CHRIS BRODERICK / ACT OF DEFIANCE

With his dazzling thrash fretwork, guitarist Chris Broderick is heralded as an exacting and modern metal master. Although enjoying an exciting stint as the lead and rhythm guitarist for Megadeth, Broderick and former Megadeth drummer Shawn Drover opted to leave the thrash metal giants in 2014 to form their own extreme metal band, Act of Defiance, along with singer Henry Derek (Scar the Martyr) and bassist Matt Bachand (Shadows Fall). Prior to joining Megadeth, Broderick was the lead guitarist for Jag Panzer, appearing on four albums: The Age of Mastery, Thane to the Throne (a concept album about Shakespeare’s Macbeth), Mechanized Warfare and Casting the Stones.

Born:

Lakewood, Colorado

Prodigy:

Broderick started playing guitar at age 11, and began taking lessons at age 14 in guitar, voice, violin and piano. He has a degree in Classical Guitar music performance at the University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music.He’s also been teaching guitar lessons for more than a decade.

Influences:

His influences range all over the board – from rock and metal guitarist such as Jason Becker, John Petrucci and Marty Friedman to classical artists such as Richardo Iznaola and Paco de Lucia to jazz artists like Djanjo Reinhardt and Wes Montgomery.

Hobbies:

Broderick is a huge snowboarding fan, and also a fitness freak who works out at least six days a week!

Quotable:

“The first thing that really intrigued me about Jackson was they were like the company that could. When I was talking to them I was like, 'Is there any chance we could maybe do an asymmetrical body?’ And they were like, ‘Yeah, sure.’ ‘What about stainless steel frets on my guitar?’ ‘Yeah, no problem.’ ‘What about the 12″ continuous radius? I really want a continuous 12-inch radius.’ ‘Oh yeah, sure.’ When you meet a company like that, that is so willing to experiment with you and really work on your design, something that is very personal to you, they can’t be beat.” - Chris Broderick