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Megadeth<\/a>\u00a0will release\u00a0their self-titled final album<\/a> on Jan. 23, and\u00a0the set will include a customarily headline-grabbing send-off from Dave Mustaine<\/a>: a cover of Metallica<\/a>‘s “Ride the Lightning.”<\/p>\n Mustaine confirmed the rumor to\u00a0Rolling<\/a> Stone<\/a><\/em>\u00a0in a new interview. You can\u00a0learn more and\u00a0see the full\u00a0Megadeth<\/em> track listing below.<\/p>\n The “Ride the Lightning” cover is\u00a0fair game, considering Mustaine wrote part of the song before Metallica fired\u00a0him<\/a> in 1983.<\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t really that I wanted to do my version,\u201d\u00a0the Megadeth leader told\u00a0Rolling Stone<\/em>. \u201cI think that we all wanted it to turn out a certain way, and for me, this was about something so much more than how a song turns out. It was about respect.\u201d<\/p>\n Specifically, it’s about respect for Metallica’s James Hetfield<\/a>, with whom Mustaine has had a famously fraught relationship for decades.<\/p>\n \u201cNo one ever talks to me about that,\u201d\u00a0Mustaine said of Hetfield\u2019s guitar chops. \u201cOne day he\u2019s a singer, the next day he\u2019s this fucking powerhouse and I\u2019ve always respected him as a guitar player. So I wanted to do something to close the circle on my career right now, since it started off with Panic [Mustaine’s pre-Metallica band] and several of the songs that ended up in the Metallica repertoire, I wanted to do something that I felt would be a good song.”<\/p>\n Mustaine\u00a0has\u00a0rarely shied away from taking\u00a0jabs at his former Metallica bandmates in the press, but he\u00a0swore\u00a0his “intentions were pure” when deciding to cover\u00a0“Ride the Lightning”\u00a0on\u00a0Megadeth<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t have any reason I was going to say, \u2018Oh, hey man, this thing that we\u2019ve had for 40 years where you guys will never tour with me, me doing the song is going to change things,'” he said. “That wasn\u2019t it at all. It was more about: This is my life going forward. I want to do things that are respectable. And I think doing something where we can pay honor to the guy that … I mean, I hate to say this, because it\u2019s just so fucking arrogant, but the guitar playing in Metallica changed the world.\u201d<\/p>\nWhy\u00a0Is Dave Mustaine Covering ‘Ride the Lightning’ on Final Megadeth Album?<\/h3>\n
Dave Mustaine: Metallica’s Guitar Playing ‘Changed the World’<\/h3>\n