In a recent interview with the Shawn Ryan Show, Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine – who was Metallica’s guitarist from 1981 to 1983 – recalled auditioning for James Hetfield and co.
While remembering when he first met Lars Ulrich in the days before the audition, Mustaine explained that the drummer had played him one of Metallica’s first songs, “Hit the Lights.” According to Mustaine, however, the track was not originally written by Metallica.
“So I went into his place and started talking to him, and he played this song called ‘Hit the Lights,’ that was written by a guy named Lloyd Grant,” he said. “Metallica didn’t write that song. Lloyd Grant wrote it. And then he was friends with Lars, and then Lars introduced him to James, and then they started playing ‘Hit the Lights.’ That’s the song that I heard from them first.”
Shortly after this interview aired, however, former Metallica bassist Ron McGovney took to Twitter/X to try to set the record straight in regards to Mustaine’s claims about “Hit the Lights.”
“In Dave’s defense, he wasn’t there when ‘Hit the Lights’ was written. He is mistaken,” McGovney wrote. “Lloyd Grant wasn’t there when ‘Hit the Lights’ was written. As a matter of fact, Lars wasn’t there either. ‘Hit the Lights’ was a song from Leather Charm. James, Troy James, Jim Mulligan and I.”
