MARTY FRIEDMAN Hates Seeing 'Ex-MEGADETH' Next To His Name In News Headlines: It 'Bugs The S**t Out Of Me'

In a new interview with "THAT Rocks!", the YouTube series hosted by Eddie Trunk, Jim Florentine and Don Jamieson, former MEGADETH guitarist Marty Friedman spoke about his desire to focus completely on his solo career once he left the band nearly two and a half decades ago. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Of course, once I left MEGADETH, the tag 'ex-MEGADETH' was stuck to my name, and I understood that for about a year or two. And then I really, really wanted to cut that out because I was no longer in MEGADETH and I was doing my own thing doing other things not related to MEGADETH at all. So from about 2002 or [200]3, I just made it a strict rule that any kind of media when they published whatever they were doing, no 'ex-MEGADETH' next to my name. Just don't put it in the headline. Don't put my name with MEGADETH — 'former MEGADETH', all of that stuff was like a very, very strict rule. Of course, as you all know, in the media they tend to ignore those rules about 90 percent of the time. They ignored that a lot, but then, as time went on, it started to get less and less, and I started to feel better about it. And then in the mid-2010s, a lot of places stopped completely putting that next to my name, because there was nothing I was doing even remotely related to MEGADETH, so why put it in there? Of course, sometimes they even still do it now, and it just really, really bugs the shit out of me, because it's not doing MEGADETH any favors either. It's not doing me any favors. It's 25 years ago. They have their own band, and I'm the biggest fan of their band, and my thing is completely different from theirs. But sometimes you can't control what the media does. But that still doesn't mean that I don't have a lot of love and respect for the band. Of course I do. We're both doing separate things."

Friedman, who is best known for his stint as MEGADETH lead guitarist from 1990 to 2000, was also asked what it was like to rejoin his former band twice on stage in six months 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: "When the opportunity to play with MEGADETH again at Budokan, that was just a wonderful, wonderful bit of closure for me and Dave [Mustaine, MEGADETH leader]. Because we have been always on good terms, even since I was out of the band, since I left the band in 2000, we'd been on good terms. There is absolutely no bad blood between us. But I think the one bit of unfinished business that we had was when I was in the band, we had an opportunity to play Budokan. It never happened. And that was the one tiny thing that was left between myself and Dave. We're both big rock fans. We grew up with rock, and live at Budokan is a dream. When you play music and you're in a band like all of the bands that we're fans of, playing at Budokan — CHEAP TRICK at Budokan, all the big albums from Budokan. KISS at Budokan on 'Rock And Roll Over' tour and all that stuff. So Dave and I really had that seed in our hearts, ever since we were kids, and since we couldn't make it happen when we first had been booked for Budokan, that little thing was always left. And so when Dave asked me to play it with him in 2023, I felt it was a very nice gesture on his part, and I jumped at the chance to do it. I loved it. Playing together was as comfortable as it was back then, and, to be honest I think the band sounded better than it did when I was originally in the band. I don't know if it was because there was three guitars on stage instead of two, but it just sounded wonderful. And it was kind of also a love letter to the Japanese fans who wanted to see this moment as much as the two of us did. So, it was a wonderful thing all around. And, like I said, there was never any bad blood between me and MEGADETH. It's just I'm me and they're them. And I'm the biggest fan of theirs, and I'll always support them. It was a fantastic part of my career."

Asked if his guest appearance with MEGADETH at Budokan was the first time he saw Mustaine since he left the band, Friedman said: "We actually got together once in — I think it was 2014 or '15 when we talked… We had a meeting in L.A. where we talked about possibly reuniting the 'Rust In Peace' lineup. And that didn't happen. And all of the details of that will definitely be in my book. But it was still wonderful to see him then and see the entire band then. It just didn't materialize for several reasons. But, yeah, we've been in touch sometimes by e-mail, talking about certain things. But in person, I hadn't seen him in many years, and we hadn't played together since the last time I played with him in MEGADETH. So it was wonderful to share the stage together. And he came on this little YouTube thing I do in Japan, and we had a really nice chat, and it was just nice to kind of be back in the band for like several hours. It's like being with an ex-girlfriend, you know what I mean?"

Earlier this month, an interviewer from Finland's Chaoszine pointed out to Friedman that former MEGADETH guitarist Kiko Loureiro suggested in an interview that he would have liked Marty to rejoin MEGADETH after Kiko exited the group last fall. Asked if he was actually approached about coming back to MEGADETH when Kiko decided to leave the band, Marty said: "No, and I don't think that's realistic. I don't know anything about it. I don't think Dave would think that I would be a candidate to join the band, or rejoin the band, and it's certainly not something that I thought of. I think they're absolutely doing just fine the way they are."

On the topic of MEGADETH's current guitarist Teemu Mäntysaari, who officially joined the band in November, Friedman said: "I met him for a moment at Wacken. [He] seemed like a very cool guy, and I wish him nothing but the best. He's gonna have a good time with those guys."

When the interviewer asked for more details about Friedman's meeting with Mäntysaari, pointing out that Marty is one of Teemu's "biggest influences", Marty said: "I really didn't have too much time to chat with him very much, because at the time Kiko was still in the band and he was there just kind of watching everything and just kind of being a fly on the wall and watching how the band does its business. He was a very polite, cool guy. And, unfortunately, I didn't get to see him play there. Yeah, I didn't really know what was going on in the band, but I just was there to do my show and hooked up with them for a show and he was there. And next thing you know, he's in the band. So all the best to him."

