 This is Neil Turbin, you're watching The Metal Voice. Look who we have here. We got the man from the Big Four, Dave Ellison from Megadeth, and Jeff Young, the Megadeth and Kings of Thrash, now Kings of Thrash, and also Deep, right? Diet, yeah. Diet, I'm blurring my English still. Mr. German. And it would be Deep. OK, well, yeah. Right now you're talking about the I before E, the E before I, right? Right on. But by the way, I keep seeing you are a member of the Big Four, you are a recorded member of Anthrax. Well, yeah, that's true. You are one of the Big Four. I played with him. Don't ever forget that. Thank you. And I played with Jeff before. So was Jeff, he's one of the Big Four. He played with the Randy Rhodes Remembrance, yeah? Yeah, so funny thing with that was that Jeff and I, we stayed in touch. In fact, we actually ended up on stage at our Ronnie Montrose Remembrance Show, like, I don't know, five, six years. Was it, yeah, seven years ago, whatever it was. I look over, there's Jeff, and we give a hug, and I play bad motor scooter or something. And then when we started doing the Nick Menza documentary in 2022. That was one of my questions. Yeah, yeah, we started that January, and Jeff kindly put together the facility for us, the one of his friends for us to do most all of the interviews. And then we went to dinner at the Rainbow one night, and he starts humming a riff from 1988, that we're, you know, was kind of in the mix for the next album. And I was like, dude, I totally remember that riff. And because it had this kind of, it's in seven or something, right? It's like an odd time thing, so. I'm lucky I remembered that riff. I know, you did. He sang it to me. Dude, remember this riff? No, I'm gonna get down, I'm gonna get down. I went, ah, I totally remember that riff. So that became a song called Bridges Burnt, that we actually played on Kings of Thrash tour a little bit a year ago. But yeah, and then like, I don't know, two months. So we went to the studio, actually, with Mike Heller, who plays drums at the Lucid, is Raven, and everything. And Jeff and I just threw out four songs in a couple of days. I mean, it just, they just fell out, you know? And that started really us connecting about some new music. And then Jeff, he hit me, he goes, dude, they're doing a tribute to the big four at the whiskey of the ultimate jam. You want to come out? So I did, we jumped up and I said, only if we can play Mary Jane is like, you know, that's kind of this deep cut. And I know the fans have been craving these deep cuts. So we did. We did Mary Jane. Yeah, we did Mary Jane. Mary Jane in my darkest hour, which is a crowning song for Jeff, his guitar work on that song, and it was a single and everything. So that, and then really right after that, like after that night, we just, wow, this is cool. Chas Leone was our singer that night. And the funny thing with Chas is I did a book signing down at Warwick's in La Jolla. And La Jolla, California. And Chas's band, Woke Up Dead, it was making a tribute band. Was out in the sidewalk playing and I went out in a gym and sunked with them, right? Awesome. So it's, you know, it's, I just, you know, it's like when people say, are you going to Nam or not going to Nam? Or, oh, I'm not going. It's like, man, you're missing out, man. Get in the room, be part of the action. You know, and I think that's me and Jeff's story. You know, it's like, we just say yes to stuff. Here we are at Nam. We're at the whiskey, we're in a movie. Just say yes to the old turban. Here we are. What a nun. Do you ever miss you, begging to have a beer man? Do you ever miss something? No, no, absolutely not. But as far as, as far, no, he has not reached out. As far as, of course. I mean, look, it's my band too. I helped start it, right? So, you know, it's, yeah. So, you know, but, but let me be clear. There are things about it, of course, that I miss the fans, the performances, the shows. And I enjoy the touring. I like, I'm a road warrior, man. My, I'm a wanderlust guy. My, my, my fortune in life is out there. Not just sitting at home. You know, I've tried that and I get bored after about a month, you know? I'm a shitty, I'm a shitty golfer and I can't serve for the damp. So I may as well play, stay on the road and play, you know? So, but yeah. So it, so look, there's, of course, there's things about that. And, you know, the big gig and everything, but you know, meganeth was not always a big gig. It was, we started where everybody else starts, you know, it was ball gigs. So I've known it from the bottom to the top and everything in between. And, but, you know, honestly, as the tides turn and as things go, I mean, I'm super happy and