Former MEGADETH Guitarist MARTY FRIEDMAN Rumored To Have Married Japanese Cellist

January 3, 2013

According to Yahoo! Japan, former MEGADETH guitarist Marty Friedman is rumored to have married Hiyori Okuda, the 41-year-old Japanese cellist who performed on the song "Aitakatta" from his 2011 album "Tokyo Jukebox 2".

The guitarist, who has been living in Japan for the past decade, reportedly started dating Okuda after meeting her on a TV show in 2009 and told some of his friends at his 50th-birthday party early last month that he and his girlfriend were about to tie the knot. Since December 28, the Japanese media started spotting a wedding ring on Marty's finger, leading to speculation that the ceremony took place several days earlier.

In a 2012 interview with Metal Assault, Friedman stated about his decision to relocate to Japan and focus most of his efforts on building a music career for himself in that territory: "When I came to Japan, things went a whole lot better for me than I ever would have expected. I got year-long TV commitments and some big projects so there wound up being no time left over to make the rest of the world a priority anymore."

He added: "[Upon my arrival in Japan] I was very lucky to start touring and recording almost immediately with a J-pop legend, Aikawa Nanase. That opened some doors to a lot of new things musically, but doing TV really took me into the mainstream more than anything. I hadn't planned on that."

Friedman last fall completed the "Guitar Universe 2012" European tour with support from Israel's Yossi Sassi (ORPHANED LAND) and France's Stéphan Forté (ADAGIO).

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