Guitarist Marty Friedman was best known for playing in Megadeth during the 90’s. He played on the group’s albums from 1990 to 1999 and ended up leaving the band after their much maligned 1999 record Risk.
Most people expected Friedman to fade into obscurity, but instead, he unexpectedly became a huge superstar overseas.
The Classic Lineup of Megadeth
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, bassist David Ellefson, and vocalist and rhythm guitarist Dave Mustaine.
The classic lineup of the band created the highly respected album, 1990’s Rust in Peace and their most commercially successful record of their career, 1992’s Countdown to Extinction.
By the turn of the century, Friedman’s own tastes had drifted away towards a sound that was far removed from the type of music Megadeth owed its success to. Ten years earlier, 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.
Nick Menza and Marty Friedman Join Megadeth
By 1989, Megadeth was 3 albums into their career and were ready to write their follow-up record, 1990’s Rust in Peace. Ahead of the album sessions beginning, the band enlisted drummer Nick Menza and guitarist Marty Friedman. Friedman, up until this point in time, had played in several bands including Hawaii and Cacophony.
Megadeth released their first album with Friedman, Rust in Peace on September 24, 1990. The album went Platinum, selling a million copies by 1994. Friedman’s last album with the group was their universally panned record Risk, which strayed too far from the band’s traditional sound.
Marty Friedman Parts Ways With Megadeth
By 2000, Friedman was out of the group. Dave Mustaine put out a statement saying Friedman left to “pursue other musical interests.” In the same statement, Mustaine would also reveal that Friedman was “an incredible player”, and he had been a “keystone” in Megadeth, and that the band was sorry to see him go and wished him well.
While it was believed that Marty Friedman was largely responsible for the band’s sound on Risk, he clarified that to Loudwire, saying he wanted the album to showcase the two extremes of the band.
“There was no fighting about anything, as far as I remember.” – Marty Friedman
“I wanted it to be either or both. I didn’t want it to be down the middle.”
“…For example, you have a band like X-Japan, who I was into at the time. They have these ultra, ultra heavy metal. It sounds kind of like a new wave of British heavy metal song on 10. And then they have these like, Barry Manilow ballads and it’s those that contrast them that really appeal to me.
In Megadeth, I thought with a name like Megadeth, we should be as F–in heavy as F– and then we can afford to have something that’s like, not a poppy ballad, but kind of a ballad that works. I have a lot of respect for Metallica and they did a ballad and it still sounded like them…
I always wanted to do really, really heavy stuff and something that could also appeal to people who don’t like their tempos that fast… actually all of us, at that time, cooperated as best as we could. There was no fighting about anything, as far as I remember.”
“I decided that I would rather play the music that I was listening to.” – Marty Friedman
In the same interview, Friedman revealed that he was tired of holding the flag for traditional metal and musically wanted to do more. He revealed to 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.”
Marty Friedman was exposed to Japanese music when he was a child, growing up on the island of Hawaii. He was first exposed to enka, which was a form of traditional Japanese music. He wouldn’t be exposed to Japanese rock and pop until years later.
Friedman admitted in an interview to tofugu.com that his guitar playing was largely inspired by Japanese classical music, “I emulated the voices of top class enka singers with my guitar. Everyone else was copying Eddie Van Halen, Jeff Beck, and guys like that… I was on a different path of guitar interpretation altogether.”
“Marty and I were going in different directions.” – Dave Mustaine
Dave Mustaine had his own version of why Friedman left the band. He told the Colorado radio station, KILO 94.3, “Marty and I were going in different directions. Of course, we’re friends now and I’ve always loved his playing, but he wanted to do something else. And I should have said, ‘Okay, let’s stop. I’ll get a new guitar player. You go on your way.’ But instead, he stayed longer than he wanted and I think I kept him longer than I should have.”
Mustaine would claim in the same interview that the final straw that broke the camel’s back was the guitar solo on the song “Breadline” on their album Risk. Friedman’s solo was removed by the group’s management and replaced with Mustaine’s solo. Friedman wasn’t aware of the change until he heard the final mix. According to Mustaine, Friedman quickly quit the group after that.
Marty Friedmand Relocates to Japan
Friedman’s love of Japanese music resulted in the guitarist learning Japanese and moving to the island country in 2003. He told Tofugu, “I looked at the top 10 in the U.S. and rarely found a single song that I liked. I looked at the top ten in Japan, and usually 8 or 9 songs were songs I liked. As an artist, I knew I had to be in a place where I wanted to make music.”
It was a risky move given that 80% of the music consumed in Japan is from local artists while international acts make up the remaining 20%.
Marty Friedman had no contacts in Japan, but he got a huge break when he first arrived in the country. He told Rolling Stone, “As soon as I got here, I got very lucky. I joined a band with a singer named Aikawa Nanase, kind of a household name, a rock and J-pop singer in Japan. That got me started and on my way to doing the things that I wanted to do.”
Marty Friedmand Hosts a TV Show in Japan
Not long after that, a production company approached Friedman about hosting a TV show called Mr. Heavy Metal, “They wanted me to do these skits where I would play Japanese traditional songs on guitar and morph them with heavy metal songs in such a way that the viewers and the show guests would laugh at the implied similarities of the two seemingly unrelated styles of music. Who else could do that?!”
Marty Friedman soon got an offer to do a spin-off show called Rock Fujyama. Coupled with his solo albums and guest appearances on other artists’ records, he also got his own radio show and his career had a rebirth.
Friedman revealed to Rolling Stone, “A lot of people in Japan still only know me from TV. At first, I resented that. My attitude was that I had done all of this music, but now I do this one TV show, everyone knew me from that. But I eventually realized that was the best thing ever, and enjoyed everything that came from doing that TV show.”
Friedman admitted to Rolling Stone that he likely made over 600 TV appearances in Japan, including a cooking show. He also revealed that he moonlights as a songwriter for numerous Japanese idol groups as well.
Marty Friedman Named Japan’s Heritage Ambassador
The government of Japan acknowledged Marty Friedman’s popularity in the country and named him Japan’s Heritage Ambassador to promote the country’s 2020 olympics.
Friedman’s popularity in Japan started to make news in America. An LA-based heavy metal label reached out to Friedman to reissue his Japanese solo albums stateside. The reissues were well received and Friedman would play his largest tour of America in over a decade.
The question of a Megadeth reunion of the Rust in Peace lineup is continually brought up in interviews, but the prospect seems unlikely.
“I didn’t see a reunion as being what it could be and what the fans deserved.” – Marty Friedman
In 2014, Megadeth offered Marty Friedman and Nick Menza the opportunity to rejoin the group, but Friedman told the LA Weekly, “I think anyone that has something as good as Rust In Peace in their history doesn’t want to revisit it unless you are going to top it. I didn’t see any reason to mess with that. I didn’t see a reunion as being what it could be and what the fans deserved.”
Marty Friedman was quoted in the Dave Mustaine book, Rust in Peace: The Inside Story of Megadeth’s Masterpiece, “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.
I’d been in Japan for more than 10 years cultivating a career with solid rewards. I was making money not only for myself, but for my management and staff. My managers have been with me for 15 years but I certainly wasn’t going to take less to join a band that, frankly, at this point, didn’t seem like they had too much to offer musically 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.”
In the same interview, Friedman went on to state that he viewed Megadeth as more of a Dave Mustaine solo project due to the revolving cast of musicians in the band.
Like this story? Check out Type O Negative: History Of The Band & Death of Peter Steele
Check out our YouTube channel