very content with everything I'm doing now. You know, I always say I make the music I like with people I like. To me, now at my age, at this point, I've already got the Grammy, I'm good, you know what I mean? So for me that, those are the things that are more important to me now at this point in my life is enjoying what I do and who I do it with. You're, you know, a very active business man for a long time. He's always been consistent. Jeff and I were both raised, ironically, in families that had successful businesses, you know, and we were raised in families that understood that, were more sophisticated, I think, kind of financially, out of think like that, and we were raised like that, you know, that's, it really is because, you know, first of all, it takes away the rebellion aspect that you have to rebel against something. And look, that makes for great rock and roll too, you know. But, you know, I think Jeff and I, we're both guys that pursued music because it was a love, it was a passion. We love the music, we love, you know, all that goes with it. But it wasn't like we had some axe to grind against, you know, the school and the police and our mom and dad, you know, and all that. So that just, I don't know, I think it makes for, in the long game, that makes for a different outcome. In the short game, the rebellion pays off well. In the long game, I think, I'm glad I have it the way that I've been blessed to have it. Excellent. So with regards to the Nick Hansen movie, sir, a title chord that I'm missing. Yeah, it's called This Was My Life, the story of Nick Mensa. And when, what do you, can we expect that might be coming out, you know? We're hoping for a summer release. Right now, we're literally just shopping the distribution for it right now. Okay. And why should people see it? You know, because it's the story of Nick. And obviously, look, 10 years of that is megadeth. That's the fireworks. That's the big attention getter. But, you know, Nick has such a great story growing up in a very musical household. His dad being a, you know, he's not known to mental heads, because he's a sax player. He's a woodwind player. But in that world, he's the guy. I mean, he is the Jimi Hendrix of that world, you know, first chair with Buddy Rich, Louis Belson. He's had his own bands. You know, he's- Way to back. He's a fantastic musician. And so, you know, Nick growing up in that, you know, Nick is a real character. He's a lovable, likable guy. I think when you see the movie, it feels like Nick is sitting right here in the room with you, watching it. Well, I remember when we were at, we did a trade show at the conference. We saw what? It was in the Rock and Roll Autograph Show at Weston, in the X. I remember that, yeah. He was there, yeah. And it's able to read next to it. Well, I think Chris Hall was, Nick was. Yeah. You know what's interesting, you say that. So one year, it's called 2013. Hall, the next hall over here at NAMM is the Trump Hall, right? I walk in, I see Nick, I'm like, whoa, hey dude, what's happening? It's right around this exact same time. Then I think after that, we did the Autograph Show. The next year, 2014, I see Nick and I'm like, listen, things have shifted inside of Megadeth. You're gonna get a call. And I don't know if it's for a gig, I've played a song, but you're gonna get a call for something. And then sure enough, later that year, you got the call. And there was this sort of attempt to try to put together this rusty, we just lined up for you and you did it. And it wasn't meant to be. And truthfully, Nick had sort of matured into a different guy. His chops and playing were very different. You know, to go out and do these big gigs on that level, you have to really train to be an athlete here. And it hurts drummers the worst. Me and Jimmy DeGrasseau had a chat about this some years back. It beats drummers up first, you know? It's very physical. It takes its toll. And, you know, any drummer that can survive for the decades and turn into these legacy bands is a special thing, you know, because it beats them up. I don't wanna leap jump out. Yeah, no, please, please. On what's the question? In terms of, you know, just the physical demands of being involved. Lately, lately what I've been doing, because I've been hanging out in Phoenix, I go up in the canyons and they're not manicured like Fryman or Runyon Canyon. They're kind of rocky. Not so rocky, you gotta climb or hold on, but I take my guitar and I run through the songs, like in kind of slow motion as I'm hiking, which sure beats, you know, sitting in a chair 14 hours a day. Plus then you get on a stage and it's just like stating on ice. It's just like so simple. So what