Megadeth: Whatever happened to Marty Friedman, why he quit the band and became a huge star in Japan.
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Guitarist Marty Friedman would be best known for playing in Megadeth during the 90’s. He would play on 4 of the group’s albums from 1990 to 1999 and would end up leaving the the band after their much maligned 1999 record Risk. Most people likely expected Friedman would fade into obscurity, but instead, he would unexpectedly became a huge superstar overseas. Today, let’s explore why Marty Friedman quit Megadeth and the surprising story of what happened afterwards.
Marty Friedman was part of what some fans would consider to be the classic lineup of Megadeth. In addition to Friedman the lineup was made up of drummer Nick Menza, David Ellefson on bass and vocalist and rhythm guitarist Dave Mustaine. The classic lineup of the band would create the highly respected album, 1990’s Rust in Peace and their most commercially successful record of their career, 1992’s Countdown to Extinction. But by the turn of the century, Friedman’s own tastes had drifted away towards a sound far removed from the type of music Megadeth owed its success to.
Ten years earlier by the late 80’s Megadeth had established themselves as a force to be reckoned with but the band seemed to have a revolving cast of musicians coming and going. By 1989 the band was three albums into their career and were ready to write their follow up 1990’s Rust in Peace. Ahead of the album sessions beginning the band enlisted drummer Nick Menza and lead guitarist Marty Friedman. Friedman up until this point in time had cut his teeth playing in several bands including Hawaii and Cacaophony. Friedman would be tipped off the audition by a friend of his who told him Megadeth were looking for a new guitar player. Friedman would call Megadeth’s manager Ron Lafeet and book an audition. His audition would show up on the group’s DVD Arsenal of Megadeth years later and . Friedman would admit to Loudwire that by the time he auditioned for the band in early 1990, he was borderline homeless living with women he had met and was sporting multi-colored hair and surviving on a diet of rice and lollipops. Looks aside, Mustaine was impressed with Friedman’s audition and hired the guitarist the same day.
Friedman would admit in the same interview that once he joined Megadeth he could afford to go to salon and he cleaned up his appearance to look more presentable to fit in with what he thought was megadeth’s clean cut guy next door image. Interestingly enough, Friedman wasn’t the only person on Mustaine’s radar as it was reported that Slash of Guns N’ Roses was offered the spot in addition to Dimebag Darrell who agreed to join provided his brother Vinnie also joined the group, but that idea fell through since the band already had a drummer at the time.
Megadeth would release their first album with Friedman Rust in Peace on September 24, 1990. It would feature classic songs including Hangar 18 and Holy Wars the Punishment Due. The album would go platinu selling a million copies by 1994
Friedman’s last album with the group would be their universally panned record Risk,which was strayed too far from the band’s traditional sound. By 2000 Friedman was out of the band with MTV publishing a report at the time with band leader Dave Mustaine putting out a statement saying Friedman left to and i quote "to pursue other musical interests." Mustaine would also reveal that Friedman was and i quote "an incredible player," he had been a "keystone" in Megadeth, and that the band was sorry to see him go and wished him well.
Al Pitrelli ofthe Trans Siberian orchestra fame would end up taking his place.
While it was believed that Friedman was largely responsible for the band’s sound on Risk he would clarify to loudwire that he wanted the album to show two extremes of the band as he revealed here.
In the same interview he would reveal that he was he was tired of holding the flag for traditional metal and musically wanted to do more.. He would tell LA Weekly
“I would go on stage and play American heavy metal, but then at the end of the night in my hotel room I would listen to nothing but Japanese pop music,” “I decided that I would rather play the music that I was listening to.” Friedman