by the time, you know, now knowing the history and you know, friends with Gary Holt, you know, and of course Kirk Camick comes from Exodus, you know what I mean. So, but Exodus was really they were kind of the the pillar, you know, of the Bay Area scene, right and even though their band didn't reach the commercial success and they're obviously they're doing great and doing better

18:18 than ever now. You know they you know they you know, Carrie King looked to them, We looked to them. Obviously Metallica look to them because they grabbed their guitar player, you. Know what I mean. They were they were this band of our genre, you know, and even looking behind you, you get your No Life to Leather album cover up there for this album that we're talking about. You know, even even that, there was kind of two Metallica's well there was probably three. There was kind of the original one. Then there's the version when Dave was there for I don't know, I say I called a year and a half in the life of Metallica, right, and then you know everything after, you know, when they moved on, as as the recorded version that they are so, you know, and Megadeth had the same thing. You know, we had that early version with Carrie King and Lee Roush where we debuted the band. And even before that, it was my friend Greg Handob Dejon Carruthers. You know, Greg Hannoba was very much a voice and founding member of Megadeth. I mean, I've had him on my podcast and you know, he really lays out the reality of you know, how things really went down and him naming the band and all this kind of stuff. So but by the time you know, eighty four comes around, we finally record our first album, Killing is My Business. You know, by that point we've already been through. That was really kind of our third lineup, right, But the one that gets recorded, that becomes even by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's definition, that becomes the downbeat of the group,

19:50 you know, as a as a recorded lineup. So you know that that is I think that's kind of where, you know, you drop the gauntlet totally. And to your point about Exodus too. I went to one of those first actually probably the first, but one of those first Metallica shows, and I met Dave because like they played, I can't remember if it was The Troubadour, the Country Club or whatever. And he comes off the stage afterwards, starts talking to me and hands me his business card. I wish I still had it today. People straw that no, I was a teenager. I like, what the fuck do I need this business card for? But it said Metallica, power Metal, Dave Mustain, So it's like it's they were power metal for a minute.

20:44 Because there was no. Thrash except for Exodus, Like Exodus was considered the thrash, you know, and it's it's kind of funny how it all went. And then, you know, once Metallican Slayer left LA and went to the Bay Area, and I cursed them out because then I had to hitchhike up to the Bay Area for real shows. But it was a different story because, like I saw a Slayer striper open for Slayer as an example, because they had nobody to play with. Nobody had anybody to play with. But that's what's cool about this album and what silver Lining Music did, because there's a lot of these like compilation Metallica albums, but I think this one hits spot on because you're bringing people from then, from that scene.

21:32 Then, Like I was at the show. Where Metallica first opened for Saxon in LA and I was talking to John Gallagher yesterday. I was like, you know, that was the first time. I saw you guys live, because I saw you with Metallica at the country club, you know, way back. And so to me, this this compilation represents kill them All for sure. You know, I completely agree. I think they did a great chow pulling the right people in and the Almighty, who really are kind of were the newbies, if you will, right because because I remember, you know, we would always take them on tour. We had the same agency, and he also books Metalicaan and Your Maiden and stuff. So but you know, you know Ricky Warwick, you know, who then went on to sing with Blackstar Writers and to essentially filled the shoes of Phil Innott, you know, for Finn Lizzie and all that kind of stuff. I mean, look truly an artist on his own. You know. The Almighty were one of these iconic They were like a motorhead.

22:35 They weren't a thrash band. They weren't. They were a little more than a rock and roll band, but there was somewhere in between, kind of like a motorhead, you know, and of the nineties, right, They really kind of anchored the nineties. So no, I totally agree, And I love I love the denim vest, the patches. I mean, you just look at it and it's like you're at Vakin or something. You know, It's like it's it's it's just it says everything it needs to say about it. So I was I was really proud to be a part of this. And you know, like I said, my my felt my role was was to not only you know, be part, be part of this this offering, but but you know, again shine the spotlight on Cliff and it.

23:19 You know, it is interesting that it's called no Life to Leather. It's a tribute to Kill Them All because again, that was exactly the the era those few months you know, Dave's out of Metallica, we start Megadeth and then Kill them All comes out. So I mean, this is my exact era right here where I got introduced to all these guys. Why you should be on the album? Yeah, I give you that me. It made sense. And this is why you know, record companies, you know, they often know what they're doing, so you know, this is one of those just say yes, you know, and uh let them depart and go. So well, I'm glad you did because you definitely paid homage to Cliff and it was brilliant. Your version is brilliant and I love it. And thanks for you know, creating all this great music for all these years, and thanks for being on the Adventures of Pipe Man.

24:13 You're welcome, beed good to chats you. Thank you for listening to The Adventures of pipemin on w for Cui Radio