MARTY FRIEDMAN Confesses ‘I Wanted Megadeth to Make More Ballads the Way Metallica Did’

In a leap of honesty, Marty Friedman told Loudwire’s Wikipedia that his departure from Megadeth was ‘a win-win for everybody’ because he wanted Megadeth to write ballads as Metallica did. On [1999’s] ‘Risk,’ it [Wikipedia] says that you heavily encouraged Dave Mustaine to ‘indulge in his pop sensibilities’ for the record…

“That, and heavier stuff too. I wanted it to be like, either/or and both, I didn’t want it to be down the middle…”

About his likes on Japanese music:

“Yeah, for example, a band like X-Japan, that I was into at the time – they have these ultra, ultra heavy-metal… kind of like New British Wave of British Heavy Metal songs on 10. And then they have these Barry Manilow ballads. It’s those contrasts that really appeal to me.

“And in Megadeth, I thought with a name like Megadeth, we should be f*cking heavy as f*ck! And then we could afford to have something that’s like, not a poppy ballad, but kind of a ballad that works.

“Like, I have a lot of respect for Metallica, and they did a ballad and it sounded like them. And I was, ‘Why can’t we do something like that?’.

“I always wanted to do really, really heavy stuff and something that also appealed to people who don’t like their tempos that fast. There’s room for everything.

“Actually, all of us at the time cooperated the best as we could. There was no fighting about anything as far as I remember.”

About not being fond of Metal anymore:

“I don’t know about tired of playing metal, but tired of kind of holding the flag up for traditional metal, which is what I saw happening.

“There was so much more I wanted to do, so much more musically I had to say, and I thought Megadeth could go on with their goals a lot better with a different person, and they did. They got a lot of great guys who were more suited to what they were trying to do than I was.

“So I think it was a win-win for everybody.”

About being rejected for his multi-colored hair:

“No, I was never rejected, but I did have multi-colored hair, and it might have caused a stir if they had any band meetings about me, but no one said… I basically got the gig the day of the audition.

“I would have been happy to adjust it [the hair]. I didn’t have multi-colored hair on purpose. I was really broke and borderline homeless, living with girls I didn’t even know who they were…

“I didn’t have the type of money to attend proper salons and stuff. So I might have colored my hair one time and it half-way grew out… it wasn’t like a was trying to do a trendy half-half type of thing. It just was what it was.

“I did a lot of tuning up after I joined Megadeth. Before them, it was a really sad state of affairs. I had worn very ripped-up jeans and ratty t-shirts and stuff…

“And when you’re in a band that’s on a major label, you have to look somewhat decent. And the cool thing about Megadeth, they were kind of straight-edge at that time, as far as I’m concerned. Everybody looked healthy and presentable and everybody could speak nicely. I had to kind of come up to that.

“Before that, I was living in a really tiny place, eating one bucket of rice per day, and lollipops.”

Read our reviews on Marty Friedman’s Hawaii and Deuce:

Watch “Loud, Wild and Heavy” video here:

Watch “Barnburner” official video here:

https://youtu.be/yhCfW9m-f0U