A true guitar icon, Marty Friedman seamlessly blends blistering technical prowess with deep emotional resonance. From his shred-filled days in Cacophony to crafting timeless riffs with Megadeth, his career has showcased a virtuosity that transcends genres and cultures.
In a recent conversation with George Dionne of KNAC.COM, Friedman – who recently released his sixteen solo album Drama – delved into details for his forthcoming autobiography, Dreaming Japanese, slated for release on December 3 via Permuted Press.
When asked by Dionne if he is "putting it all out there" with this book, Friedman shared: "Yeah. The entire criteria of the book was things that I've never said in the media, things that I couldn't say in the media, private things, and all of the inner interpersonal relationships in all of the bands that I've been in, all of the projects I've worked on. And it's almost like a spy-like double-agent look into the Japanese music business and the Japanese entertainment industry, because I came in completely as a foreigner, but I'm working within that industry as someone who is in Japan, lives in Japan, speaks Japanese, works on the Japanese projects."
"So I can kind of report to the rest of the world what it's really like from an American's perspective, which I think the publishers of the book found quite fascinating and I drew that to a complete conclusion. But it's basically everything that no one knows about me. So if you're slightly interested, hopefully, you will get a lot of very unexpected information out of it," Friedman added.
"I've always kept my private life completely out of media. Even in the Japanese media, where I'm much more visible than in America, I've kept private things to myself and kept everything always about the topic at hand, whatever that be, whatever the program is about or whatever I'm releasing or whatever," Friedman explained during a previous appearance on the YouTube series THAT Rocks!, hosted by Eddie Trunk, Jim Florentine, and Don Jamieson.
"So it's never really been terribly personal. But at the same time, every person has a deep personal story behind everything, and I've been working on an autobiography for years. And when it started to take shape and become something real, I started to look for publishers who were interested. And I found an absolutely excellent, excellent publisher that got excited about it.
"And when we started working on it, it just became this monster of a project, way beyond anything I'd imagined it being. And I think a lot of your fans are going to enjoy it because it's got so many deep details about the metal life that I lived before I went over to Japan and the metal life now, but the real deep private relationship details between myself and all the other bandmembers from all my bands and all of the management things and life things that people don't see when they just see you on stage or they hear the records or they read the interviews.
"There's serious life stuff that you would only be comfortable talking about in a complete tell-all autobiography. And even then, I'm not even sure if I'm comfortable saying it, but I said, if I'm gonna do this, the main criteria is going to be all of this stuff is not stuff from interviews. And all of this stuff is gonna be stuff that's very private and very true."
Friedman continued by highlighting his intent and the book's scope: "Of course, I have no agenda at this age. The only thing I'm promoting is [my new solo album] 'Drama', which takes up about maybe four sentences of the autobiography. So the whole thing is just very deep and detailed into things that I think that no one really knows because maybe I haven't really been that vocal about in the past."
When Florentine suggested he could record the audiobook in both English and Japanese himself, Friedman responded humorously: "I could. I'm just so not into the idea of doing that. I dread the day when they say, 'Okay, we want you to do the audiobook.' 'Cause I listen to these books, and it just seems like a ton of work. I've done voiceover stuff for a lot of TV shows in Japan, and just one half-hour show takes friggin' forever. So, I'm just thinking, an entire book of, I think it's like 150,000 words, just dreading that. So I'm hoping that like A.I. can clone my voice and do it for me, 'cause I'm not looking forward to doing that work."
Pre-order Dreaming Japanese here.
