Megadeth have officially parted ways with bassist David Ellefson following allegations that he was grooming an underage girl online. In a message on Facebook, Dave Mustaine writes:

We are informing our fans that David Ellefson is no longer playing with Megadeth and that we are officially parting ways with him. We do not take this decision lightly.

While we do not know every detail of what occurred, with an already strained relationship, what has already been revealed is now enough to make working together impossible moving forward.

We look forward to seeing our fans on the road this summer, and we cannot wait to share our brand new music with the world. It is almost complete.

Dave Mustaine
Megadeth
May 24, 2021

After the allegations surfaced, Ellefson shared a post allegedly made by the person he was accused of grooming, which read, in part, “Yes, those video calls did happen, but I was the one to initiate them and never was I underage, I was always a consenting adult. Nothing inappropriate ever happened before that. It was all consensual, I’m not a victim and I have not been groomed in the slightest as I was the one to initiate it.”

Ellefson himself said, “As much as it’s not something I’m proud of, these were private, adult interactions that were taken out of context and manipulated to inflict maximum damage to my reputation, my career and family.”