He continued: "I'm glad to hear he's a fan of mine because that's gonna help in MEGADETH. One of the things I remember about being in the band was it was really difficult for me to play the other guitar players' guitar work. Luckily, when I was in the band, they only had like three albums out before I joined the band. But it was very, very difficult for me to even try to play Chris Poland's stuff, and I was not suited for that at all. So, if the new guy is familiar with my stuff, it's gonna make his life a lot easier, and hopefully he'll put his own stamp on things and he'll make a whole lot of new fans too."

Mäntysaari was welcomed into MEGADETH after first temporarily filling in for Loureiro.

Earlier this year, Kiko told Guitar World magazine about whom he wanted as his replacement in MEGADETH: "Actually, I even mentioned to management and Dave that I thought bringing Marty Friedman back would be amazing. I have no idea if they're talking about it or talking to him, but I did say that. But again, I have no idea beyond that, and I don't want to make anything more complicated."

Loureiro went on to say that he was warmly embraced by MEGADETH fans during his nine-year stint with the group.

"The fans never said anything bad about me or complained, which was amazing," he said. "But I'm a fan, and I always understood that Marty was a part of those iconic albums like 'Rust In Peace' and 'Countdown To Extinction'. I understood that Marty was the guy who helped create that sound and style, you know? From the moment I joined MEGADETH, I knew the fans could show me love, but I would never win their hearts over Marty."

The 37-year-old Mäntysaari, who was scouted and selected by Loureiro for MEGADETH, was born in Tampere, Finland and began playing guitar at the age of 12. In 2004, he joined the band WINTERSUN. He has also been a member of SMACKBOUND since 2015.

Loureiro officially joined MEGADETH in April 2015, about five months after Chris Broderick's exit from the group.

At last year's 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".

Four years ago, Friedman admitted that money was a major motivator for him when he was approached about taking part in a reunion of MEGADETH's "Rust In Peace" lineup.

Friedman had met with Mustaine and then-bassist David Ellefson at the 2015 NAMM show in Anaheim, California to discuss the reunion, which would have seen him and drummer Nick Menza back in the mix.

Friedman opened up about his reasons for turning down the MEGADETH reunion in Mustaine's latest book, "Rust In Peace: The Inside Story Of The Megadeth Masterpiece", which details the making of the iconic record "Rust In Peace".

"My main thing was I'd be happy to do it, but I'm not going to take less money than I'm already making to do it," Marty said in part.

"I'd been in Japan for more than ten years cultivating a career with solid rewards. I was making money not only for myself but also for my management and staff. My manager has been with me fifteen years.

"Everything was sound and solid professionally, and when the offer came up to all of a sudden join MEGADETH again, as long as I would not be making less money, I was ready to go," he said. "But I was certainly not going to take a loss to join a band that, frankly, at that point, didn't seem like they had too much to offer musically. A couple of members of the band had recently quit, and musically I hadn't heard anything that they've done in a long time. I didn't know about how relevant they continued to be in the music business. It wasn't like MEGADETH was on the tip of people's tongues, at least not in Japan. I had reached the point where people stopped immediately connecting me to MEGADETH and were talking about the things that I had done in Japan."

According to Friedman, part of the reason he turned down the MEGADETH reunion is the fact that the group is largely seen as Mustaine's solo project, with members coming and going every couple of albums.

"Had it been more of a band situation and not such a one-man, Dave Mustaine-main-man party, I might have considered doing it for a little less," Marty said. "But, at the end of the day, MEGADETH is so much Mustaine because that's the way he engineered it. I didn't feel that kind of camaraderie, the four-man diamond, THE BEATLES, KISS, METALLICA. I felt like I would be going out there and tour and it was going to be Mustaine's big success. If I'm going to do that, I'm certainly not going to lose money to do that; I was doing great on my own in Japan."

Mustaine told Loudwire that he was put off by Friedman's financial demands when the topic of a "Rust In Peace" reunion was broached.

"Marty has a really successful career in Japan where he makes quite a lot of money," Dave said. "And this is the part where I thought it was a little weird, where he said he said that he has to pay all his team while he's gone instead of just himself. 'Cause I thought we'll pay you what you're making so that's switching horses in the middle of the river — it's no big deal unless you fall off. And then when we found out that he wanted to sell his merch, his this, his that, his this, his that, then he wanted this crazy amount of money and he wanted to fly first class everywhere. I said to our management, 'I can't deal with this.'"

In a 2016 interview with the "Eddie Trunk Podcast", Mustaine confirmed that MEGADETH didn't hold any rehearsals with Friedman while attempting a reunion of the "Rust In Peace" lineup.

"Marty had sent some e-mails saying, 'Oh, man, you know, the fans have this self-inflated importance of 'Rust In Peace' beyond what it really is. And I was, like, 'Huh?'" Dave said. 'So I didn't know if that was a backhand to the face of the fans or not, but he had basically said that if we were gonna do anything, it had to be better than 'Rust In Peace'. And he sent me over some links to some songs that he thought should be the direction that we were going in, and one of it was this J-Pop band with some Japanese girl singing, and I was, like, 'Uh-uh. This ain't gonna work.' More power to [Marty for being into that stuff]. Do what you want, Marty. He's a great guitar player. But I'm not gonna sing like a Japanese girl."