The rumors are true. Later this month, Megadeth will reunite onstage with their former guitarist Marty Friedman for the first time in 23 years. The news was officially confirmed by Dave Mustaine in an interview with Rolling Stone, where the frontman revealed that Friedman will be playing a three-song encore with the thrash pioneers during their gig at Tokyo's Budokan arena on February 27th.
Friedman was a guitarist in Megadeth from 1990 to 2000, playing on beloved albums like 1990's Rust in Peace, 1992's Countdown to Extinction and 1994's Youthanasia, and departing the band due to creative differences after 1999's hard-rock pivot, Risk. In the early 2000s, Friedman moved to Japan and unexpectedly became a pop culture celebrity, hosting TV shows, acting in commercials and movies, and enjoying a wildly successful solo music career.
Fans have long clamored for some kind of reunion between Megadeth and Friedman, and in just a couple weeks, that dream will at long last become a reality. The shredder will be playing onstage alongside Megadeth's current lineup — lead guitarist, Kiko Loureiro, bassist, James LoMenzo and drummer Dirk Verbeuren — and the whole show will be live-streamed so fans around the world can tune in.
"When Marty said, 'Hey, I can play at this gig,' I thought, 'This is so magnificent,'" Mustaine told Rolling Stone. "It's gonna be so much fun to get Kiko and Marty together, because they're both geniuses on guitar. So this is like a gigantic birthday and Christmas present for me."
"It has been a long time — 23 years to be exact since I've been on the same stage with Dave Mustaine making music," Friedman said in a statement shared with Rolling Stone. "We've both taken drastically different paths since then. That doesn't change the fact that I'm extremely proud of the part that I played in Megadeth's history and legacy. I'm also very, very proud of the band's many great achievements and continued success in my absence. For right now, I just feel immense joy and some serious adrenaline. I am looking forward to playing with Megadeth at this very cool place, the Budokan."
"We haven't been to Japan in a long time," Mustaine added. "I thought that inviting Marty was just a very thoughtful thing to do. Megadeth has not been a band that's had a lot of guest appearances from other players. We are not a jam band. I asked Kiko how he felt about this, and Kiko is completely confident in his guitar playing."
"This is not like when the Police handed their instruments to U2 to pass the torch," Mustaine continued. "This is doing something really grateful to the Japanese audience. We want it to be a gift. So everybody who bought that ticket before today, you're welcome. … I'm really looking forward to this moment. It's gonna be great."
