Exodus guitarist Gary Holt has humorously stated that he deserves payment from James Hetfield for his uncredited lyrical contribution to Metallica’s classic track “Creeping Death.” During an appearance on The Heavy Stories podcast, Holt discussed how his original lyrics from Exodus’s early work influenced the iconic Metallica song.
“It’s (Creeping Death) Kirk’s riff, it’s my lyrics. I’ve never been credited, so yeah, that’ll tell you how I feel. I should get paid for that shit,” Holt said with a tongue-in-cheek tone. He elaborated on the specific lyrical changes. The original line “dying by his hand” was altered to “die by my hand” in Metallica’s version. “You know, I’m entitled to some money, James. I’ll send you my bank info! It’ll be a fat cheque.”
Despite his humorous demands for compensation, Holt was quick to acknowledge Kirk Hammett’s rightful ownership of the song’s iconic riffs. “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,” he clarified. Holt also reflected on his early relationship with Hammett, crediting the Metallica guitarist with teaching him the fundamentals of playing guitar when they first met.
“When I first met Kirk, we became immediate best friends. 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,” Holt recalled. He even mentioned that Hammett loaned him a Montgomery Ward’s guitar to practice on. He used this guitar to develop his skills before being asked to join Exodus just six months later.
The story behind “Creeping Death” traces back to Exodus’s early days in the 1980s. Kirk Hammett originally composed the crunching riff during his time with Exodus. He developed it into a song called “Die By His Hand,” which appeared on a two-track 1983 demo. This demo would later become the foundation for one of Metallica’s most celebrated tracks from their 1984 album ‘Ride the Lightning.’
While the riff unquestionably belongs to Kirk Hammett, Gary Holt’s role in writing the lyrics for Exodus’s “Die By His Hand” has remained largely uncredited in the context of Metallica’s version. No official credits for Holt or Exodus appear on “Creeping Death,” and the guitarist has made it clear through his comments that he harbors no serious grievance.
