During a recent interview with Oran O’Beirne of Bloodstock TV, Dave Mustaine discussed MEGADETH‘s remarkable performance at Tokyo, Japan’s famous Budokan venue four months ago.
Mustaine and his bandmates were joined on stage by former MEGADETH guitarist Marty Friedman. Friedman appeared during the group’s first-ever gig at the Budokan and played three songs (“Countdown to Extinction,” “Tornado of Souls,” and “Symphony of Destruction”) towards the end of the main set.
Mustaine was asked on whether it felt like no time had passed since Friedman‘s departure 23 years ago, to which he responded: “It did have a lot of those emotions. 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,” Mustaine 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 [Loureiro, current MEGADETH guitarist] 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.”
When Friedman was presented with the idea of MEGADETH‘s Rust In Peace lineup reunion three years ago, money became a persuading factor for him to take part. He and drummer Nick Menza met with Mustaine and ex-bassist David Ellefson at the 2015 NAMM show in Anaheim to talk about rejoining forces once again.
In Mustaine‘s latest book, Rust In Peace: The Inside Story Of The Megadeth Masterpiece, Friedman candidly reveals why he declined the offer of a MEGADETH reunion for their iconic album, 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.”