David said is, you know, so apropos, it's very much, and we're, you know, we're not in our 20s anymore, so we're, but we're still training. You're aware. We're training like we're going to the Olympics before we go out on tour. Last we pay the price. You're very self-aware of the demand. So you're very, I mean, that's brilliant. He told me that, what did I call him? He said, dude, I'm out hiking, playing my guitar, but are you nuts? When I moved, you know, me and Nick Menza used to mountain bike all the time. You got me into mountain biking when I got sobered up in 1990. While we were making rust and peace in between the tour legs, we'd go mountain biking up in the Hollywood Hills and probably those same canyons Jeff was just talking about. And then I moved to Arizona and I go on one mountain bike ride and I'm like, holy shit, I got to choose between hitting the cactus or the rock as I'm going down, right? And I just went, fuck this, I ain't doing this anymore. So I stopped mountain biking. I street bike now, right? But I don't, I don't mountain bike anymore. So when Jeff told me that, like, I couldn't imagine like, yeah, cause you're right, slipping on the rocks, the desert rocks. I mean, you know, if you could take it, take an endo, just, just hiking, just normal, looking around. So he's got his guitar. I got the good grip. Yeah. Right off. Yeah. Well, you know, it's funny, on the so far so good, so what tour? We'd work sharing rooms, right? We'd double up. But Jeff and I spent a fair amount of time sharing rooms together. And it was great because it was a very musical environment, right? I learned a lot from Jeff. He showed me some of the licks in, especially in my darkest hour. And, you know, and I, cause I like to play guitar as well. I write better on guitar. So it's like, I learned some, some little tricks and some of the stuff that he, obviously learned at GIT. Cause I was going to go to BIT and I didn't go cause I, you know, met Dave. And sort of like the opportunity was there to go, do what I really wanted to do, which was, you know, let's head to the top of the hill of rock stardom, right? So that moment showed up. I grabbed it and I went, right? But I've been a lifelong student of the guitar, learning and playing. I play a lot of piano at home. Even if me and my cat are the only two that ever hear these songs, you know, I mean, it's like, but it's, you know, it's just fun to sit down and do some things, you know, that not just the, more of the same. You know, some days I look and I go, I don't want to go in that room and write another song on the guitar. So I'll just go over, sit down on the piano, walk her out singing, you know, with the dia thing. I started singing. Yeah. And, you know, the producer, Christian Cole, was here yesterday. And I give him total credit because I can sing and I can write lyrics, I can put it together. But, you know, when you're on the mic recording, as you know, because you're a singer, to really get the character of a song and to really sell the story of what it is, right? And especially to the audience, in our case, metal, right? I can't do that on my own. I'll be the first to admit it. I need someone, at least at this phase of my singing career, I need someone to really sculpt me and really get me to let that character come out. And I've done voiceover work. I've done all this different stuff, you know. But to sing is a whole other thing. So I enjoyed being trained, sculpted and put into a character, which Christian did. I mean, I give him total credit for helping me get that done. Well, I think it's great for any musician of any kind to be like in basketball with Michael George, it's like an MVP, you can play all the positions. Like if you have a cup of coffee before you get all the musicians, you know those positions. Hey, I learned that from Harley PB when I did artist relations for PB here. Harley had done everything in that company. He hand-wired the first amp. He took it out to sell it. So he was the engineer, the builder, the salesman. He took the money, now he's the accountant, went back, built two of them, sold those two, built four of them, sold those four and that's how we built the company. There's a lot to be said for that. It's something that, hey, someone doesn't show up for work that day and you're short-handed. I mean, it's good to have those. One day we were in a trade show in New York, it was a small little thing, and he was helping put cabinets away into boxes and stuff. He's just helping us out. He probably felt bad for us, right? And it really, I was, we were talking about a box one day, this box sucks. You open it, you pull it out. It's trash, you can't restock. And that