In 2014, Motörhead’s Motörboat Cruise lost major headliner Megadeth and was left scrambling to find a replacement.
Luckily, the event was saved by some of metal’s most prominent musicians, who stepped up and filled in the vacant timeslot.
“It was at that moment that everybody pulled together with a community spirit to jump in and provide a cool all-star jam,” said Megadeth bassist David Ellefson in a recent phone interview. “Right after that, (Dream Theater drummer) Mike Portnoy said, ‘Look, why don’t we all go to my house and let’s write an album.’ So we did.”
The group became Metal Allegiance, with four core members including Testament guitarist Alex Skolnick, bassist and songwriter Mark Menghi, Portnoy and Ellefson. As a side project for most of its members, they only perform special events, including a small music shop in Indio before The Big 4 concert that took place at the Empire Polo Club in Indio in 2011. Metal Allegiance will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a show at House of Blues Anaheim on Thursday, Jan. 25, coinciding with the first day of the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) held at the Anaheim Convention Center on Jan 25-28.
While NAMM is no longer exclusive to badge members only, it’s still predominantly an industry convention, however, ticketed events the Metal Allegiance show are open to the general public. The annual She Rocks Awards, a ceremony that honors women in music, is open to the public at 7 p.m. in the ballroom at the Anaheim Convention Center on Jan. 25, too.
“Not only is it our 10-year anniversary, but we’re back in Anaheim during The NAMM Show, which has really become a home for us,” Ellefson said. “There’s so many people there, rockers and metal heads, and there’s a lot of music of all different genres, too. I think for us, to be able to provide the heavy metal backdrop for those fans, has become our dutiful honor.”
Before Ellefson was playing shows around NAMM, or a…
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