Kiko Loureiro speaks of his decision to leave Megadeth

Former Megadeth guitarist Kiko Loureiro spoke of his decision to leave the Mustaine-led outfit on Rafael Bittencourt’s Amplifica podcast.

Loureiro said the reason he decided to exit Megadeth was “freedom”.

I realise I have a musician’s spirit of searching for freedom.

The same happened when I decided to go to the USA, this search for freedom.

And now, beacuse of certain circumstances in my life, I feel I have the freedom of not being in Megadeth. This is my option. Freedom is having a choice between two viable options.

The guitarist added:

There is a reason why I have to stay home for longer. I can’t be out on tour for 3 or either 6 months. But this is a result of a personal maturity, or development. My daughter Lívia who is now 12 years old, she was born a few hours after I returned from Rock in Rio 2011 [playing with Angra]. I was an idiot, because the risk of not seeing my daughter being born was great. Today’s Kiko thinks that is idiotic, Rock in Rio would never be more important than seeing my daughter’s birth.

I didn’t have the maturity to send in a substitute, but I didn’t think to do it then.

When asked about Teemu Mäntysaari, Loureiro replied:

I was the one who trained him. He came to my place, we shot videos of it.

Translated by Chaoszine