DAVID ELLEFSON To Co-Host Livestream Celebrating Life Of Late MEGADETH Drummer NICK MENZA
The life of late MEGADETH drummer Nick Menza will be celebrated with a special livestream on Saturday, May 21 at 1 p.m. PST / 4 p.m. EST / 9 p.m. GMT at the official Nick MenzaYouTube channel.
Fans will get the opportunity to stream the live event and get a behind-the-scenes sneak preview of the upcoming feature-length Menza documentary film “This Was My Life: The Story Of Nick Menza”. This will include an exclusive listening party of the film’s soundtrack, including brand new video content, along with other bonus material.
Executive producer and film director Holly Mollohan from Screaming Butterfly Entertainment and documentary co-producer and Menza‘s former MEGADETH bandmate David Ellefson will host the live virtual event for the sixth anniversary of Nick‘s passing and will answer viewer questions on the making of the film. The event will also feature a few very well-known special mystery guest musicians involved with the writing and recording of the film’s soundtrack. These newly written songs feature previously recorded drum tracks by Menza and what’s known to be his final studio drum recordings.
Menza, who was a member of MEGADETH from 1989 to 1998 and appeared on four of the band’s studio albums, suffered a heart attack and collapsed during a concert with Chris Poland and Robertino “Pag” Pagliari in their band OHM: in May 2016 at the Baked Potato in Studio City, California and was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital. The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner said Menza died of hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.
Ellefson reflected on Menza‘s passing in a recent interview with The Claw’s Corner. He said: “Of course it’s sad when someone leaves the planet ’cause we miss ’em. And I hear this footage with Nick, I see this footage, I hear interviews with him and stuff, and it’s like he was sitting right here. So I feel that same thing. But how Nick died is… If you knew Nick and you lived on a tour bus with him, like we did, he would always say stuff like that: ‘Oh, I’m gonna blow up on stage. I’m gonna blow your minds.’ He’d say crazy stuff like ‘Jesus was a hologram.’ He would just say shit to just get a rise out of people and piss people off — just to see how far he could push it. So when he died on stage, I’m not gonna lie, I was kind of, like, ‘Man, he freaking got away with it. He did it. He really did it.’ And it’s interesting, ’cause when he passed, he passed right away. They tried to revive him, and he was gone — I mean, he was probably gone before he hit the floor. And God bless him. That was it. Chris Poland told me about it, and I won’t tell too much, ’cause a lot of the stuff’s in the movie, but he told me the story about how they were kicking ass and having a great night and ready to start the next song, and then Nick was not there. It’s a great story, and I don’t wanna say really any more than that, because the story is great. The movie is gonna be really, really, really cool, and I’m really honored to be a part of it and to help tell the story of Nick‘s life and help out the family with grieving. They’re kind of going through that whole process and get to the other side of it.”
“This Was My Life” will be the first-ever film to memorialize Menza‘s legacy and celebrate his life exactly how it was. It is described in a press release as “an unflinching exploration into the life of one of the most successful thrash-metal drummers of all time, authorized by the Menza family. From his childhood all the way through to the end of his life, including a true blow-by-blow account of the repeated failed attempts of the classic ‘Rust In Peace’ lineup.”
“This Was My Life” will feature rare and never-before-seen photos and video footage from Nick‘s archived VHS tape collection, personally filmed by Menza himself from 1988 through 1991. Included will be exclusive content showcasing Nick working at the studio, personal home movies, casual time and party time with his fellow bandmembers, as well as other well-known artists of the era that Nick toured with.
The cover photo for the film was shot by Los Angeles music photographer Alex Solca and designed by Brazilian artwork designer Alcides Burn of Burn Artworks.
The “This Was My Life” soundtrack will consist of eight or nine songs built around Nick‘s unearthed and previously unreleased drum riffs that Menza recorded for a project he started working on between 2013 and 2015. Ellefson played bass on a few of the tracks and is also serving as the project’s executive producer.
