Watch Marty Friedman Audition for Megadeth in 1989
Well, here’s a fun piece of metal history to pleasure of your eyeballs and earholes: video of Marty Friedman auditioning for Megadeth back in 1989. Mr. Friedman, of course, got the gig, and went on to become arguably the definitive lead axeman for ‘Deth.
The position was actually offered to Dimebag at one point, but he turned it down because Dave Mustaine wouldn’t also hire his brother, Vinnie Paul, to play drums. That ended up working out pretty well for all of us.
Annihilator’s Jeff Waters was also up for the gig. I don’t know why he didn’t get it but I thank Hanneman who art in Heaven that he didn’t get it because by the time Megadeth were making Countdown to Extinction Waters was already OOG (out of gas).
The Friedman audition video originally appeared in the video portion of the 2006 Arsenal of Megadeth boxed set, but Metal Hammer just reposted it. Now seems like an appropriate time to revisit Friedman’s early days with Megadeth, since Dave Mustaine just released a new book about the making of Rust in Peace (1990), which was the band’s debut with both Friedman and drummer Nick Menza. Today, I shouldn’t hafta tell you, Rust in Peace is largely considered Megadeth’s supreme masterpiece.
You can watch the video below.
Friedman recently appeared on “Imminent Threat,” a new solo track from current Megadeth guitarist Kiko Loureiro.
Megadeth are currently recording a new album, which Dave Mustaine has compared to Rust itself. The band will (allegedly) tour with Lamb of God next year to make up for the tour with Lamb of God they were forced to cancel this year because you know why.
