DAVE MUSTAINE On MARTY FRIEDMAN: He 'May Be Small, But He's F***ing Mighty'

In a new interview with Alejandrosis, MEGADETH leader Dave Mustaine was asked what it was like for the band to be reunited with former guitarist Marty Friedman for two appearances over a six-month period last year — first in February 2023 at Tokyo, Japan's famed Budokan and then in early August 2023 at the Wacken Open Air festival in Wacken, Germany. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It was very familiar. And Marty is a sweet, sweet man. He's a very teeny little dude, but he's like that saying: dynamite comes in small packages. Marty may be small, but he's fucking mighty. And when we were playing together, there was a time where he came over and he leaned next to me, and I kind of leaned next to him, and it was just so natural because we had done that for so many years. And it just felt great."

He continued: "I love him, and I wish him the very best in everything that he does. I think it would be fun if we were able to do stuff like that in the future for us. I don't wanna do it too much, because I think that it'll become like a circus. And there are certain people that we did play with over the past that they're alumni and I love 'em and respect 'em, but I don't think it would be good for us to play with some of them because I don't know that they are still playing or if they would even remember the different tracks."

At the 2023 Wacken Open Air, Marty performed four songs with MEGADETH: "Trust", "Tornado Of Souls", "Symphony Of Destruction" and "Holy Wars... The Punishment Due".

At Budokan, Friedman came up on stage for three songs toward the end of MEGADETH's main set: "Countdown To Extinction", "Tornado Of Souls" and "Symphony Of Destruction".

Last September, Friedman told Metalhead Marv of This Day In Metal about the experience of playing with MEGADETH again:  "It was wonderful. We have a wonderful history together, so when something special like that came up, it was kind of a definite thing that I wanted to do. And we both enjoyed it immensely. And I just hope the fans enjoyed it as much as we did. For us, it was just a really nice, nice thing to do to kind of just put an exclamation point on the thing that we did in the history of the band. And, of course, I'm the biggest fan of whatever they do in my absence and just rooting them on the whole way."

In March, Marty was asked by Ultimate Guitar if he has had a chance to hear MEGADETH with its latest addition, Finnish guitarist Teemu Mäntysaari, who replaced Kiko Loureiro last September. Marty said: "I haven't, as a matter of fact, but I'm sure he's doing a great job if he's up there doing it. And I was able to meet him when I played with the band at Wacken [Open Air festival in Germany last August] and he seemed a very, very cool dude. And I wish him tons and tons of success with the band and it's gonna be a big fun ride for him, I'm sure."

Regarding his current relationship with Mustaine, Marty said: "Yeah, it's great. We played two wonderful shows [last year] in Budokan [in Tokyo, Japan] and at Wacken Open Air. Yeah, he's a bro. I'm the biggest MEGADETH fan out there."