After performing on iconic Megadeth records like Killing is My Business... And Business is Good! and Rust in Piece and spending decades touring the metal circuit, David Ellefson seems like an unlikely candidate for Lutheran ministry. But Ellefsen, a Jackson, Minnesota native, says that growing up in a Christian household and attending Lutheran church with his family as a child has stuck with him into adulthood, and that it led him to quit drinking at an early age back in 1990 and now has inspired him to pursue a ministry program at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis.

"I came from a good family, not a broken home. That became a model for me, and I saw church at center of it," Ellefsen told St. Louis Today.

Megadeth kicks off a new tour with Motörhead next week, and Ellefsen says he plans to take online courses from Concordia Seminary between shows out on the road. The Gigantour hits the Myth Nightclub in Maplewood on Valentine's Day (aw), February 14.

As for the obvious disconnect between his future life as a Lutheran pastor and his current life as thrash metal star? "Some people want to morph things together into one, but I have a hand in both worlds," he says. "I love praise and worship music, and I love heavy metal."