MEGADETH Confirmed To Reunite With Marty Friedman For 1st Time In 23 Years

The rumors are true. Later this month MEGADETH will be joined onstage by former guitarist Marty Friedman. The reunion was officially confirmed by Dave Mustaine in an interview with Rolling Stone, where the frontman revealed that Friedman is scheduled to join the band onstage for a 3-song during Tokyo's Budokan Arena gig on February 27.

Friedman was a part of MEGADETH from 1990-2000 in which he recorded Rust in Peace (1990), Countdown To Extinction (1992), Youthanasia (1994), Hidden Treasures (1995), Cryptic Writings (1997) and Risk (2000) before departing with the band citing creative differences.

"When Marty said, 'Hey, I can play at this gig,' I thought, 'This is so magnificent,'"Mustaine told Rolling Stone. "It's gonna be so much fun to get Kiko and Marty together, because they're both geniuses on guitar. So this is like a gigantic birthday and Christmas present for me."

"It has been a long time — 23 years to be exact since I've been on the same stage with Dave Mustaine making music," Friedman said in a statement shared by Rolling Stone. "We've both taken drastically different paths since then. That doesn't change the fact that I'm extremely proud of the part that I played in Megadeth's history and legacy. I'm also very, very proud of the band's many great achievements and continued success in my absence. For right now, I just feel immense joy and some serious adrenaline. I am looking forward to playing with Megadeth at this very cool place, the Budokan."

"We haven't been to Japan in a long time," Mustaine added. "I thought that inviting Marty was just a very thoughtful thing to do. Megadeth has not been a band that's had a lot of guest appearances from other players. We are not a jam band. I asked Kiko how he felt about this, and Kiko is completely confident in his guitar playing."

"This is not like when the Police handed their instruments to U2 to pass the torch," Mustaine continued. "This is doing something really grateful to the Japanese audience. We want it to be a gift. So everybody who bought that ticket before today, you're welcome. … I'm really looking forward to this moment. It's gonna be great."