MEGADETH leader Dave Mustaine has released the following statement regarding the return of bassist David Ellefson:

“First, I wanna say thank you to James Lomenzo for his years of faithful and consistent service to Megadeth and to me and to the fans.

James, I love you, and I wish you well in everything that you do.

Now, the most exciting thing I’ve had to say for quite some time…

Like I said at our website, I had a huge announcement to make… It’s David Ellefson returning back to his home, to his roots, to where his partner has been waiting to one day jam with him again, and that wait for me is now over.

We rehearsed and it sounded great. Dave even played on the new track that we recorded for this new project that’s coming up - I’ll be making an announcement soon about what that is. And it just sounded great. He looked great.

We did a photo shoot.

We just had an absolutely wonderful time together, and we just knew it was right.

I don’t know how long this is gonna last - I hope it’s permanent. If it’s just for the Rust In Peace tour I wanna thank David for committing to do this. And I wanna encourage all of you fans, go get your tickets now, because if you miss this, you may never see it again.

I don’t know… you may be the kind of person that’s gonna be able to sit around when you’re 70 and say: ‘Yeah, well, I missed Megadeth twice with David Ellefson.’ That’s OK. I’m not that kind of person. But that’s what makes the world go around.

I hope you take my lead today and you go and spend some time alone reflecting on people that you may need to forgive or that you may need their forgiveness, and see what happens, man.

I feel so great, and I know so many of you feel great, too. And this is all because I was willing to take my hat in my hand and talk with my brother and to work things out.”