Marty Friedman Wants Media to Stop Adding ‘Ex-Megadeth’ to His Name: “The Time to Stop… Was 20 Years Ago”
It should go without saying, but one of the most impressive guitarists on the planet today has to be none other than Marty Friedman. The dude’s chops are insane and there’s a big reason why he’s usually considered the best guitarist to join Megadeth. But his time in the iconic thrash metal band was a long time ago now and after years of carving out an equally impressive solo career, he wants to remind people that he’s more than just an “ex-Megadeth guitarist.”
While speaking with That Rocks!, the American cereal enthusiast revealed that it bothers him when he sees his name attached to Megadeth, even if the article has nothing to do with his time in the band. And while he’s got nothing but love for Dave Mustaine and the boys (regardless of who’s in the band at any moment), he wants to be seen as a completely separate artist.
“Of course, once I left Megadeth, the tag ‘ex-Megadeth’ was stuck to my name, and I understood that for about a year or two. And then I really, really wanted to cut that out because I was no longer in Megadeth and I was doing my own thing doing other things not related to Megadeth at all.
“So from about 2002 or 2003, I just made it a strict rule that any kind of media when they published whatever they were doing, no ‘ex-Megadeth’ next to my name. Just don’t put it in the headline. Don’t put my name with Megadeth — ‘former Megadeth’, all of that stuff was like a very, very strict rule. Of course, as you all know, in the media they tend to ignore those rules about 90 percent of the time. They ignored that a lot, but then, as time went on, it started to get less and less, and I started to feel better about it.
“And then in the mid-2010s, a lot of places stopped completely putting that next to my name, because there was nothing I was doing even remotely related to Megadeth, so why put it in there? Of course, sometimes they even still do it now, and it just really, really bugs the shit out of me, because it’s not doing Megadeth any favors either.
“It’s not doing me any favors. It’s 25 years ago. They have their own band, and I’m the biggest fan of their band, and my thing is completely different from theirs. But sometimes you can’t control what the media does. But that still doesn’t mean that I don’t have a lot of love and respect for the band. Of course I do. We’re both doing separate things.”
To put things into perspective, Friedman has 18 solo releases under his belt since 1998. Conversely, he was only ever featured in six full-length albums with Megadeth. Just based on those figures alone, headlines maybe should read “prominent solo guitarist Marty Friedman.”
After news outlets picked up on his comments, Friedman took to social media to further clarify his stance, once again stating that he’s got nothing but respect for Megadeth.
“For those who don’t bother to read the article, I’m extremely proud to have been in Megadeth. I cherish my 10 year history in the band and wish them only continued success. But the time to stop attaching it to my name in completely unrelated articles was at least 20 years ago.”
Point duly noted, Marty. We’ll do our best to try to respect your wishes.
