On the latest episode of “The David Ellefson Show”, former MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson and Joshua Toomey sit down with original MEGADETH guitarist Greg Handevidt for a deep dive into the band’s earliest days. Greg shares pivotal stories from moving to Los Angeles with Ellefson, meeting MEGADETH leader Dave Mustaine and helping shape what would become the legendary MEGADETH.
Regarding how he came to suggest “MEGADETH” as the name for the band, Greg recalled (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): ”We were sitting down in our little apartment, and Dave had read a pamphlet by Senator Alan Cranston talking about the ‘arsenals of megadeath’, and I think that really triggered something in him about nuclear war and just how devastating it was and everything. And I remember thinking, ‘Holy shit, the arsenals of megadeath.’ And he had that line in the lyrics. And it just occurred to me, ‘Megadeath.’ I’m, like, ‘That would be a cool name for a band.’ And I sat down, and at the time — and I still kind of feel this way, although my attitude about it sort of softened — but I was, like, ‘Do you really want the word ‘death’ in the name of your band? Do you really want that?’ It seemed kind of negative-karma-ey to me back then; that’s what sort of was in my head. So I sat down and I just wrote it out as one word and I dropped the ‘A’ out, and I just wrote it on a piece of paper and I was, like, ‘I think this is cool. We could call the band MEGADETH. One word. We take out the ‘A’. It’s unique. It doesn’t have any sort of dark connotation around it. And I think people would see it and not be put off. It wouldn’t put people off.’ And I think at that point in time to break through in a commercial sense without just completely selling yourself out, I think there were barriers that would’ve… I’m not sure Capitol Records was ready to sign a band called ‘DEATH‘ at the time. And maybe, maybe not. But even after all this, and I came back and I formed KUBLAI KHAN and we were shopping demos around, we kept getting stuff back sent to us saying, ‘This is way too heavy. This isn’t commercially acceptable. We can’t sign you. This would never sell.'”
According to Handevidt, Mustaine “didn’t like” the name MEGADETH “at first. It took him a couple of days” to warm up to it, Greg recalled. “And then I remember a couple of days later he came back and he was, like, ‘Yeah, this is growing on me.’ And that’s how it came about. That’s the story. It was a quick little thing.”
In his book “Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir”, Dave actually credited a different former member of MEGADETH with naming the band.
“In the beginning, I was skeptical about my own singing ability, so we brought in a vocalist named Lawrence ‘Lor’ Kane,” Mustaine wrote in the book. “Lor wasn’t in the band long, but give credit where credit is due: it was Lor who suggested MEGADETH as the band’s name. It happened when we were driving around one night, talking about finding exactly the right moniker. Lor knew I had already written a song entitled ‘Megadeath’ and thought it would work equally well as a band name. And he was right. So, thanks for that, Lor.”
Mustaine reportedly came across the aforementioned pamphlet from California Senator Alan Cranston while he was on a four-day cross-country bus ride back to California after he was kicked out of METALLICA. The pamphlet, which was a political discussion of the dangers of nuclear armament, included the line “The arsenal of megadeath can’t be rid no matter what the peace treaties come to.”
Merriam-Webster defines “megadeath” as “one million deaths” and indicates that the term is “usually used as a unit in reference to nuclear warfare.”
In a 2023 interview with Guitar World, Handevidt admitted that “there was some regret” after he left MEGADETH and the band found success without him. “How could I not be upset?” he said. “But we were so young, and there were a lot of things pushing me to leave. I mean… I was a kid, and one big issue was that I had a hard time being away from home. But I won’t lie: there was definitely a falling out, and that was a huge part of why I split. No surprise, Dave got drunk one day and kicked me out of the band while he was angry. He never told me why, and I was just like, ‘Great, now I’m in L.A. with nowhere to go.’ But about a week later, we reconciled things. We rehearsed three or four more times, and then it was actually me who decided I needed to go back home to the Midwest. I found out I had a kid back there, and I felt tremendous guilt about not being in a position where I was doing anything to help raise my kid. Plus, the vibe was off when I was invited back. Had things felt cool, I might have stayed. But that’s not what happened.”
Handevidt went on to say that personality clashes with Mustaine influenced his decision to exit MEGADETH. “Yeah… that’s true, too,” he said. “The thing was, as history has stated, Dave — along with all of us — was pretty overindulgent and aggressive at the time. He had a chip on his shoulder, for sure. While that’s made him great as a songwriter, it made it very hard for me to be in a band with him, especially since I was a kid.”
In February 2016, Ellefson was asked by Cranked Up Live about Mustaine‘s comments to Real Rock 99.3 where the MEGADETH leader implied that Ellefson was not a founding member of the band. Ellefson said: “Now, look, when Dave came home from METALLICA, he had another bass player, kind of a kid he was almost teaching how to play bass, and another guitar player he had been working with a little bit, and a singer, named Lor. And those were kind of the first people that, I think, in April and May of 1983 that Dave was just kicking some ideas around [with], seeing if he could get anything going. But the day me and my friend Greg Handevidt knocked on Dave‘s door and asked him where to buy some cigarettes and beer, that was the day that there was a unity that moved forward, because me, Greg, Dave, that singer Lor and our drummer Dijon Carruthers, who helped create a lot of the lyrics and the concept of ‘Black Friday’ on the ‘Peace Sells’ record, that was… we were the group that were rehearsing for a few weeks, working on these new songs Dave was writing. And one day we came back to… I think it was me and Greg‘s apartment… And it was Greg who suggested… We were talking about band names, and Greg suggested… There was a name kicking around, FALLEN ANGEL, that I think Dave… That was kind of working title that he had. But he had a song called ‘Megadeth’, which was later retitled to become ‘Set The World Afire’. And it was my friend Greg who suggested, ‘I think we should call the band MEGADETH.’ And it was decided that day, so, I mean, technically, whoever was in the room that day was a founding member of MEGADETH. And, again, I don’t know why there has to be so much importance on that. I know, I was there. And quickly, all those other members either scattered or were let go, and within a month or so, it was me and Dave standing next to each other — Dave and Dave of this new group called MEGADETH.”
Ellefson was in MEGADETH from the band’s inception in 1983 to 2002, when the group briefly broke up because Mustaine suffered severe nerve damage that left him unable to play. After Mustaine reformed MEGADETH with an all-new lineup in 2004, Ellefson sued his former bandmate for $18.5 million, alleging that Mustaine still owed him substantial merchandise and publishing royalties. In January 2005, the case was dismissed in court, and five years later, Ellefson rejoined MEGADETH.
Ellefson was fired from MEGADETH in May 2021, just days after sexually tinged messages and explicit video footage involving the bassist were posted on Twitter.
David was in MEGADETH from the band’s inception in 1983 to 2002, and again from 2010 until his latest exit.
