Megadeth and Marty Friedman reunited live on stage for the first time in 23 years on February 27 at the Nippon Budokan venue in Tokyo, Japan. Everyone sounded great, there was a ton of fan footage, and the whole thing was livestreamed across the world. So that's that, right? A new generation got to see Megadeth and Friedman together and now we're good? Maybe not.
According to Friedman in an interview with Guitar World, there might be another reunion on the horizon. Friedman didn't explicitly say there was, but mentioned in the interview that both he and Megadeth are "both playing at Wacken Open Air festival in Germany this summer, so you never know." Which if there wasn't a possibility for another reunion, then why bother making a comment like that?
Friedman also opened up about what he felt was the hardest thing about the reunion – his playing, and trying to mirror what he did 30 years ago.
"If there was any challenge at all, I guess it would be playing the solos the way the fans remember them, which is something I wanted to do," he said. "My playing has evolved so much since those songs came out, and there are so many nuances I would naturally do differently now.
"I had to resist the urge to play it like I would in 2023 and stick to the original way. For example, in a couple of those songs, I entered the solo on the downbeat, with the first note being the root of the chord. I would definitely avoid both of those things now, but apparently, I was fine with it back then."
Friedman played in Megadeth throughout the '90s and performed on every album between Rust In Peace in 1990 and Risk in 1999. Friedman has since seen massive success as both a musician and TV personality in Japan.
