Former MEGADETH guitarist Marty Friedman played his first U.S. show in four years last night (Friday, March 3) at The Plaza Live in Orlando, Florida as support act for QUEENSRŸCHE. Fan-filmed video of the concert can be seen below.
Marty is confirmed to perform on 30 additional dates with QUEENSRŸCHE, running through April 16, where the tour wraps up in St. Petersburg, Florida. Along the way, the trek will make stops in Dallas, Texas (March 11); Anaheim, California (March 19); Chicago, Illinois (March 31),New York City (April 10) and Nashville, Tennessee (April 14),to name a few. Also, Marty recently announced two headline shows on his own: March 17 in Las Vegas, Nevada at Count’s Vamp’d and March 18 in Los Angeles, California at the Whisky A Go Go.
Marty‘s latest album, “Tokyo Jukebox 3”, came out in April 2021 via The Players Club/Mascot Label Group. The record, which was made available in Japan in October 2020, is the third in a series that began with “Tokyo Jukebox” in 2009, and then “Tokyo Jukebox 2” following in 2011. The trilogy presents Friedman‘s inspired performances to Japanese repertoire he’s chosen to cover.
Marty‘s presence in the world of music, the world of guitar and Japanese pop culture is mystifying, bizarre, and nothing short of inspiring. His first major impact in music was in the game-changing guitar duo CACOPHONY, which he founded with equally enigmatic and now-legendary guitarist Jason Becker. He then spent 10 years as lead guitarist in the genre-defining thrash metal act MEGADETH before moving to Tokyo due to his love for Japanese music, language, and culture.
Following his move, he landed a starring role for a new TV comedy “Hebimeta-san” (“Mr. Heavy Metal”) and its spinoff, “Rock Fujiyama”, which ran for six seasons and propelled him into the living rooms of Japan’s mainstream. He has since appeared in over 800 TV shows, movies and commercials, including a two-year campaign with Coca-Cola for Fanta, authored two best-selling novels and was the first-ever foreigner to be appointed as an ambassador of Japan heritage and perform at the opening ceremony for the Tokyo Marathon in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2022.
At the same time, Marty has continued his career in music with several solo albums in addition to writing and performing with the top artists in Japanese music, racking up countless chart hits, including a No. 1 with SMAP, two No. 2 songs with MOMOIRO CLOVER, a No. 2 with SOUND HORIZON — just to name a few.