SW: In the late 60s/early 70s you had metal guitar greats such as Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, Ritchie Blackmore, Tony Iommi, Michael Schenker, Uli Roth, Joe Perry, Ace Frehley and Ted Nugent who were worshipped by young aspiring musicians and fans alike. Then in the late '70s, "guitar gods" such as Eddie Van Halen emerged, and the '80s brought to light new innovators such as Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai and, of course, Marty Friedman! You have truly earned the title "Guitar Hero," Marty. Do you think it is still possible in the '90s, and beyond, for new "Guitar Heroes" to emerge?
SW: Regarding touring...It's not uncommon for Megadeth to be on the road for 13 months straight, without a break! SW: Megadeth has a huge international following. You've played just about everywhere - Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland...all over the world!
SW: What were some of the most exotic countries where Megadeth has performed?
SW: So, is Africa next on your agenda?
SW: David, seeing that you've been with Megadeth since day one, is there anything you've ever regretted? SW: So what does the future hold for Megadeth?
DISCOGRAPHY
MF: I think it's tough to become very popular out of musicianship alone. The way to attract the masses is by doing something that a lot of people think is "cool," and what people perceive as "cool" doesn't necessarily mean advanced, technical musicianship. It's just gotta be something that people can enjoy, and I think those people who can do that will become the musical "heroes" to the masses. It really doesn't matter too much if you're able to play "Flight Of The Bumblebee" on guitar, which is a difficult thing to do, but most people don't care; they just wanna hear something they can enjoy. And I understand that, so that's pretty much all I've tried to do over the years...play something that I enjoy and that other people can hopefully get into as well.
DE: Yeah, in the old days...the Peace Sells and Rust In Piece tours...we would get what we called "post-tour depression," which is when you get off from a long tour. You're out on the road having a great time, living it up, partying every night...then, all of the sudden, the tour ends, and all that stops. And you really miss it...you almost go into mourning.
MF: And we're doing it all again! We seem to go over really well in the Eastern European countries, and they deserve to get good music in their country just like everywhere else.
MF: Israel, Portugal, Greece, South America, Hungary, Japan...we've pretty much played everywhere, except for Africa.
MF: You never know (laughs)...there are a lot of rock fans in Africa, believe it or not. And we always pride ourselves on taking our music to our fans, so it just might happen one of these days...
DE: I really don't regret anything this band has done in the early days, because it was always a stepping stone for what we did next. Sometimes you'll look back and say, "Maybe that was a little foolish," but at least we were sincere in what we did. I remember when we used to go see bands at the Country Club (in Reseda) years ago. All the bands had the hair, the clothes, the management, and the right instruments and amps...they had everything...except they had no songs, and no spirit. It was all very calculated...and I found that boring. When I look back on Megadeth's career...even though we've made some mistakes along the way and, admittedly, we were naive in the beginning...but, at least we had spirit! It wasn't calculated. We weren't sitting around thinking about how we were gonna make it work, we were just fuckin' going for it! And when you look back at it in that light, you realize, "Maybe it wasn't so foolish after all."
MF: A lot of touring! Much of the next record is already written, but we see a pretty long life in Cryptic Writings, so it could be a really long tour. Hopefully, there'll be a lot more singles from this record, since radio has been so supportive thus far. We're just gonna ride it out for as long as we can.
DE: We've learned to take it one day at a time. It's really hard to say because music changes so quickly, the industry changes so quickly, and the public's listening tastes change so quickly these days...so it's really hard for us to calculate what we're gonna be doing next summer, let alone what will happen five years from now. We're very happy just to even be here.