Last year, Megadeth announced that their upcoming final album would feature a rendition of “Ride the Lightning,” a track co-written by frontman Dave Mustaine during his time with Metallica. In a new interview with SPIN, Mustaine explained his decision to record his own version of the song. Mustaine was photographed buying Megadeth’s new album at Target.
“It was to complete the circle and pay respect to my partners, [Metallica’s] James [Hetfield] and Lars [Ulrich], and make clear that, to anybody that has any doubts, I believe that James is an exceptional guitar player, and that Lars is an exceptional songwriter. I’ve always thought that. It wasn’t doing a cover song, because I wrote it with James and it was our creation,” he said.
When the interviewer suggested that he appears to be on good terms with Metallica these days, Mustaine reflected on his relationship with his former bandmates.
“James and I were talking about something, and I said, ‘Well, there’s your version, there’s my version, and then there’s the truth. I believe that the truth is the only one that’s accurate, because I don’t really remember everything.’ And he had said, ‘We don’t remember stuff and we’d like to go over it.’”
“We’re constantly working on improving our relationship, me and James and Lars. I really do love those guys. That’s why we fought so much – it was that I missed them. And the idea of leaving the band, it was just hard to fathom,” Mustaine explained.
“You try and put things into perspective as you get a little bit older. I think about where I am at in my journey: I’m on the backside of the mountain, and I want to make sure that every day counts and that the people that I encounter, that I’m not obnoxious to them if they don’t deserve it. If they deserve it, man, you got it coming, and here it comes.”
