Nickelback frontman and worldwide purveyor of butt rock Chad Kroeger has been making the rounds in recent weeks, professing his love for heavy metal to anyone who’ll listen. While it sounds like a whole lot of bullshit to promote the release of his band’s new album Get Rollin’, it turns out his love of all things fast and heavy is well documented and nothing new at this point.
During a recent interview with Guitar World, the Canadian rocker took a few moments to praise some of Megadeth‘s former guitarists, explaining how he’d spent countless hours in his youth listening to some of the best in the business absolutely melt faces on some of the band’s most seminal releases.
“I grew up with Megadeth in the ’80s. I love the first few albums especially, but to be honest, they’ve released so many great records.
“I’d sit and listen to guitar players like Chris Poland and lose my mind. Chris actually released a solo album called Return To Metalopolis that was also really good and stood on its own.”
And while he held Poland’s more at time jazz fusion-y take on thrash metal in high regard, it was actually Marty Friedman, who played with Megadeth from 1990 to 2000, that really blew him away.
“Then you get to ‘Hangar 18’, which must have had something like 15 solos in it from Dave and Marty [Friedman]. Speaking of Marty, his picking style is a little tough to watch but the end result is spectacular!”
If you’ve ever watched Marty Friedman play, whether as a part of Megadeth or in his current form as a massively popular artist in Japan, you already know what Kroeger means. Of all of Megadeth’s past guitarists, Friedman personally stands out in my mind as one of the greatest to ever play the genre. The dude just makes shredding look simple and effortless, even if how he goes about it boggles the mind.
Not one to leave Dave Mustaine out of the conversation, because it’s required by law to mention him whenever Megadeth gets brought up it seems, Kroeger said the Megadeth frontman’s playing style was also mind boggling to him.
“I always found it interesting that Dave said he wanted to write riffs he could sing over but other guitar players would struggle to cover. Why, I have no idea.
“That might be a rumor or complete bullshit, but I remember hearing that he loved creating riffs that made it challenging to sing and play at the same time.”
We’re not sure where he might have heard that quote, but it definitely sounds like something Dave would say. As a non-musician pleb, I can barely wrap my head around how Kroeger can sing and play his power chord-based butt rock, so Mustaine’s capabilities might as well be quantum physics in my mind. Totally get where Kroeger’s coming from.