Metal, Hardcore, Indie, Rock
Dave Mustaine discussed his choice to include his rendition of “Ride The Lightning,” the title track of Metallica’s 1984 album for which he received a co-writing credit after leaving the band in 1983, on the band’s final album, simply titled “Megadeth,” in a recent interview with Poland’s Teraz Rock, as per Blabbermouth. Dave explained why he decided to record this specific Metallica song.
It closed the circle. It paid respect to the band guys. It showed off a couple guitar tricks that I created, like the ‘spider chord’ and ‘grunting’. And it just was a great way to show my respect to the band and to James [Hetfield] and Lars [Ulrich] and for their ability. ‘Cause I’ve always thought James was an excellent guitar player. And same thing about Lars — I’ve always thought he was an excellent songwriter.
Mustaine gave this response when asked if he could recall writing “Ride The Lightning” with Metallica.
Yeah, yeah. I had the parts that I had written, and I brought that to them, just like the other songs that I had ideas for. And then James put in his parts. And then the lyrics were his. The lyrics for ‘Jump In The Fire’ and ‘Mechanix’ were mine. And he changed the lyrics to ‘Jump In The Fire’ a little bit, and ‘Mechanix’ got changed to a song called ‘The Four Horsemen’, which is a different lyric altogether.
Mustaine agreed that Megadeth‘s rendition of “Ride the Lightning” is “very close to the original” when the interviewer mentioned this.
Yeah, it’s a little faster, I sang just a little bit different. James and I have a very unique singing style, but they’re also very different. So, I think that’s one of the noticeable differences, is my singing style and that we sped it up just a little bit. We tried to pay tribute to the parts that were there — the solo, the drums — and do them as close as we felt like it was respectful, and in some parts, we beefed it up just a little teeny bit. Some of the drum fills at the very, very end are a little bit different from the ones that were on the original.
Mustaine said this when asked if the lads from Metallica had heard his rendition of “Ride The Lightning.”
I don’t know.
Additionally, Dave discussed Megadeth’s rendition of “Ride The Lightning” from the film “Megadeth: Behind The Mask,” which made its global screen debut on January 22. Mustaine stated this when asked why he decided to record his rendition of “Ride the Lightning.”
[It] had nothing to do with a ‘gotcha’. It wasn’t a payback. In fact, what it was is me healing a big part of myself because… I’ve made peace with what led up to the decisions that we all were forced into and what caused it and what’s happened afterward. It’s been successful and great for everybody.
Mustaine responded as follows, noting that Kirk Hammett had taken his place after he was dismissed from Metallica in early 1983.
We were all kids, and we were all severely alcoholics, so I don’t think anybody was handling things in an adult manner. And I have absolutely nothing against James or Lars or Kirk [or] Cliff [Burton]; rest in peace, brother. So the idea of doing ‘Ride The Lightning’ — I wrote that song and I have a big claim to it, and I wanted to finish that. Now, James wrote the lyrics, clearly. We co-wrote it. But that was a song that, it was one of the last songs that we did together, and I wanted to pay tribute to what we did. ‘Cause if you got in a room with me and James and Lars and Ron McGovney — I’m 20, these guys are all teenagers — and you say, ‘Dave, you’re gonna write a guitar style that is gonna be the biggest thing in the fucking world. Do you believe that?’ That kid would’ve said, ‘Fuck you.’ And I would’ve said, ‘Of course I believe it.’ But deep down inside, would I have believed that? I don’t think so. I just was doing it because there was a fire in my belly, and I wanted to stop being alone. And I hate loneliness. And that’s one of the things that being in a band, I think it helps heal, but you’ve gotta tread very carefully because you can go into a place where you start to believe your own hype.
