And he says he sensed that guitarist Chris Broderick and drummer Shawn Drover, who quit Megadeth last year, were interested in taking on a new musical venture - a move he says he can relate to because of his eight-years out of the band.

Ellefson tells Maximum Volume: "I did sense that a change was coming, especially when they both did it together. It was sort of like, 'Okay, they're obviously musically on to something else. And sometimes people do need to walk away and move into a different chapter of their lives in order to be clear and focused and give a new endeavour their 100% attention.