Shredded Pop
For the low price of just one box of rice a day, you too can be a guitar shredder like Marty Friedman.
By Erik Fong

It seems like only yesterday that ex-Megadeth guitarist Marty Friedman was in the Bay Area speed metal band Cacophony with fellow virtuoso Jason Becker. But that was 15 years ago, and a few things have changed since then.

After releasing two Cacophony albums in the late ‘80s – both of which set new standards for aspiring guitar wankers – Friedman and Becker remained friends but took separate career routes. While Becker joined David Lee Roth’s band and supplied guitar parts for Roth’s album A Lil’ Ain’t Enough (and sadly having his promising career interrupted after being stricken with Lou Gehrig’s Disease), Friedman brought his elegant, Asian-influenced guitar stylings to Megadeth, helping the band earn multi-platinum sales and a string of top ten radio hits. Playing the contrasting role of melodic beauty to Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine’s beast-like rhythm guitar skills, Friedman – one of the few who could truly sing through his guitar over the sheer brutality of thrash – played an influential role in “prettifying” metal. Fans of Marty’s instrumental solo albums have always been aware of his eclectic tastes, from the supercharged shred album Dragon’s Kiss to the stripped down, Kitaro-produced Japanese new age-influenced Scenes. His latest, Music for Speeding (out now on Steve Vai’s Favored Nations label), combines lush melodies, programmed computer beats and blazing solos, all the while utilizing an endless arsenal of guitar textures from distorted bottom-heavy rhythms to clean koto-like tones.

Now with residences both in the United States and Japan, Marty left Megadeth in 2000, opting to trade in his black heavy metal boots for pop music fuck-me pumps. He performed for a short time in Red Dye #2, a Garbage-esque pop group that featured female vocals with razor-sharp arena rock guitar solos. Currently, he’s gearing up for a short Japanese tour with pop singer Aikawa Nanase, and will also commence a solo tour in August, beginning in Japan and possibly playing in the States in September as well.

We caught up with Marty as he was preparing for his tour in Japan with Nanase. Read on for the best anecdotes of groupies, poverty and urine-soaked sandwiches that your adorable brain will ever absorb.

Perfect Pitch Online: Having experienced great success in both America and Japan, compare and contrast the American groupie to the Japanese groupie.
Marty Friedman: I think wherever you go, if they want to get you, they’ll find a way. It doesn’t really matter where you are. My particular type of girl is more of an Asian type, so I’m more enthusiastic around Asian females than others. But as far as countries go, everybody is pretty much the same. If they want to come and get you, they will, and if they don’t want to give you the time of day, they’ll do that too. [laughs]

PP: What’s the furthest a groupie has gone to get to you?
MF: There was this one girl, she would come from all different parts of the country. She would fly in from where she lived, but here’s the kicker: She’d come with her mom. Her mom would wait in the lobby of the hotel, and then when we were done, she’d go back with her mom.

PP: Well, that isn’t disturbing at all.
MF: Yeah, I can’t imagine what their conversations were before and after the trip – especially after the trip. “Mom, he did this, and then he did that, and I couldn’t believe he did this!” She’d come to a lot of different spots in the middle of the country – I don’t think I ever met her mother, but I know her mom was waiting for her. I don’t get it, but I wasn’t questioning it. The girl was really hot. I wasn’t complaining at all.

PP: Of course. No sense in biting the hand that, well, does stuff to you. You used to live in San Francisco – how long did you live here?
MF: About four years.

PP: What's one of your favorite memories of living here?
MF: Hanging out with Jason Becker and playing guitar on the roof of my apartment downtown on Taylor Street and Geary. He used to come over and we’d go on the roof with practice amps and work out our songs and guitar parts and stuff.

PP: Speaking of Jason, tell me your favorite Jason Becker story.
MF: We were in Los Angeles, and Jason – he’s the mellowest guy. He’s even mellower than I am. He’s totally casual – he’ll never get angry or pissed off or anything. But one time [Cacophony had] driven all the way from San Francisco to Los Angeles. It was a long drive and we were starting – not to get on each other’s nerves or anything, but apparently it all came to a boil when we went to Fatburger on Ventura Blvd. and Lankershim. We went into Fatburger and everyone’s waiting for their burgers, and Jason’s came first. And our singer at the time, Peter Marrino, was just joking around and grabbed Jason’s burger, and I guess that was the final straw, so Jason took an open carton of chocolate milk and threw it directly in Peter’s face from about two feet away. Milk spilled all over him and all over the Fatburger restaurant, which was tiny, so it was like right in front of the people working there. Everybody who was there saw. And we did not expect that to come out of mild-mannered Jason at all. The rest of the band was laughing uncontrollably. That’s the only time I’ve seen Jason get pissed off.

