David Ellefson says METAL CHURCH are deliberately not booking themselves into the ground, and he has a forty-year-old cautionary tale to explain why.
Speaking to Stefan Nilsson of Roppongi Rocks about what follows the band's autumn 2026 North American run with ARMORED SAINT, the former MEGADETH bassist said the calendar is already taking shape. "2027 is already pretty well booked — at least the calendar is framed. Plus, now we're excited about new material in the works. We're not out here writing songs. We're enjoying the new album. We're enjoying just being present with it. But knowing — we've all been in bands and we know how tour cycles go, and you reach this sort of plateau at a certain point down the road, and you kind of go, 'Man, let's get in and do some new songs.' So we're careful with the calendar in the way that it isn't just, 'Let's just get on a bus and just tour until we fall over.' We've done all those tours. So now it's about, okay, the old 'tour smarter, not harder,' so that, first of all, everybody still enjoys it."
The cautionary tale is about his own bandmate. "Kurdt was the first guy years ago, I remember, and he told me the story after METAL CHURCH were out with METALLICA on the 'Master Of Puppets' tour. They were on Elektra. They did all this touring, as we all did, and he came home and he was broke. He had no money. And I think he went to work as a waiter. I remember hearing this, like in '86, '87. We were, like, 'Wow, Kurdt Vanderhoof.' It was, like, 'How can he not do this?' And I asked him about it, and he goes, 'Dude, I just came home. We had no money. It was just a survival thing. I had to take other day jobs.'"
Ellefson's read on it is unsentimental. "Realities of big rock bands, even on major labels, which is why a lot of people start tribute bands. They make more money in tribute bands than they ever did being in their own band signed to a major label."
The alternative, he argues, is now visible everywhere. "You look around, everybody from STYX and even METALLICA are weekend warriors again. It's funny — we start out playing on the weekends 'cause we got schools and day jobs, and hopefully you end as a weekend warrior. Now they play stadiums on the weekend."
METAL CHURCH's current lineup — founding guitarist Kurdt Vanderhoof, longtime guitarist Rick Van Zandt, Ellefson, drummer Ken Mary and new vocalist Brian Allen of VICIOUS RUMORS — was announced last November, nearly two years after the band scrapped their 2024 dates over Vanderhoof's back problems. It debuted live on May 17 at San Luis Metal Fest in San Luis Potosí, Mexico. The album Ellefson says they are still enjoying, "Dead To Rights", came out on April 10 through Rat Pak Records.