Megadeth Rip Through Metallica’s ‘Ride the Lightning’ for the First Time Live

Dave Mustaine revisited his garage days with Metallica on Sunday when he and his band Megadeth performed two tracks Mustaine helped write and record during his brief stint with his old band.

At a show in Bogotá, Colombia Sunday night (April 26), Megadeth played “The Mechanix” — a song off Metallica’s famed No Life ‘Til Leather demo, which Mustaine had written in an earlier band — and “Ride the Lightning,” the title-track of Metallica’s second album. While “Ride the Lightning” was completed and released after Mustaine’s short tenure in Metallica ended, he still received a writing credit for the song’s riffs. The performance in Bogotá marked the first time Megadeth had ever performed “Ride the Lightning” live.

Fan-shot video shows the band playing a reverent rendition of “Ride the Lightning,” with Mustaine singing the lyrics and trading off parts of Kirk Hammett’s solo with Megadeth guitarist Teemu Mäntysaari. Notably, the Colombian fans were so excited to hear the song that they sang along with the opening guitar riff.

Megadeth recorded a cover of the song for their self-titled 17th album — and ostensibly their last — which was a Number One hit when it came out in January. Although Mustaine has had a fraught, on-again, off-again relationship with his former Metallica bandmates, the recording came from a place of genuine warmth for him. “I wanted to pay tribute to the band,” Mustaine told Rolling Stone in October. “And just now that I’m getting ready to hang my guitar up, I wanted to make sure that nothing is left unsaid.”
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In 2017, he reflected on his contributions to both songs for Rolling Stone’s “My Life in 15” songs interview. He explained how he wrote “The Mechanix” “long before I was in Metallica,” as well as how they turned it into “The Four Horsemen” for their 1983 debut LP, Kill ‘Em All; Megadeth recoded the song in its original form for their 1985 debut, Killing Is My Business … and Business Is Good!

He shared how he instantly recognized his contributions to “Ride the Lightning.” “There’s certain riffs that you hear, and you just know who the songwriter is,” he said. “And I’m not talking about just when I write. So there are certain parts of ‘Ride the Lightning’ and ‘Leper Messiah’ and the first album, all that stuff, you can tell little things that are similar with Megadeth’s guitar playing ’cause you know there’s so much you can do with an instrument. I think they did great with it.”