Former MEGADETH Guitarist MARTY FRIEDMAN Rumored To Have Married Japanese Cellist

January 3, 2013

According to Yahoo! Japan, former MEGADETH guitarist Marty Friedman is rumored to have married Hiyori Okuda, the 41-year-old Japanese cellist who performed on the song "Aitakatta" from his 2011 album "Tokyo Jukebox 2".

The guitarist, who has been living in Japan for the past decade, reportedly started dating Okuda after meeting her on a TV show in 2009 and told some of his friends at his 50th-birthday party early last month that he and his girlfriend were about to tie the knot. Since December 28, the Japanese media started spotting a wedding ring on Marty's finger, leading to speculation that the ceremony took place several days earlier.

In a 2012 interview with Metal Assault, Friedman stated about his decision to relocate to Japan and focus most of his efforts on building a music career for himself in that territory: "When I came to Japan, things went a whole lot better for me than I ever would have expected. I got year-long TV commitments and some big projects so there wound up being no time left over to make the rest of the world a priority anymore."

He added: "[Upon my arrival in Japan] I was very lucky to start touring and recording almost immediately with a J-pop legend, Aikawa Nanase. That opened some doors to a lot of new things musically, but doing TV really took me into the mainstream more than anything. I hadn't planned on that."

Friedman last fall completed the "Guitar Universe 2012" European tour with support from Israel's Yossi Sassi (ORPHANED LAND) and France's Stéphan Forté (ADAGIO).

Find more on
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).