Marty friedman autobiography books

The rollicking autobiography of the iconic guitarist who took thrash metal behemoths Megadeth from the edge of collapse to their highest peak before departing to Japan for the joy of J-Pop.

“The story of how he got where he is is fascinating. The Megadeth years have been well documented, but there’s so much more to Marty Friedman’s story and it’s well worth reading about in Dreaming Japanese.” —Decibel Magazine

Marty Friedman’s upbringing was as atypical as his career. Growing up in a Jewish household in Maryland, the son of an NSA executive, he lacked motivation until he accidentally discovered the guitar and immediately found his calling. Enjoying a hazy adolescence overflowing with partying, music, and teen antics, he achieved local stardom in Deuce, then burst onto the national scene by pioneering a radically new style of playing, bringing attention to the guitar aficionado label, Shrapnel Records. Acclaim didn’t breed success or money, but undeterred, Friedman moved to California, and after attempts to join Madonna, KISS, and Ozzy Osbourne, finally scored a gig in Megadeth at a time when the band members were just recovering from the verge of self-destruction, and Marty was in and out of homelessness.

Friedman is the most revered guitarist to play in any Megadeth lineup. During his ten years, his exotic, innovating style helped define the sound of their biggest albums, and while it elevated him to guitar hero status with all the accompanying perks, it came at a significant cost. As the only clean and sober member, Friedman vividly recalls the triumphs and trials of each album cycle and more, bringing to light previously undisclosed personal feelings surrounding the circumstances that forced the band into hiding in the midst of the Countdown to Extinction Tour and the brutal effort it took to get the band back up and running. His profound and complicated relationship with frontman Dave Mustaine was symbolic of the band’

In the prologue to Marty Friedman's recently published autobiography, "Dreaming Japanese" (written with Jon Wiederhorn), the American guitarist describes being the "only non-Japanese person" in an izakaya (Japanese pub) following a concert by singer Nanase Aikawa, with whom he was touring. The gig was "literally my wildest dream coming true," and while he was already a fluent Japanese speaker he felt "out of my element" at the afterparty.

The anecdote in question took place in 2003, not long after Friedman, who made his name as lead guitarist for the heavy metal band Megadeth, had moved to Japan to try and make it performing "Japanese music at the top level," bringing nothing but his self-taught Japanese and an abiding love of J-pop. He succeeded, thanks mainly to a diligent work ethic.

Still, one of the themes in “Dreaming Japanese” is that while Friedman has become a star in his own right in Japan, he still feels that he doesn't "belong," as he commented at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan (FCCJ) in November: "That's not going to happen to anyone from outside."

Thrash/shred guitar virtuoso/J-Pop idol/TV presenter, MartyFriedman’s new memoir, Dreaming Japanese (co-written with Jon Wiederhorn) is set for release on December 3 via Permuted Press. It’s a nearly 400-page tome that covers the incredible arc of his unusual professional career, as well as plenty of personal anecdotes.

Friedman is obviously primarily known to the metal world for his years in Megadeth, arguably some of that band’s finest, but as Dreaming Japanese exposes, that wasn’t really the nadir of the talented guitarist/songwriter’s career. This was perhaps the most eye-opening element of this book for me. Well, that and the fact that Friedman is not afraid to put in a lot of hard work to achieve his goals, however outlandish/unlikely/insane they happen to be.

No surprise, he didn’t become the guitar virtuoso he is today by accident. As we learn here, he was putting in the hours playing and learning both his instrument and what it takes to write a good song from his early days as a stoned teenager in Maryland, with his band Deuce.

This was all news to me, as I first encountered his playing when he was living in Hawaii and playing in Vixen/Aloha/Hawaii. My pal K.J. Doughton put “The Pit and the Pendulum” on a mixed tape for me and I was convinced that was one of the fastest, most brutal songs I’d ever heard in 1982. I always assumed Friedman was a native Hawaiian. Nope. His curly locks aren’t Samoan, they’re from his Jewish roots.

Hawaii was just the beginning of his metal odyssey, but unfortunately when he joined Megadeth in 1990 (after a couple guitar shred records with Jason Becker in Cacophony) he sort of went from being in the forefront to backing Dave Mustaine, a player who’s clearly his musical inferior. He made some great records and some not so great ones with Megadeth and left on a decidedly low note, Risk.

At this point, he’d achieved enough fame and success that he had the usual trappings: nice house, fancy cars