It’s well known that one of the main reasons that Marty Friedman left Megadeth is because of the removal of his solo in ‘Breadline’ [off Megadeths’ 1999’s ‘Risk’ album].
However, Dave Mustaine has explained how the situation went down, and why the news of the removal of Friedman’s solo was particularly brutal.
“I’ve always believed we should give the guitar player an opportunity to do a solo that he feels is right for the song. If someone plays something that doesn’t work for the part, then I may make some suggestions. If it’s still not happening, I might say, ‘Okay, this is what I want you to play here,” Mustaine told Guitar World.
“If a lead totally doesn’t work then I’m going to do the part myself. That’s what happened [on] ‘Breadline’. And Marty Friedman quit over the solo in ‘Breadline’.”
The vocalist elaborated in more detail about how Freidman found out that his solo was pulled, saying that management want a “safer” solo for Breadline then the one the guitarist has recorded, as they were planning on pushing the song as a single.
“I said [to management], ‘Well, you have three choices. Either you mute the solo completely, have Marty come back and redo it, or I do it.’ And then I said, ‘If I do it, you’d better tell him.’ Well, I redid it and nobody told Marty.
“So we’re in there listening to the finished album and the solo comes on. It’s my solo, not Marty’s… I looked at him as tears ran down his face and I knew right away that nobody had told him. I knew that was probably going to be the end of Marty Friedman.”
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Mustaine stressed that he believes that the situation should have been handled better, and that Friedman should have been told about the solo earlier.
“Having been a partner with Marty for so many years, as much of an enigma as he was, I could tell he was really upset and he had had enough.
“What happened to Marty was definitely not okay. Our management was supposed to tell him and, for whatever reason, they didn’t do it. I think that was a terrible thing to do to him.”
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