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 final Megadeth album, simply titled “Megadeth,” during a February 4 appearance on SiriusXM’s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk”, as per Blabbermouth. Dave says this about the moment he decided to record this specific Metallica song.
Well, we were past the halfway point in the album. ‘Cause that song ended up being song number 13. And when the time came to do that, we were talking about — what we usually do is a rendition of somebody’s song that we like or something like that, or a remake. And when I was talking with [my son] Justis, he had said, ‘Why don’t you do ‘Ride The Lightning’?’ And I kind of looked at him like, ‘Hmm.’ And then I thought about it. I said, ‘That’s probably a good idea.’ And I said, ‘Let’s try it.’ We tried it. It was cool. And I said to the band guys, ‘Okay, if we’re gonna do this, let’s make sure that we do it as good as the original or better.’ ‘Cause we gotta do that. If we’re gonna honor those guys by doing a new version of the song that I did with James, I think it’s important to make it as good or better. And what we did was we sped it up a little bit, and the drum fills at the very end, I told Dirk, ‘Have fun there. And you can beef it up if you want’. And I talked to Teemu and I said, ‘The guitar solo that’s in there, try and stay close to it, if you can.’ ‘Cause it really is Kirk doing an improvisation of what I was doing. ‘So, let’s have fun with it.’ And the solo was a little different — close to the original that Kirk did, but it was a little different. And then there was the singing. James and I have instantly identifiable voices, but they’re not at all alike. And I was listening to James sing, and it was fun for me to be able to listen to his vocal parts and break it down and hear how he sings, and then to go back and approach the song and try and sing in my style, which I do believe I put my DNA on that. It would’ve been different if I would’ve done a song by a band I was in that I didn’t write. That’s kind of like doing a weird nepotistic cover song. But this is one of my songs. So, yeah, I loved doing this. I loved writing it with James, and I loved playing it with Megadeth.
When asked if he believes “Ride The Lightning” will be part of Megadeth’s live set on the upcoming tour, Mustaine gave this response.
Oh, shit, Eddie. You don’t have to ask me that. [Laughs] Maybe. Maybe. We do play ‘Mechanix’.
Mustaine discussed his continuous struggle with Dupuytren contracture, a disorder that causes one or more fingers to bend into the palm of the hand, during the same conversation. The afflicted fingers are unable to fully straighten. Dave responded as follows when asked if he is worried about his physical capacity to perform at every show on Megadeth’s impending farewell tour.
I have concerns, but they’re small. And I’m in good condition, and I have a great trainer that travels with me and I’ve got a very healthy band. My family’s very healthy. It’s just part of our way of life. And the stuff that I went through when I was younger, that was stuff that I went through. Nobody in our family ascribes to that lifestyle.
Mustaine responded to presenter Eddie Trunk’s observation that he has “people that will work with” Dave to ensure he can make it through the gigs.
Well, I can’t do anything about my hands. The next thing to do is go back to the hand surgeon. And the stuff with my back, I have fusion in my spine and I’ve got fractures and compression and bulging discs going on back there. So it’s painful. I know that there’s a lot of other guys that were dealing with this kind of chronic pain from headbanging a lot. And we would hear about ’em, and I would think, ‘Man, I’m so sorry for you.’ One of the guys — I think the guy was from Death, or what was the band that Jimmy MacDonough was in? Iced Earth. Yeah, Iced Earth. That guy’s got a really bad back, supposedly. I never got a chance to talk to him about it, but I heard about that.
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