New Marty Friedman album

[dimobag]

He's got a new album either out now, or just about to come out. Tokyo Jukebox.
Apparently it's lots of J-pop covers. Yeah, sounds AMAZING eh....
But you can listen to clips here, and it actually sounds much better than what I'd feared.

http://www.neowing.co.jp/track_for_cdj.html?KEY=AVCD-23839

Wonder what guitar he's using now.

He uses PRS but, doesn´t endorse any label....

[Greg Crowe]

Marty told me in person back around 2002 at a get together before a Jackson sponsered clinic that he wanted to do "chick rock" and get away from metal. I've gotta say, Marty was one strange little dude. He was really quirky and that's putting it nicely. We setup a Blue Voodoo amp backward for him on stage and just took his Jackson Custom Shop made Les Paul out of the case and put it on a stand next to the amp. As soon as Marty took the stage in front of a couple hundred people, lots of kids, Marty starts going crazy yelling "For Fuck's Sake, Who fucked up my guitar and tuned it all wrong" ??? Nobody had messed with it.

[Jacksons Shred]

Marty told me in person back around 2002 at a get together before a Jackson sponsered clinic that he wanted to do "chick rock" and get away from metal. I've gotta say, Marty was one strange little dude. He was really quirky and that's putting it nicely. We setup a Blue Voodoo amp backward for him on stage and just took his Jackson Custom Shop made Les Paul out of the case and put it on a stand next to the amp. As soon as Marty took the stage in front of a couple hundred people, lots of kids, Marty starts going crazy yelling "For Fuck's Sake, Who fucked up my guitar and tuned it all wrong" ??? Nobody had messed with it.

Unless I've read your story before, I'm pretty sure I've read very very very similar stories about Marty. You either hear about him being the most laid back and understanding person, or that he's just a strange little man.

Mind explaining how he was quirky?

[Greg Crowe]

Mind explaining how he was quirky?

Man, I hate to bag on Marty since I really like his work in Megadeth but meeting him in person, he was about the exact opposite of what you would think a heavy metal rock star would be. The guy is like 5'0", 110 lbs. He's kind of quiet but has no patience with anyone or anything. He just didn't have much personality at all. You could tell he didn't want to be there for that clinic but I'm sure a few of them were part of his contract with Jackson at the time. He was just picky and pissy about everything. He picked up USA Jackson after Jackson on the wall at the guitar store and in 2 seconds dismissed them as being crap or the strings dead. The guy is so small, Jackson had to downsize the Kelly for him(2nd time they downsized it) so it didn't look too huge on him. I brought my King Kelly up there for him to check out and he picked it up, looked at it and couldn't tell it was any different than his dinky Kelly. My King Kelly was about as big as him.

Marty had a unique style of playing, holds the pic weird and strums weird. Of course, it works well and you can't bag on him about that. However, he was doing some sweeps and somebody asked him about sweeping and he acted like he had no clue what sweeping was and said he didn't do it. What really took the cake though was when he took the stage and had a meltdown about his guitar being out of tune and somebody screwing with it. We named him Marty "Freakout" Friedman from that day on.

[Endrik]

Man, I hate to bag on Marty since I really like his work in Megadeth but meeting him in person, he was about the exact opposite of what you would think a heavy metal rock star would be.

what? from what you described he acted exactly like a rock star

[Greg Crowe]

what? from what you described he acted exactly like a rock star

LOL ! Well, the no patience thing was par for the course but he wasn't loud and outgoing, spoke very quiet and said very little. He didn't act like he owned the place or was anything special like a typical rock star. He was just kind of weird.

[Endrik]

LOL ! Well, the no patience thing was par for the course but he wasn't loud and outgoing, spoke very quiet and said very little. He didn't act like he owned the place or was anything special like a typical rock star. He was just kind of weird.

Psychologically his behavior was very rockstar. You know all this loud and outgoing thing is often an act or it's caused by drugs and booze Unless you are Steven Tyler or DLR.
Quiet, distant, self centered... that's very real. People describe EVH like that, one of the most legendary party time rockstars.
It's not just rockstars but artists and general and specially artists that are really good. They are people who often are very insecure. Great art is born because of a conflict and not only because of the conflict the artists has with his environment but the conflict he has with himself. They aren't necessarily arrogant assholes because of that, it's just that their brain clicks differently and most of the common folks don't really understand them. That's why you see movie stars marrying movie stars. A movie stars is the only person who truly understands another movie star.

[MartinBarre]

Marty's a little weirdo, and talks some crap (I've seen him saying sweep picking is a useless technique too, which is odd coming from him).
But hey, I love his playing.

[Jacksons Shred]

I picked up Tokyo Jukebox.

Really, I may contradict myself, but I think this is his greatest work since Speed Metal Symphony or Scenes.

[m0z]

yeah i think so too. it's really great although i hated that crap album before and loudspeaker wasn't so good either

[MartinBarre]

Yeah, it's a bit weird, just like Marty. You know it should be shit, but end up listening to it and eventually realising it fucking smokes.

[706AN]

I think leaving Megadeth was a big mistake for Marty... When in Megadeth you get a good income, travle the world, and Custom Jackson Guitars.. what more can you possibly want? and why would you quite Megadeth to play J-Pop???

[MartinBarre]

I think leaving Megadeth was a big mistake for Marty... When in Megadeth you get a good income, travle the world, and Custom Jackson Guitars.. what more can you possibly want? and why would you quite Megadeth to play J-Pop???

He still gets a good income, he's a superstar in Japan. He also still travels the world playing his solo stuff, and, if he wanted them, I'm sure he could get Jacksons.
I'd rather listen to Tokyo Jukebox than the new Megadeth album anyway. It might be based on J-Pop, but the guitar playing is ten times better than anything on Endgame.

[Endrik]

I think leaving Megadeth was a big mistake for Marty...

definitely not a mistake for him as he is pretty happy, when your heart isn't in it anymore it's time to quit, simple as that, passionless music sucks the big one

When in Megadeth you get a good income, travle the world, and Custom Jackson Guitars.. what more can you possibly want?

what more? maybe doing what you really want to do? or perhaps getting even more money, fame and pussy as he seems to be getting in Japan

and why would you quite Megadeth to play J-Pop???

maybe you just want to, maybe you just like J-pop, maybe you like to try new things

[dg]

I'd be really interested to see what Dave's hired guns are paid. I bet it's nowhere near what some people here seem to think.