really got him. He said, we need to fix that. And I thought about that because my whole life has been owning rock bands, right? Since I was 12 years old, I've owned rock bands, right? And it's the same thing. Unless you've wound the cables and you've duct-taped shit-downs and you've been the guy who's asking the thing and hooking it up and running to the sound board and making sure the light, unless you've done all of that from top to bottom, you really don't know your stage. You don't know your band. You don't know, like Jeff said, learn how to skate on ice on stage. That needs to be that easy and that. I heard a great thing. When I memorize it, it's in my head. But when I know it from part, then I don't even have to think about it anymore because it's in my heart, right? So really know it by heart, you know? That's a very valuable piece of information. Knowing the songs, like half-ass knowing something versus it's, you know, like the Bible in here. Yeah, yeah. Like, do you know the word? Right, yeah, it's dead. You could quote scripture, it's like, you know. It's just my theology right here, yeah. And then when it's music, you could do that. So there's one question I have and I don't want to respect your time, Clint, I know you have plans. Yeah, here we go, yeah. But I wanted to ask you and I was here for your seminar and also you had the doctor here. You listen to what he had to say and also what you had to say about the bass and the way you're holding the guitar about your wrist and everything, the position. Of course, I was thinking about the Le Mans when, you know, you're talking about low to really low. And I always, you know, I have guys that are jazz players or MI players and they're holding it so high, like, see these guys that play bass that's like all the way up from under. And I was noticing that, you know, one of the things that you talked about is that you play with Dick. And I really respect that because I'm a huge Phil Lineth man. Yeah, yeah. And Lizzie, you know, like Phil always has this sound that's like alive and dangerous. It's just right there in the, in the right place. I realized about that. So, you know, one year we had a Metal Legion tour. We booked it. It was right after the New Year, which is like the worst time to book a tour, right? But we had these four shows and one of them was going to be at the whiskey, Lo and Beholds, right after Christmas, Lemmy dies. So they asked us at the whiskey if we would be the house man for the Lemmy tribute. They did the funeral his day of forest lawn. That night they shut down the Sunset Strip. Metal Legion became the house man. We had everybody coming up on stage playing Otterhead songs. So I really had to deep dive some Otterhead stuff. You know what hit me about Lemmy is his, his strumming, he placed the bass like an acoustic guitar. You know, like, like, it's like, right? And I was a worship leader in church for a few years, right? So I really learned, I studied a lot of these big Christian artists that really know how to bead. Cause I would try to lead from a bass position that was harder, like the sting thing versus grabbing a guitar. It could be more musical. I could sing better. And then moving into Lemmy world, I realized it's like this kind of cool by, strumming by the campfire. And when I, when it hit me, I made his thun. I totally thought Lemmy's whole thing, right? That that's what it is. And that's why he plays kind of one, five power chords. And the guitar is a secondary kind of thing on that, in that band, right? It's a lead guitar, it's there, but it's like, it's like John Lord in Deep Purple. We all thought it was Richie Blackmore who played the heavy shit. It's John Lord. Na, na, na, na, na, right? His, his sound of that keyboard defined the sound of Deep Purple. Same way Lemmy's bass playing like this kind of acoustic, strumming, cause he's, you know, singing and playing is this deal. Phil and I, it's the same thing. Paul McCartney, as we now know is, was really a guitar player. And they, I think with the coin that he got the bass duties. Some would say the shortest stride, say he won big, but you know. So, you know, people go, oh my God, his bass playing to me, it is, but he's really a guitar player. So he's thinking more melodically, like a guitar player. And he's thinking more, his bass lines are more like a vocalist. He's, he's writing vocal parts. They think like silly love songs. Amazing. It's like one of the best bass lines ever written. I always love that song. They use counterpoint. Yeah. And they're playing, when you're doing that, that's what he's in, intimating his counterpoint, which like finger style and flamenco players, cause you got your