After he was fired from Metallica in 1983, the guitarist and singer Dave Mustaine formed Megadeth, his own Thrash Metal band that became one of the most influential of all time. However, the group didn’t had the same stability that Metallica had over the decades, since the members were constantly being fired by him.
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In an interview with Bloodstock TV (Transcribed by Blabbermouth), Mustaine talked about the band’s past members and said that the guitarist Marty Friedman is the only one who managed to be successful after being part of the band.
Friedman released his first solo album on the Japanese label Avex Trax in 2006 and since then had released 12 records with them. He lives in Japan and achieved fame as a solo artist there.
The guitarist was invited by Megadeth to perform with the group again in 2023 as a special guest when they performed in Japan. The reunion was also live-streamed to fans all over the world
Dave Mustaine says Friedman is the only successful ex-Megadeth
“It did have a lot of those emotions (The reunion with Friedman in Japan). It did feel like it was the good old days. Also, Marty has made quite a name for himself on his own since then.”
“Of all of the ex-bandmembers of Megadeth, Marty seems to be the only one that’s ever amounted to anything. No offense to the other guys — that’s how the facts are. If you look at their sales and stuff, Marty’s the only one that’s ever done anything significant.”
He continued:
“And to be able to go over and visit him in his world… It was neat to see him out of his environment. Plus, when he came in, he was very suggestive on some things to make the show really smooth. And he wanted to go over all the songs that we were playing several times to make sure everything was just really shit-hot.”
“And, of course, Marty being in Marty fashion, he got out there and he mesmerized us all, me included. I found it kind of hard to watch him and do my job at the same time, but I very much wanted to just sit there and watch Kiko and Marty play together, because they two are some of the greatest guitar players in hard rock and heavy metal right now, and to watch the two of them play together was remarkable,” Dave Mustaine said.
The band’s line-up is currently formed by Dave Mustaine (Guitar and vocals), Kiko Loureiro (Guitar), James LoMenzo (Bass) and Dirk Verbeuren (Drums).
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