"It'll be a fat cheque!" This thrash guitarist reckons he's due some cash from Metallica for his role in writing Creeping Death – and it's not Dave Mustaine

Exodus guitarist Gary Holt – with tongue firmly in cheek – feels that he should be credited for his role in crafting one of Metallica's biggest songs.

In a new interview with the Heavy Stories podcast, Holt looks back on his career and the circumstances which led him to inadvertently inspire part of the Ride The Lightning classic Creeping Death.

Holt and Kirk Hammett were both part of the Exodus line-up when they recorded their 1983 demo Die By His Hand. But Hammett – who wrote the Exodus song's familiar riff – left soon after to join fellow Bay Area thrashers Metallica, who'd fired their original guitarist Dave Mustaine on the eve of recording their debut album Kill 'Em All.

"It's Kirk's riff, it's my lyrics," laughs Holt when asked how he felt about the riff's reappearance the following year. "I've never been credited, so yeah, that'll tell you how I feel. I should get paid for that shit.

"The song was 'dying by his hand' and they – James – changed the line to 'die by my hand'. You know, I mean, I'm entitled to some money, James. I'll send you my bank info! It'll be a fat cheque. But those are Kirk’s riffs and he was more than welcome to them. They were his. I had zero ownership of any of that."

Holt adds that Hammett taught him his first chords just six months before he joined an early incarnation of the Bay Area thrashers.

"When I first met Kirk, we became immediate best friends," says Holt. "Shortly after we started hanging out, he asked, 'Do you want to learn to play guitar?' He taught me my first chords and a couple licks and I ran with it.

"He loaned me this like piece of shit guitar," he adds. "He had an extra one around the house. He owned two. One was his Gibson V and one was this Montgomery Ward's guitar with the horrible action – it was terrible. But I learned how to play on it and six months later, they asked me to join Exodus."

Listen to the full interview below.

The band's new album Goliath will be released on March 20 through Napalm Records.

The band tour the UK and Europe with Kreator, Carcass and Nails in March and April. They'll join Sepultura for their final North American tour at the end of April and throughout May.