Megadeth’s Dave Ellefson knows how to raise holy hell onstage — but behind the scenes, he’s doing the Lord’s work. And the Lord’s homework.

Between shows on the thrash-metal veterans’ current multi-band Gigantour, the 47-year-old bassist isn’t partying: He’s studying online to become an ordained Lutheran pastor.

I don’t see me standing up there in a white robe doing sacraments and preaching and all that, I’m doing this distance-education stuff to learn some new things. To open my eyes and ears to some different walks in this life is inspiring to me.

At 25, I took a different turn in my life and got off all the dope and booze and cleaned my life up. That was almost 22 years ago. I’ve been married almost 18 years. I’ve got teenage kids. My life is pretty wholesome. Which is the funny thing about it. People tend to think heavy metal guys just constantly earn it and burn it. And my experience with the hardest-edge metal guys is that we’re gentle giants when we get off the stage. We leave it all on the stage, which is how it should be.

The whole story here: Toronto Sun