In a very Sliding Doors-esque move, Marty Friedman of Megadeth has revealed that he ditched an audition with Madonna after he was officially offered a spot in Megadeth the same week
Speaking on The Classic Metal Show, Friedman shared that he had an audition to be Madonna’s guitar player, a position he spent a lot of time preparing for.
“There was some kind of cattle call audition for Madonna’s guitar player,” he shared. “And I had known about this for about a month before my good friend Bob got me the audition in Megadeth.
“I was a metal guy so I didn’t have 50 different clean tones and all these different acoustic guitars, and all these capos, and stuff that happens in a pop band. So I was like, ‘Even if I get the audition, I’m probably not going to get the gig.’
“But I practiced really hard and I learned a bunch of the songs, even the songs with no guitar parts on them, I learned. I made up little guitar parts so I could get through an audition.”
As fate would have it, Friedman shared that he got the gig with Megadeth a few days before he was meant to take the stage for the Madonna audition.
“I got the audition for Megadeth, which I got the gig on the day of the audition, which was a Tuesday or something, and the Madonna thing was on a Friday. So I didn’t go to that.”
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Unsurprisingly, Friedman has no regrets about becoming a part of Megadeth, rather than applying to be Madonna’s guitarist.
“Luckily, I got into a gig that was more suited for what I was able to do. And that was the story, so I never even auditioned but I was ready to. And she wound up getting a metal guy so who knows. Maybe we can do a dual guitar thing in her band sometime.”
Regardless of becoming an international success with Megadeth, Friedman said that he didn’t think he had enough skill at the time to share the stage with Madonna.
“But luckily, I never got it because there are so many guys like yourself. I could do it now, of course, but at the time, I didn’t have the type of knowledge that it takes to play in a big situation like that.
“You have to have so much sense of when to lay back and the kind of tones you need that are going to fit the song, to fit the singer. You have to fill it up but you can’t fill it up when you’re covering up the lead singer.
“And there are so many little subtle things that I had no idea about at that time, there was probably no way in hell I was going to get the gig unless some crazy lucky thing happens.
“So I looked into Megadeth, I got lucky, and played in a band that I really loved.”
For more on this topic follow the Rock Observer.
Watch ‘Like A Virgin’ by Madonna (and picture Marty Friedman playing in the background):
