Guitarist Kiko Loureiro shared on his YouTube channel a video of his audition for Megadeth in 2015. The Brazilian was called up by Dave Mustaine Chris Broderick left the previous year.
Introducing the video, Loureiro says, in English: “This isn’t a video about how to learn to play a Megadeth song, so don’t try to play anything based on this video – there are a lot of wrong notes, wrong riffs, but there’s a story behind this video.”
And then he recounts how his hiring happened. In 2015, according to Loureiro, he received a call from Dave Mustaine asking him to travel to Nashville for "a real audition." Kiko then offered to send a video as a preview so they could get an idea of his style.
In just two days, the guitarist learned some of the band's songs and recorded them. "My idea wasn't to show that I knew how to play them 100%, but rather that I had the necessary technique, my own style, and that I could play Megadeth's songs if I had more time to learn them."
It's clear today that Kiko's plan worked, and alongside Mustaine, David Ellefson , and Dirk Verbeuren , he recorded his first album with Megadeth, Dystopia , in 2016. Now, the Brazilian is preparing to record his second album with the group. The album still has no release date due to the hiatus Megadeth needed for Mustaine to complete his throat cancer treatment.
Watch the video of Kiko Loureiro's audition below, in which he plays "Hangar 18" from the album Rust in Peace (1990).
