Marty Friedman talks jamming with Megadeth’s Kiko Loureiro, his love of Fleetwood Mac and why he wishes his playing was more accessible
Speaking of cool guitar licks, you recently covered Fleetwood Mac’s You Make Loving Fun with Two Minutes to Late Night. Are you a fan of the Mac?
“Big time. Lindsey Buckingham is one of my favorite guitarists in history. I've ripped off so many motifs from that guy. He plays very basic melody lines, but the way he hangs on single notes, no-one else does it. And it's just so gut-wrenching.
“That was a huge influence on me when I first started playing lead guitars – how do you get that emotion? He's playing the same scales as everybody else is, and he's not doing these, like, 20-finger tapping things, but the second you hear the guy you know it's him. And what he does always elevates the song.
“You know, most pop songs don't have lead guitars in them, and they don't need lead guitars in them. But Fleetwood Mac have the ultimate pop songs, and they all have great lead solos in them. So what does that tell you? That tells you that the guitar player is just amazing.”
He’s definitely an underrated player.
“A lot of people notice how fantastic he is with his fingerpicking and his acoustic playing, and that's something that people can work really, really hard at and kind of master. But there's only one Lindsey who can emote the way he does on leads. And I don't think anybody can really copy that.
https://www.guitarworld.com/amp/feat...ore-accessible