David Ellefson

David Ellefson is one of those musicians who quietly holds an entire genre together — the kind of guy where you don't fully appreciate what he does until you imagine the music without him. Growing up in Jackson, Minnesota, about as far from the Sunset Strip as you can get, he somehow ended up co-founding Megadeth with Dave Mustaine and locking in that thunderous low-end groove that made songs like Peace Sells and Symphony of Destruction hit so hard. His bass lines aren't flashy for the sake of it; they're precise, driving, and absolutely essential. The guy went through lineup changes, personal turbulence, and more Megadeth drama than most bands experience in a lifetime — and still kept showing up. For me, he's the unsung backbone of thrash metal's golden era, and that's a legacy worth respecting.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Name (English)

David Ellefson

Name (Japanese)

デイヴィッド・エレフソン

Reading

でいゔぃっど・えれふそん

Born

November 12, 1964 (age 61)

Origin

Jackson, Minnesota, United States

Occupation

bassist / composer / guitarist / musician / executive producer

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Scorpio / Dragon

Filmography / notable works

• Official sitehttps://www.davidellefson.com
• Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/davidellefsonbass/
• Xhttps://x.com/ellefsondavid
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David%20Ellefson
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%87%E3%82%A4%E3%83%B4%E3%82%A3%E3%83%83%E3%83%89%E3%83%BB%E3%82%A8%E3%83%AC%E3%83%95%E3%82%BD%E3%83%B3
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q289647

Tags

• Minnesota
• bassist
• composer
• guitarist

Last updated

October 18, 2026

Only publicly available facts are listed; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Base data was compiled from Wikidata from June 2026 onward; ages are recalculated daily and deaths are checked against Wikidata on an ongoing basis. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.