May 11, 2026
In a new interview with Andres Violante of Rock En La Trinchera, former MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson weighed in on a debate about people using an A.I. (artificial intelligence) music generator as a tool to create melodies, harmonies and rhymes based on artificial intelligence (A.I.) algorithms and machine learning (M.L.) models. Ellefson said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "To me, it's just that — it's artificial. And I don't know how intelligent it really is. It's just artificial.
"People were worried about that with digital technology, making records and recording, and I can honestly say that every record I make, if it's using digital processing, it's still me and our humans performing," David explained. "It's us playing. And that's important, that it's not just stuff taken from somewhere else, that what you're hearing are real human performances. 'Cause it's the human performance that connects with the human listener.
"That's my problem with artificial intelligence, is it's not that intelligent and it's artificial," Ellefson added. "And that's never gonna connect emotionally. You'll never have an emotional connection. Humans connect with each other emotionally, 'cause we're animals. That's why we connect with our cats and our dogs and our birds and our pets, because we have a beating heart, we have a pulse, there's an emotional connection. And things that are created on a computer, they don't have emotion to them. They may be smart, but they don't have heart. And it's the heart that really connects."
Ellefson was originally in MEGADETH from the band's inception in 1983 to 2002, when the group briefly broke up because MEGADETH leader Dave Mustaine suffered severe nerve damage that left him unable to play.
Mustaine reformed MEGADETH 22 years ago. Originally setting out to record a solo album, Mustaine enlisted studio musicians to play on what ultimately became MEGADETH's 2004 "The System Has Failed" comeback album, subsequently recruiting former ICED EARTH bassist James MacDonough to take Ellefeson's place for the album's touring cycle.
Ellefson sued Mustaine in 2004 for $18.5 million, alleging that the MEGADETH guitarist/vocalist 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 most recently fired from MEGADETH five years ago after sexually tinged messages and explicit video footage involving the bassist were posted on Twitter.