MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson discusses the upcoming Gigantour 2012 in a new interview with Justin Tedaldi at Examiner.com. An excerpt is available below:

Q: Is the timing for this tour experimental in a way? Would you be open to doing more of this closer to the beginning of the year as opposed to the summer?

Ellefson. "It’s funny, even when I came back into the fold back in 2010, what was originally on deck was the American Carnage tour with SLAYER and Megadeth, which was supposed to happen starting in late January, so it’s almost a similar timeframe. We didn’t do Gigantour in 2011—ramping up and getting in the studio to start working on a new album—but these things seem to come around every two years, maybe. So I think to go out now, again, I just think the timing is good. A big package tour like this doesn’t happen until the summer, and then I think people get a little restless, and metal fans, we like to see shows. Some of my favorite shows that I remember growing up as a teenager, they would come through in the summer. In the summertime, people only have so many resources to see so many shows."

Q: MOTÖRHEAD is also on this tour. Do you have a Lemmy story?

Ellefson: "We were going to play Graspop in 2001, I guess, and we were on the bill just above Motörhead. And their bus broke down, so the promoter came to us and said, 'I have a huge favor to ask: would Megadeth please switch on the bill so that Motörhead can get over here with a new bus and get to the show? You’ll save the show for me and allow Motörhead to still play.' And I hadn’t seen Motörhead in many years; we did some shows with them on the Peace Sells tour with them (in 1986) on the West Coast, and we had not played with them other than that.

Our initial reaction was, of course, we’ll do whatever we can. First of all, it’s Lemmy (laughs), and Phil and Mikkey, so whatever we need to do. Because in my opinion, without Lemmy there would be no thrash metal. He’s really the forefather of all things thrash. And so we played our set, we came offstage, and those guys had just pulled up, and they were looking all beat up from being out on the road for so long. They came in, and I’ll tell you what, they were so gracious and so thankful, and you don’t picture Motörhead being like that, but it was cool just to see them as three gentlemen coming in, saying, Thank you for doing this. And they changed their clothes and went up and just completely annihilated."

Click here for the complete interview.

Gigantour 2012 features MEGADETH, MOTÖRHEAD, VOLBEAT and LACUNA COIL. Confirmed dates are as follows:

January

26 - Susquehanna Bank Center - Camden, NJ
27 - Mohegan Sun Arena - Uncasville, CT
28 - Theater at Madison Square Garden - New York, NY
29 - Tsongas Arena - Lowell, MA

February

1 - Glens Falls Civic Center - Glens Falls, NY
2 - Colisee Pepsi - Quebec City, QC
3 - Bell Centre - Montreal, QC
5 - K-Rock Centre - Kingston, ON
7 - General Motors Centre - Oshawa, ON
8 - Copps Coliseum - Hamilton, ON
9 - Palace of Auburn Hills - Auburn Hills, MI
10 - Aragon Ballroom - Chicago, IL
12 - Eagles Ballroom - Milwaukee, WI
14 - Myth - St. Paul, MN
16 - Prairieland - Saskatoon, SK
17 - Shaw Conference Centre - Edmonton, AB - SOLD OUT -
18 - Big 4 Building - Calgary, AB
20 - Abbotsford Ent & Sports Centre - Abbotsford, BC
21 - Showare Center - Kent, WA
23 - Event Center at San Jose State University - San Jose, CA
24 - Gibson Amphitheatre - Universal City, CA
25 - Comerica Theatre - Phoenix, AZ
26 - Tingley Coliseum - Albuquerque, NM
28 - The Fillmore Auditorium - Denver, CO

March

1 - The Palladium - Dallas, TX
2 - Verizon Wireless Theater - Houston, TX
3 - ACL Live - Austin, TX