Mustaine praises the guitarist
In an interview with an American radio station, Dave Mustaine spoke about Kiko Loureiro's guitar skills. When asked how Loureiro compares to other guitarists who have been part of Megadeth, Mustaine said:
“I was lucky to have played with many, many great guitarists, but Kiko is… Every day is a new experience, just seeing how deep his knowledge of playing is. Some other guitarists I’ve played with were very good at what they did, but their depth was in only one genre. For example, Chris Poland is a great jazz player, but I had to teach him to play metal because he didn’t know anything. And Marty [Friedman] was super good at metal and had a lot of Middle Eastern style.”.
But Kiko has Metal, he has bossa nova, classical music, flamenco… So many other styles, the possibilities are endless. And I think that's evident in the new album. The guitar work is considerably superior to that of the last album.
We're working on some acoustic arrangements because we always have some acoustic shows for charity. And when you do that, it has a different flavor, because it has a kind of Spanish style. And with Kiko's knowledge of bossa nova and – as I said – classical knowledge, of Spanish guitar, flamenco, everything so good, it's really incredible.”