Iced Earth bassist James MacDonough has officially left the band to join Megadeth as their touring bassist. MacDonough's statement on the matter (as posted at Iced-Realm.de) is as follows:

"A while back I had heard that Megadeth might need a bassist, so I contacted them via email and much later got a response, to my suprise. Before I knew it, I was on a conference call with Dave [Mustaine]. I sent in some video of me playing a couple Megadeth songs and I got a call a couple of days later. Everything with Iced Earth has been up in the air as far as touring, so I told [Iced Earth mainman] Jon Schaffer about this when I got the first email back, and being my older bro, he told me to go for it. Unfortunately, I won't be able to play with Iced Earth in the future because this will be a very lengthy tour, but we'll see what happens down the road. I am keeping in touch with Jon and maybe something in the future will happen.

"MEGADETH has always been one of my favorite bands and I have a lot of respect for Dave and what he's done for music. I feel honored to have been picked for this endeavor."

MEGADETH's lineup for the upcoming tour will be as follows:

Dave Mustaine - Guitar/Vocals
Glen Drover (Eidolon, ex-King Diamond) - Guitar
Nick Menza - Drums
James MacDonough (ex-ced Earth) - Bass

Band profile:

Iced Earth