How Much of Metallica's 'Ride the Lightning' Did Dave Mustaine Write?

You're never going to believe this, but Dave Mustaine co-wrote several early Metallica songs, including "Ride the Lightning."

We're kidding, of course. Anybody who's even remotely familiar with Mustaine knows the Megadeth leader has never been shy about his early contributions to Metallica, for whom he played lead guitar from 1982 to early 1983.

Mustaine boasts several writing credits across Metallica's first two albums, Kill 'Em All and Ride the Lightning. The title track to the latter album may be his most significant Metallica contribution – but just how much of "Ride the Lightning" did Mustaine write?

Well, enough to cover it on Megadeth's self-titled final album, which comes out in January of 2026.

How Dave Mustaine Helped Shape Metallica's Early Sound

Mustaine brought plenty of musical ideas to the table during Metallica's early days, playing on the band's 1982 No Life 'Til Leather demo and moving to New York with them the following year as they tried to broker a record deal.

"When we got out to New York, I had a reel of tape, this quarter-inch tape, that had probably two days' worth of guitar riffs on it, just me playing and playing and playing," Mustaine told the Shawn Ryan Show in 2025. "And we took that tape player and the reel of tape with us out to New York."

Mustaine didn't get to bring all of those ideas to fruition, though, as Metallica fired him on April 11, 1983, due to his excessive drinking and violent tendencies while inebriated. The band famously dropped Mustaine at New York's Port Authority bus terminal and bid him farewell, while Mustaine spent the four-day ride back to San Francisco fuming and hatching the plan for what would blossom into Megadeth.

"I told them when I left, 'Do not use my music,'" Mustaine told Ryan. "And of course they used it."

How Much of 'Ride the Lightning' Did Dave Mustaine Write?

Mustaine's early Metallica ideas included parts of "Ride the Lightning." But how much of the song can he claim as his own?

To hear him tell it, quite a lot.

"There's certain riffs that you hear, and you just know who the songwriter is," Mustaine told Rolling Stone while discussing "Ride the Lightning" in a 2017 interview. "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."

The humble-to-a-fault Mustaine continued: "I didn't write all of the music in 'Ride the Lightning.' Lars [Ulrich] wrote the melodic intro and then the next part I wrote and then the next part I wrote and then the next part and then it went back to his part and then it went back to my next three parts and then at that point ... who's keeping score?"

'Ride the Lightning' Utilizes a Signature Dave Mustaine Guitar Technique

The most easily identifiable Mustaine portion of "Ride the Lightning" is the descending chromatic bridge, which utilizes Mustaine's classic "spider chord" technique. Mustaine uses all four fingers to fret two different power chords near each other, thus eliminating the need to jump between strings and allowing for faster and smoother transitions.

Mustaine demonstrated this technique on an episode of Dave Navarro's Spread TV, showing the similarities between the bridges of "Ride the Lightning" and Megadeth's own "Wake Up Dead," off 1986's Peace Sells ... But Who's Buying?

Watch Dave Mustaine's Spider Chord Lesson on Dave Navarro's Spread TV

Megadeth to Release Their Own 'Ride the Lightning' More Than 40 Years After Metallica

More than 40 years after its initial release, Mustaine will get to put his own spin on "Ride the Lightning" when it appears on Megadeth's self-titled album in 2026.

It will mark the band's final album and serve as a fitting endnote to a career that's been inextricably linked to Metallica's from the start — and, hopefully, a moment of vindication for a thrash legend who's had a fraught relationship with his ex-bandmates, to put it mildly.

"I wanted to pay tribute to the band," Mustaine told Rolling Stone in 2025. "And just now that I'm getting ready to hang my guitar up, I wanted to make sure that nothing is left unsaid.