Marty Friedman is playing the Token Lounge on Friday, January 31st, but first, he spoke with me on numerous topics.
His latest book is called Dreaming Japanese. In the book, he talks about the highs and lows of playing in a monstrous band like Megadeth, leaving and starting over in a foreign land. He said he read other autobiographies to give himself a clearer look at what he wanted his to be like. “I got a feel as a reader of what I wanted to read myself. And as a result, I wound up being flat honest and talking about embarrassing things about myself, and I didn’t always paint myself in a good light.” As he puts it, talking about the good things he’s done might read more like a resume, not a personal behind-the-scenes look that he wanted to give the fans. He said, “I’m definitely not the hero in all of these stories.”
As far as leaving Megadeth went, he said he’d never really talked about it before. ” Once I left Megadeth, I stopped doing interviews about the band completely.” He told me that the venues he played at, weren’t allowed to promote the show with anything Megadeth. Now he wants to talk about the relationships and the inner turmoil as he decided to exit the band. “I feel really bad about the way I left the band, and the situation I left them in, and you can in the book why it turned out that way…and there’s no excusing what I did. It wasn’t going to happen any other way.”
He said that joining the band on stage for two concerts in 2023 closed the chapter on that part of his life, which was still open. ” Yeah, especially the Budokan show in Japan. That was one thing that was hanging over, ya know.” He spoke of wanting to play at that venue from an early age. Now, he’s played it several times, but there was a need to play that place with Megadeth. He called it “unfinished business”. When we (Dave Mustaine and him) had the chance to play there, it was a big celebration.” He said that even though they went down different paths to meet up at that gig over the years, it was like a love letter to the fans when it was all said and done. “It was definite closure!”
He also spoke to the massive popularity of the band in the early 90s. “What led up to it was more interesting than actually getting there. The suffering part of the career. It reads better in the book.” He then describes it as taking a “massive dump”. Yes, you need to hear him talk about the rise of the band with a bowel movement analogy.
I think it’s been about 26 years since I last spoke with Marty. Great to have him back on Talkin’ Rock with Meltdown.