On January 26th HAIL! / ex-MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson sat down with Elliot Levin of the New York Hard Rock Examiner prior to HAIL!'s performance at B.B. King Blues Club & Grill in New York City. Check out the interview below.

Ellefson recently checked in with the following update:

"It’s been a busy couple weeks with the HAIL! USA Invasion under way this past month. Starting with a benefit jam for Chi Cheng (DEFTONES) during WNAMM in California and then firing it all up this past week in New York City and Massachusetts for our first ever North American shows with the band. Good times were had with all the guest musicians on the deck, including Phil Demmel (MACHINE HEAD), Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth (OVERKILL), Chris Caffery (TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA / SAVATAGE), Frank Bello (ANTHRAX), Mike Portnoy (DREAM THEATER) and Mark Anthony (THE LETTER BLACK).

For our east coast shows, a full day of rehearsals in New Jersey went real smooth and it seemed like Ripper, Andreas, Portnoy and I had been playing together for years. It fit like a glove. Even though Mike's widely revered as a progressive rock drummer even he demanded a ‘no prog’ rule on this gig, AND he even offered to play only a seven piece drum set, probably his smallest kit in years...amazing! Truth be told, Mike grew up an east coast Thrash fan and he definitely showed his roots as he brought ‘the goods’ on this gig, and offered up a few new songs to the set list as well.

Later that night we went into NYC for a quick slice of pizza and stopped in for an on-air interview with Eddie Trunk at Sirius/XM. We had the fortunate timing of running into ex-IRON MAIDEN singer Paul Dianno, who had just finished his interview with Eddie in the previous hour. We took a nice group photo, which was posted in an earlier blog.

The gig at BB King’s was blistering and a great way to hammer into the east coast…a full two hour set! We had a packed house backstage with a lot of old friends, which reminded me of the good old days at L’Amour in Brooklyn or The Ritz in Manhattan back in the 1980s, shows when everyone on the scene came out for a killer metal gig and a great hang. The whole NY/NJ metal crew was on hand to help celebrate and throw down while we provided the jams.

Onstage, there were some stellar moments in 'Light’s Out' and 'Metal Church' with Chris Caffery, AC/DC tunes with Blitz and even 'Overkill', with Andreas crushing the riffs and Frank Bello slamming on the bass. It was killer! We joked after the show that real true thrash drumming can be brutal and that it'll probably shave a few years off your life if you choose it as a career.... sort of like dog years for a drummer.

The next day, we regrouped and trekked up to Foxboro, MA for our last show in a killer venue called Showcase Live on the grounds of the New England Patriot’s Gillette Stadium complex. We took some killer shots for some magazines and a powerful show followed that night. Ripper was in rare form and the vibe in the room was relaxed and a lot of fun.

So, to all our friends and cohorts here in North America, thank you for coming out to share in the brotherhood of HAIL! More dates overseas to be announced soon at this location."

David Ellefson