MARTY FRIEDMAN: 'The MEGADETH Experience For Me Was The Greatest Thing Ever'

Metal Hangar 18 conducted an interview with former MEGADETH guitarist Marty Friedman before his May 21, 2011 concert in Sofia, Bulgaria. You can now watch the chat below.

When asked about the time he spent as the lead axeman in MEGADETH and his opinion of the most recent MEGADETH material, Friedman said, "The MEGADETH experience for me was the greatest thing ever; it was so fun. Lots of great memories, lots of great shows Maybe 2,000 shows?! And lots of albums, lots of great songs. And I love the guys in the band and I wish them the total best. I don't really know what their new stuff sounds like. I'm pretty sure it's gonna be metal. [Laughs] But I'm not that familiar with it. But whatever they do, I want them to keep on jamming."

During a recent interview with DJ Marco Garavelli of Italian web radio Linearock.it, Marty was asked about whether he is planning to release a new solo CD anytime soon. "My next album is called 'Tokyo Jukebox 2'," he replied. "In 2009 I released 'Tokyo Jukebox', which was a good success for me in Japan, and it came out worldwide. So the record company asked if I wanted to do a 'part 2' to it and I was very excited to do that because, actually, 'Tokyo Jukebox' is one my favorite albums that I've ever done, so when it came time to do a second album, it was a lot of fun choosing the songs and doing the arrangements and recording it and I'm very happy about it. It's almost finished; I recorded most of it before going on tour in Europe. Eleven songs are done now and there's one more song that I'm gonna finish in Japan after this clinic tour and then the record's gonna be done, so I'm very excited about it. [It's] definitely the deepest and most special album ever, because it's the most recent, and because it's got all of my experience put together and all of the depth of everything that I've learned over the most recent times and everything is in it, and I'm very happy with it so far. In September it comes out in Japan and I'm really trying to get it released in Europe around the same time, so maybe [it will come out in other territories] around the fall."

On the topic of MEGADETH's "Rust In Peace" album and whether he wished in any way that he could have taken part in performing the entire LP live with the band to celebrate its recent 20th anniversary, Friedman said, "Absolutely not. The past is the past. I mean, it was a wonderful album and I'm sure [the current lineup of MEGADETH is] doing a great job playing it. So many fans wanna hear [those songs performed live], that's for sure every time I do a guitar clinic I'm signing that record like it's going out of style and they want me to play stuff from it. I'm so happy about the great impact that that record has and I'm sure [the current lineup of MEGADETH is] making a lot of fans happy doing it, so I support them 1000 percent. But it's not something that I'm really interested in re-doing right now."