Chris Broderick, who used to play in Megadeth between 2008 and 2014, recently sat down for a chat with Rock Sverige to discuss his career and more recent releases. Among other things, he reflected on his influences, one of them being Yngwie Malmsteen. When asked whether he ever got the chance to meet Yngwie, he replied:
“I’ve elected to purposefully not meet him, just because I want to keep… I want to have that esteem and I want to maintain that esteem, so I don’t want to risk it and I think most people know why.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Broderick also discussed what he learned during his time in Megadeth. When asked to recall what he took away from this whole experience, Broderick said:
“I took a lot away from it, because it really showed me that there is a lot more to music than the music, which I both appreciated and hated at the same time. Prior to that was just like ‘I’m a musician! I’m a guitarist and I play the guitar.'”
“And when I joined Megadeth and got into that camp, it really showed me how interested people are in your personality and who you are as an individual and that was shocking to me. How you present yourself and stuff like that, so that’s like one of the biggest things I learned from my time in Megadeth.”
Broderick also reflected on the rough times in the music industry caused by the pandemic and lockdowns which stopped all, or almost all, touring in the US and Europe. When asked whether he worried that he’ll ever go back to playing live shows again, he replied:
“No, I never questioned or looked that far into it. I was definitely bummed that I wasn’t able to tour. We had literally just left like… my birthday is on March 6 and I had a party on that night, then March 7 got on a flight to go to Russia to play Moscow and St Petersburg and when I landed in Moscow they were like ‘Did you get tested?’ and I was like ‘Tested for what?’ and they said ‘They’re testing for the Covid virus.'”
“So we went and played in Moscow and then we went to St Petersburg and then we flew to Auckland, New Zealand and we were just ready to make the shows happen and we started to hear things and whispers and there were a couple of days off before our shows and I remember working out in the hotel gym and they had the tv on with news and the parliament was talking about closing down any shows over 500 people and I’m like Wait, that would be us!'”
“By the time we were supposed to play the show, they were talking about shutting down the US so they put us on a plane and got us back home as soon as possible. So the touring aspect of it sucked, but for my part I just fell right back into my online teaching, so I was extremely fortunate because I didn’t lose any close family members.”
“I knew some people that passed away from Covid, but they were more friends of friends. That sucked, but for my part I was able to maintain my teaching and my girlfriend and I basically just would go do these reclusive camping trips and just go hiking and hanging out.”
“But I am glad to see where back out here and we have 6000 people here right now going crazy to Orbit Culture and Imminence and At the Gates. I can’t wait to see them when we step up on stage.”
Apart from Megadeth, Chris Broderick is known for working with other great metal bands. At this moment, he’s the guitar player for In Flames. But he’s also collaborated with Act of Defiance, Jag Panzer, and Nevermore.
Photos: TannerWolff (ChrisBroderickLive), Alterna2 (Yngwie Malmsteen 5)
