KIKO LOUREIRO wanted MARTY FRIEDMAN back to replace him in MEGADETH
05-01-2024
In a new interview with Guitar World magazine, guitarist Kiko Loureiro, who announced his exit from MEGADETH last September, revealed that he recommended to Dave Mustaine that he be formally replaced by one of his predecessors, Marty Friedman. The gig eventually went to Finnish guitarist Teemu Mäntysaari, who was welcomed into MEGADETH last November after first temporarily filling in for Loureiro.
“Actually, I even mentioned to management and Dave that I thought bringing Marty Friedman back would be amazing,” Kiko told Guitar World. “I have no idea if they’re talking about it or talking to him, but I did say that. But again, I have no idea beyond that, and I don’t want to make anything more complicated.”
Loureiro went on to say that he was warmly embraced by MEGADETH fans during his nine-year stint with the group.
“The fans never said anything bad about me or complained, which was amazing,” he said. “But I’m a fan, and I always understood that Marty was a part of those iconic albums like ‘Rust In Peace’ and ‘Countdown To Extinction’. I understood that Marty was the guy who helped create that sound and style, you know? From the moment I joined MEGADETH, I knew the fans could show me love, but I would never win their hearts over Marty.”
The 36-year-old Mäntysaari, who was scouted and selected by Loureiro for MEGADETH, was born in Tampere, Finland and began playing guitar at the age of 12. In 2004, he joined the band WINTERSUN. He has also been a member of SMACKBOUND since 2015.
Loureiro officially joined MEGADETH in April 2015, about five months after Chris Broderick‘s exit from the group.
Last September, Friedman was asked by Metalhead Marv of This Day In Metal what it was like to rejoin MEGADETH twice on stage in the space of six months earlier that year — first in February 2023 at Tokyo, Japan’s famed Budokan and then in early August 2023 at the Wacken Open Air festival in Wacken, Germany. He responded: ”It was wonderful. We have a wonderful history together, so when something special like that came up, it was kind of a definite thing that I wanted to do. And we both enjoyed it immensely. And I just hope the fans enjoyed it as much as we did. For us, it was just a really nice, nice thing to do to kind of just put an exclamation point on the thing that we did in the history of the band. And, of course, I’m the biggest fan of whatever they do in my absence and just rooting them on the whole way.”
At last year’s Wacken Open Air, Marty performed four songs with MEGADETH: “Trust”, “Tornado Of Souls”, “Symphony Of Destruction” and “Holy Wars… The Punishment Due”.
At Budokan, Friedman came up on stage for three songs toward the end of MEGADETH‘s main set: “Countdown To Extinction”, “Tornado Of Souls” and “Symphony Of Destruction”.
After his Tokyo reunion with MEGADETH, Marty told The Aquarian Weekly: “What I think is great about MEGADETH is that being a legacy act, there’s also new kids discovering them, and then they discover you and look to see what you’re doing now, so they get that experience of Marty Friedman as well.
“I’ve always been rooting for MEGADETH and they really did great,” he continued. “A lot of the things that they did in my absence led them to a very, very good place, and a lot because of Dave‘s (Mustaine, MEGADETH leader) effort and the bandmembers’ efforts. When they made it to Budokan, I was just so glad to hear that. Then they offered me to play and it was just the cherry on top. I had such a great time playing with them. It was something that the fans enjoyed as much as I did.”
Marty also reflected on the experience of performing with MEGADETH at Budokan in a separate interview with The Entertainment Outlet. He said about sharing the stage with Mustaine again: “It was great. It was something that Dave and I both wanted from day one, and we got it. There was just a lot of good feelings in that building that night — not just between us, but you could see in the audience, there was just something different about it. People were screaming, they were crying, they were smiling. It was a little bit different reaction from a normal show. And it was a great moment, I think.”
Friedman revealed that the biggest challenge he faced during his Budokan appearance with MEGADETH was performing his guitar solos the same way fans remember from his original stint with the band.
“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,” Friedman noted. “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.”
MEGADETH played its first concert with Mäntysaari on September 6 at Revel in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The 36-year-old Mäntysaari was born in Tampere, Finland and began playing guitar at the age of 12. In 2004, he joined the band WINTERSUN. He has also been a member of SMACKBOUND since 2015.
In April 2015, it was announced that Loureiro had joined MEGADETH, replacing Chris Broderick, who had left the band five months earlier.
In an October 2015 interview with The Irish Sun, Mustaine was full of praise for Loureiro, saying: “A lot of times guitarists won’t know how to add to something — they’ll put something in there that’s kind of like tits on a bull, unnecessary. Kiko came in and immediately started making some really good suggestions that we applied (to MEGADETH‘s 2016 album, ‘Dystopia’). When he first came in, I knew he had the ability but I didn’t know if the songwriting technique and talent was going to show up this early on.”
He continued: “What was great about the suggestions that Kiko made was that they weren’t just guitar ones — he made a bass part in a song called ‘Me Hate You’ (that made it) really come along. In fact, that was one of the songs where he made a huge melodic contribution in the chorus and I said, ‘Man, this sounds like something.'”
According to Dave, Kiko possesses all the elements that are required to become part of a legendary metal act like MEGADETH.
“For me — really simply stated — if you want to be a musician, that’s one thing. If you want to be a rock star, that’s another,” Mustaine said. “But if you want to be legendary, you need to have three very important components: you need to have ability, you need to have appearance, and you need to have attitude. Without all three of those things, it’s kind of like trying to have a three-legged milk stool without three legs — it’s just not going to work.”
He continued: “I found with Kiko, his ability was astronomical, with his attitude he was very confident in what he did — there’s a difference between confidence and arrogance. In appearance, he was very classy and very subdued on the street, but up on stage he totally takes command of his performance. When he came up to Nashville to visit with me, I didn’t even have him play for the majority of the day he was there. I just wanted to hang out with him and it’s been a really long time since I hung out with a guitar player before I hired him. Usually I would listen to how he played and then I’d go, ‘Okay, we’ll work it out.’ I didn’t want to do that again. Hanging out with Kiko, and having lunch and kicking back and talking music was all I needed — I knew he was the right guy.”
In addition to Mustaine and Loureiro, MEGADETH‘s current lineup includes former SOILWORK drummer Dirk Verbeuren and bassist James LoMenzo.
In September 2022, MEGADETH‘s latest album, “The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!”, debuted at the top of the charts during its first week of sales, taking the No. 3 spot on the Billboard 200 as well as number ones on Top Album Sales, Top Current Albums Sales, Top Rock & Alternative Albums, Top Rock Albums and Top Hard Rock Albums. “The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!” was the highest-charting MEGADETH album of all time around the world, notching No. 1 In Finland, No. 2 in Australia, Poland, Switzerland, and Scotland, No. 3 in the U.K., and more.
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