thumb to play the bass line and you got your fingers to play the melodies. So you're playing counterpoint, but in Western music and pop, there's not a lot of counterpoint in guitar play. It's a lot of strumming or chunking, right? So you miss that counterpoint thing at the last year, more of a finger style player, which is a really, it's a good point. And Lemmy was really in the rockabilly and that whole thing. You know, Gene Simmons is a guitar player, right? Gene, Gene's a guitar player and a songwriter. So he sings, that's why his bass lines are very, you know, the McCartney's, but they're always moving around, you know, like, you know, the Colt, Gene, Firehouse, all the stuff that he's doing, you know, he's moving around and so to me, these pick players, who cares if it's some fingers or pick or your toes or your teeth? Who gives you shit how you play the thing, right? It doesn't matter, who cares? Because you're conveying the song. It's the message, right? It's the, you know, we have two questions, you know? Really like one, what is the song about? Like we're writing some stuff together, right? We're working, you know, behind the scenes and some stuff and it's always about, you know, you write a lyric and I have to ask myself, what's it about? One question, what's it about? And can you answer it in an interview in like a sentence or two? Ah, it's about this guy and this girl and they went out and they, you know, political retort, whatever it is, your thing is, right? So, you know, it's always about just a simple question, what's the song about, right? And so for me, I'm way less about all the noodley shit. It's just about, can you, does it make sense? If there's any people that like it? I like that line in the purple rate, you know, and the guy, the club owners, like Prince, you're all, your music only makes sense to you or you're the only one who understands just your music. Meaning, I mean, how great it is, if no one can relate to it or understand it, it's basically a bedroom solo project, you know? I mean, it's all it really is. Even if you're Prince, you know, at some point, you gotta open it up to the point that, you know, when you're performing, look, it's real clear, when you perform, are you pushing people, are you making people leave the room or come into the room? Like, that's all that matters, you know? The other night we did a show at the Metal Hall of Fame, when we got on stage, everybody came to the front. Nuff said, that's all that matters, really, right there because, you know, when you're on stage, you're in the service industry, you're like a waiter, hey, here's some songs it ain't about you, it's about them, you know? So be of service, entertain your customers, entertain your fans. Right, you gotta do what's right for that moment. Totally, yeah. Bring it in. Yeah, so people ask me, do you have any advice? It's like, yeah, are you bringing people in or are you pushing them away? There it's pretty simple, right? So I wanna be respectful of your time and also I don't wanna forget one of the most afforded things. I love some coffee, because that's why we have this on the wall. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So tell us about that real quick and what kind of coffee shouldn't you be chying up? Well, that one right over there. No, you know, look, we've got all, yeah, we got, you know, the roasting pieces are, I kinda did, I like, look, it's a Starbucks model, right? It's a light medium dark, right? So I like it, because for me in the morning I like to have a kinda a lighter, because the caffeine's stronger. In the afternoon, when I have a cup, I'll have a darker roast because it has less caffeine and it's richer and it's dark, right? So I kinda go through the spectrum. That's just me personally. So we got a bunch of sale here, you can get it online. EllisonDeporium.com is where all the stuff is, shirts and bases and coffee and whatever else you might need. Well, it sounds great, David. I just wanna say thank you for the fantastic interview you and Jeff. Yeah. I wish you, you know, much success with your, with Kings of Thrash, with eating his diet and savory. Pretty close. Diet brother. Diet. Think Kings English. He dieted quite a lot. Diet. That's, you know, and also hearing that, you know, I mean, obviously you got a lot of folks here waiting for you. So yeah, I'll see you, I'll get back to that. Back to that. Thanks so much. Talk to you. I'll see you, man. A quick idea with metal boys. Yep. Oh, if we do it together. All right. Start it. Let's just go to T.P. Hello, folks, ladies and germs. This is Jeff Young from Kings of Thrash. And. Hi, David Ellison. You are hanging here with us. I'm metal boys.