Marty Friedman Posts Video Message Ahead of Show with Megadeth: “I Just Feel Immense Joy”

Yesterday, it was announced that former Megadeth axeman Marty Friedman would join the band during the encore at their upcoming Japan show on February 27. Today, he posted a video message about the upcoming show and his excitement for it (via Blabbermouth):

“What’s up, everybody? This is Marty Friedman here. Just a quick announcement to let you all know that I’m gonna be joining my good friends in Megadeth on stage at the Budokan in Tokyo on February 27th.

“It’s been a real long time since I’ve been on the same stage with Dave Mustaine making music, and we’ve both taken severely different paths in our life since then. But that doesn’t change the fact that I’m so extremely proud of the part that I played in Megadeth history and Megadeth’s legacy, and I’m also very, very proud of the achievements that the band has done in my absence. But for right now, at this moment, I just feel immense joy and serious adrenaline to look forward to playing together at this very, very cool place. So I just really wish you could be there, and I hope to see you soon.”

When it was announced yesterday, Mustaine added:

“When Marty said, ‘Hey, I can play at this gig,’ I thought, ‘This is so magnificent.’ It’s gonna be so much fun to get Kiko [Loureiro] and Marty together, because they’re both geniuses on guitar. So this is like a gigantic birthday and Christmas present for me.

“We haven’t been to Japan in a long time. I thought that inviting Marty was just a very thoughtful thing to do. Megadeth has not been a band has 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.

If you don’t live in Japan, the show will be livestreamed.