Dave Mustaine has defended his choice to include a cover of Metallica’s ‘Ride The Lightning’ on Megadeth’s upcoming final album.
If your eyebrows raised seeing Metallica’s legendary track, ‘Ride The Lightning’, appear on the tracklist for Megadeth’s upcoming final self-titled album, you wouldn’t be alone.
It is one of frontman Dave Mustaine‘s more polarising creative choices in his long illustrious career with the heavy metal band, but it’s one he’s standing by fervently.
Mustaine, who was a member of Metallica in the early 80s, would maintain writing credits on several iconic tracks, one being the aforementioned ‘Ride The Lightning’.
Before announcing the track, Mustaine would hint that one of the songs on the album was a “cover song, but I actually wrote it, so it’s kind of like a cover of my song.” When announced, Mustaine would clarify that his decision, saying that he wanted to “pay my respects to where my career first started”.
Now, in an interview with GuitarWorld, Mustaine has further shared more details behind his creative decision in choosing the track as the final track on any Megadeth album.
“Whenever we select any other band’s music to go on our albums, sometimes there’s a lot of thought behind it and sometimes there’s not. This was one of the ones that we thought long and hard about, because all I wanted to do was play the song I wrote with the guys in Metallica.
“I wanted to pay my respects to [Metallica frontman] James Hetfield, who I think is an amazing guitar player, and [Metallica drummer] Lars Ulrich, who was an excellent songwriter. I remember when I was there and we were putting these songs together, Lars didn’t just sit there; he was very instrumental in making these songs.”
Mustaine would go on to say that he only ever recorded a demo version of the track and that he wanted to finally record a “full-on produced version”.
“Of course, when we got into making demos of these songs, it was fun to do the recordings, but we were never really able to do a full-on produced version of ‘Ride The Lightning’ [while I was in Metallica], and I would have loved to have heard that.
“I gotta tell you – listening back to James’s original vocal performance, it was really tremendous.”
“Anyway, there’s no big strategy; I have respect for the guys, and I just wanted to show that. And it’s a hell of a song.”
Earlier this week, Mustaine revealed that his health was a contributing factor for starting Megadeth’s final chapter.
In an interview with MariskalRockTV, Mustaine revealed his condition with Dupuytren’s contracture, a progressive condition that affects the connective tissue in the hand and can eventually cause fingers to curl inward.
“It’s already started, where it’s kind of bunching up a little bit. And then if you look at the tips of my fingers, they’re severely arthritic. So, all those bumps makes it really painful to play.”
“If I wait until my hands are causing a problem and I try it and it doesn’t work, well then I’ve toured everywhere, I’ve said farewell to everybody and I’m not leaving stuff unsaid or unfinished.”
Megadeth’s final self-titled album is expected to be released on January 23rd via Tradecraft. You can check out the lead single ‘Tipping Point‘ below.
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