Marty Friedman says he rejected Megadeth’s Rust In Peace lineup reunion due to “lowball” offer: “I would have been paid less in a week than I made in a normal day in Japan”
Marty Friedman has opened up about rejecting Megadeth’s invitation to reunite the Rust In Peace lineup back in 2015 due to the “lowball” offer he received.
As Friedman explains, the opportunity for this reunion emerged following the departures of guitarist Chris Broderick and drummer Shawn Drover in 2014. He’d met with Dave Mustaine and then-bassist David Ellefson at the 2015 NAMM show in Anaheim, California, at the time to discuss the potential reunion of the iconic lineup.
However, what he was offered by Megadeth’s former manager Ron Lafitte turned out to be a massive disappointment.
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“Let’s just say he wasn’t even in the ballpark. Hell, he wasn’t even in the parking lot for the ballpark,” Friedman recalls in his latest autobiography, Dreaming Japanese [via Blabbermouth]. “The amount they offered was right around the first salary I got when I joined Megadeth in 1990.”
“If I’d had any idea they would lowball me like this, I never would have met with them in Anaheim,” says the guitarist, noting that “had I taken that offer, I would have been paid less in a week than I made in a normal day in Japan.”
“I was stunned and angry and told them I couldn’t even consider it. I made a counteroffer, which was the bare minimum I could accept, and far less than I have received from any of the artists I’ve toured with in Japan.”
According to Friedman, the offer also included Lafitte floating the possibility of Megadeth and Iron maiden touring together after the reunion.
“I was willing to take the financial hit because a reunion tour with Megadeth opening for Iron Maiden could open doors for me again in America. And what followed could be a bigger tour than anything we had previously done,” says Friedman. “Even if they met my rate, the tour would have been a huge windfall for them. They easily could have agreed to that, and the reunion would have been on, but they said I wanted too much money.”
He continues: “I was happy with my career in Japan, doing what I loved, making real money without the kind of drama that comes with Megadeth. They didn’t even acknowledge they had just lost their guitarist and drummer and needed me more than I needed them. When I got over my initial anger, I was puzzled and sad.”
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