Will MARTY FRIEDMAN Play With MEGADETH At Tokyo Concert Next Month?

January 21, 2023

According to the MEGADETH fan page Megadeth Of Destruction, former MEGADETH guitarist Marty Friedman has strongly insinuated that he will join the band on stage during the Dave Mustaine-fronted outfit's concert at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo, Japan on February 27.

While appearing on the Japanese radio program "Next Guitar Hero Is..." on InterFM897, the 60-year-old Friedman — who has been living and recording music in Japan since 2003 — said: "I can't give details. But we'll play together … I believe it will be a magical night." Marty's comments were also reportedly picked up by Japan's long-running Burrn! magazine in an article that has since apparently been removed from the site.

If Friedman's performance with MEGADETH materializes, it will be his first appearance with the band since he exited the group in 2000.

Mustaine has seemingly been on good terms with Friedman in recent years, with the MEGADETH leader stating in a Cameo video (see below) that he had spoken with Marty as recently as this past New Year's Eve.

Three 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."

MARTY FRIEDMAN TOCARÁ JUNTO A MEGADETH EL PRÓXIMO 27 DE FEBRERO EN JAPÓN.

Hace unos meses, cuando adelantamos sobre la…

Posted by Megadeth of Destruction on Friday, January 20, 2023

Hoy, Dave subió un video en Cameo comentando que recientemente había hablado con Marty Friedman y dando a entender que lo saludó por Año Nuevo. Esto indicaría ¿buenas noticias?

A finales de agosto de 2022, Mustaine afirmó que Friedman aceptó la invitación para tocar junto a Megadeth, la próxima vez que la banda esté de gira en Japón. Posteriormente, los primeros días de septiembre, la productora UDO, confirmó dos conciertos de Megadeth en Japón (27 y 28 de febrero de 2023) y los boletos salieron a la venta, ese mismo mes.

Recientemente, la página web oficial de Megadeth, confirmó un tercer concierto en Tokio (Japón),para el 24 de febrero.

Lo curioso es que, Marty estará libre precisamente a finales de febrero de 2023, ya que, el 03 de marzo iniciará con su tour por Estados Unidos.

Posted by Megadeth of Destruction on Saturday, December 31, 2022

Find more on Megadeth
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).