MARTY FRIEDMAN Would Be 'Way Into' Joining 'Cool' And 'Exciting' Band If Right Opportunity Arose

Former MEGADETH guitarist Marty Friedman says that he would not be opposed to one day being part of another band.

Friedman left MEGADETH in 2000 and has been living and recording music in Japan since 2003. His shredding guitar style had been an integral part of MEGADETH's commercial peak, most notably on 1990's "Rust In Peace" and 1992's "Countdown To Extinction" albums.

Asked by SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation" if he would ever consider teaming up with like-minded musicians to launch a new group or join an already existing band, Friedman said: "Well, I do see my band as definitely a band vibe. So doing my solo stuff is certainly being in a band. But I would not rule out anything. Any kind of band that I think is cool and new and exciting, or just any band that's doing anything really, really interesting that I could contribute to, I would be way into that."

He continued: "I've done so many insane projects over here in Japan — playing with bands, playing with artists, doing my own stuff, doing other people's stuff. I do anything that I think is insane. Anything that I think is really exciting or worth doing, I definitely would pursue. So I'm not against any type of situation, really."

Asked if joining forces with other well-known musicians to form a new "supergroup" is an idea that appeals to him, Friedman said: "Yeah, it actually does appeal to me. It appeals to me a lot. And if the right situation were to arise, I would be jumping on it. There would have to be a reason for it. It would have to be something where I could really bring something to it that would make it worth doing, and I would be way into it. I think a lot of great combinations of people can create new things that are better than the sum of the parts… You know what I'm trying to say. I can't speak English anymore. When you put certain things together, they're better than parts separately. I'm into that — I'm into that in a big way. And I would be into any kind of collaborations like that — band [or] whatever it is. I've done a whole lot of that in Japan, but not a whole lot of it outside of Japan. So I'd be into it."

Friedman has repeatedly said that he left MEGADETH in order to make the kind of music that he was passionate about: Japanese pop music, or J-Pop, which Friedman has called "embarrassingly happy."

In early 2015, Friedman stepped away from a planned reunion of MEGADETH's "Rust In Peace" lineup — also featuring drummer Nick Menza — because he didn't feel inspired to re-team with his one-time bandmates.