Dave Mustaine Reclaims Metallica Classic And Pays Tribute To His Ex-Bandmates

By Editorial Staff | Published: Jan 25, 2026 11:37 AM EST

One of the many highlights of Megadeth's just released final studio album sees frontman Dave Mustaine revisiting the song "Ride The Lightning", a track that he co-wrote with his former Metallica bandmates that became the title track to their sophomore album.

Mustaine discussed the reasons why he decided to revisit the song on what is said to be Megadeth's final album during an interview with Teraz Rock. He explained, "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 and Lars and for their ability. Because I've always thought James was an excellent guitar player. And same thing about Lars, I've always thought he was an excellent songwriter."

Dave also reflected on the song being written, " 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."

He said of his take on the song, "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."