Bassist David Ellefson opened up about the music industry today and its changes in the four decades, more, the bassist discussed his time with Megadeth.

During an interview Zona Franca, Ellefson said:

 ”Here’s the thing. Back in the old days of the record business, ’60s, ’70s, ’80s; for me, it’s ’70s and ’80s. ’70s is when I was a fan, but the ’80s is when I got [into it] professionally. And there was maybe, I don’t know, 12 record companies. They each had a rock album, an R&B album, a pop album. So every month there would be a rock record coming out. Bachman-Turner Overdrive, UFO, Kiss, whoever. There was one from every label.

”So there was, like, 12 rock albums a year. So the quality had to be amazing. ‘Cause there was no room for any other ones. And the record companies put a lot of money, a lot of time. The songs had to be great for the radio. Once the Internet came and made it available, everybody (could release their music online). And, look, creatively, why not? Let people have the experience. But that doesn’t mean that everybody gets to go to the top.”

David Ellefson continued:

“Take football. There’s a reason there’s the greats, the GOATs, people that are at the top, because they put in the time, they’ve got a special gift, they’ve got some talent, they blend well with the other team members. And it’s entertaining. At the end of the day, sports is entertaining too; people wanna go see it. So there’s all these sort of, they call it ‘it’ factors that go into all this stuff.

”And I’m lucky that I got to be in a band, Megadeth, that had the ‘it’ factor. It was dynamic, it was compelling, attractive. People wanted to tune in tomorrow to see what happens next. It was like a TV show. And the songs are great and they’ve stood the test of time. I’m lucky that I had that experience. I got to be a better musician, a better performer, all the rest of it.”