Earlier today, Dave Mustaine of Megadeth hosted his weekly Gimme Metal Radio show and dropped the news that dismissed bassist David Ellefson will not appear on the album. He said the album was nearly completed, and Ellefson’s replacement would come to Nashville and replace Ellefson’s track completely. They are close to announcing that person who Mustaine says “ is a stellar bass player.” Ellefson, dismissed in the wake of a sex scandal, was the longest-tenured member of the band besides Mustaine who founded the band and is pursuing a “revenge porn” lawsuit. Listen to Mustaine’s comments below.

Audio provided by Gimme Metal, transcription via Blabbermouth.net

“I just wanna thank you for all the kinds words and support as we get ready for this next tour and continue to hunt for a new bass player,” the MEGADETH leader said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). “We are making progress. The record’s being completed, and we’re gonna have someone coming in in a couple of weeks to replace the bass tracks that we had. Which should be relatively quick because the person we’re talking to is a stellar bass player. And hopefully this will be an ongoing thing after the recording. Or we will find someone prior to the recording that will be our permanent guy going forward.”