‘People Are Into Their Phones And Devices, Not Flying Vs and Long Hair’: David Ellefson Asks What Will Happen To Guitar-Based Music 20 Years From Now

“I don’t feel like that’s something to aspire toward now.”

David Ellefson shared a bleak vision of guitar in the future, wondering whether people would be interested in plugging an ax into an amp two decades from now.Doom-calling and fearmongering over the future of rock have been around for decades and have followed the genre through both peaks and troughs.

With KISS now retired, it seems like the next generation of musicians is stepping into Gene Simmons’ traditional role of the Devil’s advocate, albeit with more grounded warnings and a seemingly greater level of concern.

After John 5 recently noticed that there aren’t any obvious candidates who could replace current heavy-hitters as they inevitably step down from the scene, the former Megadeth bassist posed an even more fundamental question during a recent interview on the WSOU 89.5 FM — will there even be young folks interested in guitar music by then?.

Asked to share his view on the problems metal musicians of today are facing, Ellefson offered (transcription via Blabbermouth):

“I don’t think in metal there’s a problem. Honestly, what I think about — I think about, like, so after we die, whether that’s 20 years from now or whatever, our generation pushes through, are young people gonna even care about playing guitar anymore? Like putting a guitar into an amp…”

“‘Cause for me, to have a flying V, a Marshall stack, grow your hair, go be a rock star, that was something to aspire toward, and I don’t feel like that’s something to aspire toward now, ’cause people are into their phones and devices and they’re just into different things.”

However, Ellefson admits that online shredders are drawing quite a lot of attention lately, so maybe YouTube and other social media platforms might serve the same role books and records did for his generation:

“You see people on YouTube, there’s people who are bedroom shredders who just play circles around all of us. Of course, we invented that music that they’re playing, but they play so good.”

“I mean, my daughter taught herself how to play guitar on YouTube; she’s an incredibly gifted artist. But these resources that are available…”

“Look, I taught myself how to play bass in my basement on the farm in Minnesota.

I was musically educated on piano and saxophone and stuff, so I had the musical aptitude to sit down with bass books and teach myself how to play and then start listening to records and just basically emulate my heroes and what they were doing and put my own bands together. So I guess on some level, maybe I’m the same thing.”