PP: Ah, memories. What's the status of Red Dye #2?
MF: It’s pretty much defunct, except one of the songs may be used on the Playboy Channel. We have a song called “Shake That Hot Thing,” and Playboy expressed an interest in releasing it on a video. I really loved that project. Everybody who’s liked it just immediately got it, understood it and dug it. It’s something very close to me, but who knows what will happen in the future.

PP: What’s the last dumb thing you’ve done?
MF: I’m not that dumb, but I do a lot of medium-dumb things. I was on a train here in Japan, and I fell asleep, and I didn’t get off when I was supposed to transfer. When I woke up, I was at the same station that I started at, and it was the last train of the night. I was about an hour away from my house. I had to get a taxi, which cost a fortune. I felt like a complete idiot. That was pretty dumb.

PP: Name three guitar players in music today who you think will be considered legends in 20 years.
MF: I don’t think being a “living legend” is important. I think it’s more important to concentrate on making your guitar fit within the context of making good music and making music that a lot of people enjoy. For example, look at Jimi Hendrix: He’s known for revolutionizing guitar. But I can only name maybe two of his songs, and I can’t hum any of his melodies. But take a guy like Brian May [Queen]; I can name about 50 songs and I can hum all the solos. Look at Keith Scott [Bryan Adams] – in one shot, in the solo to “Everything I Do (I Do It For You),” he probably sold more records with that one song than Jimi Hendrix in his whole career. So who’s the legend here? It’s all in relative terms. I just look at the guys who have entertained me personally, I don’t even know their names, but bands like Linkin Park and Trust Company – and fuck, I love Andrew WK. There’s so much great guitar being played right now. None of these guys are going to be like Hendrix, but as far as taking guitar to the next level and putting it into a context that we can enjoy, I think they speak volumes.

PP: Since you’re so well versed on international music, I’ve got an exercise for you: I'll name a country and you recommend an artist from that country. Ready, aaaaaand… go: Italy.
MF: Oddly enough, it might not be a lot of people’s cup of tea, but the band’s name is Pooh. It’s the stupidest name in rock, but the guitar player’s really good and the music is really romantic. It’s sort of like Chicago in the ‘80s when they started getting those big David Foster ballads, but it’s more romantic. The ultimate stuff to play with your girlfriend. They’re huge in Italy but rock fans seem to not like them.

PP: China.
MF: There’s a very famous singer from China named Faye Wong. She sang the title theme to Final Fantasy. She’s a major star in China and a pretty big star in Japan too. Great pop singer with some great ballads.

PP: Brazil.
MF: You stumped me. I’ve got a buddy who plays guitar down there, but I don’t know what his music sounds like so I’m afraid to recommend it.

PP: Korea.
MF: My favorite singer in Korea is Yang Soo Kyung. She has some pop songs, but her ballads just make you want to start crying. They’re gorgeous.

PP: India.
MF: When I was really into practicing interesting stuff on guitar, I started listening to Ravi Shankar, the sitar player. And I think every guitar player should at least learn a little bit of his music.

PP: Sweden.
MF: Well, you’ve gotta love ABBA, but there’s a great band called Surfer Rosa, and I think they’re either from Sweden or Norway, but they absolutely rule.

PP: Greece.
MF: Don’t really know of any stuff there. All I remember is [Megadeth] played a festival there and the catering was in the bathroom, and there was a bucket of sandwiches next to the urinal. I’ll never forget that. But that aside, the people were extremely nice. And the music seems very difficult to play.

PP: Yeah, but how were the sandwiches?
MF: I didn’t eat them. Would you eat a sandwich that was next to a urinal?

PP: Is that why they were so soggy?
MF: [laughs] Yeah, no kidding man.

PP: Before joining Megadeth, you must have had some terrible day jobs just to stay afloat. What's the worst day job you've ever had?
MF: I’ve never had a day job, can you believe that?

PP: Amazing. How did you get by?
MF: Uh... by just being broke. [laughs] I taught guitar, and I would teach just enough to scrape by. When I lived in Hollywood, I ate a box of rice a day from a Chinese restaurant. You could get a side order of rice for like a buck, that was what I lived on. And bags of lollipops – I would get two big bags for like 59 cents, really cheap. So I lived on rice and lollipops for a while, and I taught just enough guitar to pay rent. I think if I really went out of my way to get more students I could’ve made more, but teaching was killing me because I didn’t have the patience to give people what was necessary. I gave people what would bring them back for another lesson, but that’s not necessarily what benefited them the most. I just wanted them to come back again so I could eat another box of rice.

Purchase Marty Friedman's latest album, Music for Speeding, through Amazon.com.