In what may be the dumbest thing he’s said in a video chat since he asked a female fan if she wanted to watch him crank his hog, ex-Megadeth bassist David Ellefson lamented that “rock is dead in America.” Now where have we heard that tired ass line before?
This humdinger of a bad take was uttered during his recent appearance on Border City Rock Talk (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). He was on to talk about his recent “Basstory” and “Bass Warrior” tours, but naturally the conversation drifted to the current state of rock in the U.S.A. and why he’s opted to tour outside of his home country.
“Rock is dead in America — it really is. And I know people will lambaste me for saying that, but it is. When [KISS’s] Gene Simmons said it, everybody hated him for it, but he’s right. Unless you’re an established band, unless you’re Linkin Park and Metallica and Kiss and Slayer, whatever, to start a new rock band — kids aren’t into that shit. They’re into Facebook and Tesla. Yeah, their lives are on their phones. Being a rock star is not cool anymore, like it was for us growing up. So, if you’ve got it established, you can keep it working.”
That’s some willful ignorance of some of today’s top metal bands. What about Knocked Loose? What about Poppy? 200 Stab Wounds? Sanguisugabogg? The Callous Daoboys? I mean hell, Greta Van Fleet’s still killing it. Halestorm… Clutch… Alien Weaponry… There are TONS of U.S. rock and metal bands out there having a hell of a time. I’d even venture to say kids are getting into the genre because of their Facebook and Tesla and phones — just look at how Ghost blew the fuck up because of TikTok.
Ellefson went on to explain why cultures outside of the U.S. do better for rock and roll.
“So, for me, I enjoy South America, Latin America, [where] they love rock and roll. Asia, Australia. So you leave America and, man, rock and roll is very much alive and well. They champion the legacy stuff, they like new stuff. There’s a lot more… I did a record for Napalm Records, and they had a bunch of new groups. Jinjer had just come out. There’s all this cool new stuff, as well as me and K.K. Downing, and legacy artists were putting records out. So I just find that it’s more supportive. And you look at the statistics, like the Spotify numbers, you look at that globally, outside of America, and it’s just stronger. It’s just a different culture. It is what it is.
“So I play here in America, of course, too, but I find that outside of the USA, sadly, is where kind of the bread and butter is for that, as far as the bigger interest and the abilities to still keep playing and touring. And they appreciate it. Especially going to a lot of these places in Eastern Europe, the bigger bands, even Megadeth, you’d play Warsaw, you’d play Bucharest, but you can’t go kind of deeper into the interior to some of these smaller places. And so when I do some of these smaller things, like ‘Bass Warrior’, I can be a lot more nimble and I can kind of go through the cracks and crevices and really go. People, yeah, they love it, man. Where we are here in North America, you get in your car, you drive down a freeway, you go to another town far away to see a concert. It’s not that easy for other people in other cultures. So I feel a privilege to be able to take my music to them.”
I don’t know. Maybe it’s just looking way too into what he’s saying, but I think it’s a little ridiculous to say rock is dead in the U.S. Maybe the rock and metal he’s used to has lost some prominence (though there are tons of modern thrash metal fans that debunk that theory too) but I’d venture to say our culture’s thriving even if it’s not the top dog in the music food chain.
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