Chris Broderick

background vocals · guitar

b. 1970 in Lakewood

Christopher Alan Broderick (born March 6, 1970) is an American musician, best known as a former guitarist of the thrash metal band Megadeth. He is also formerly the lead guitarist for Jag Panzer, appearing on four albums between 1998 and 2004. He also served as a touring guitarist for Nevermore in the 2000s. Following his departure from Megadeth, Broderick formed Act of Defiance in 2014. He joined Swedish metal band In Flames in 2019 as a touring guitarist, before becoming the band's permanent guitarist in 2022.

Early life

Broderick started playing guitar when he was 11 years old, with one of his first guitar influences being Eddie Van Halen. His playing styles range from metal, classical, neoclassical, and jazz. As a teenager, Broderick took lessons in electric guitar, classical guitar, piano and violin several times a week and practiced each instrument for hours every day during the summer. He was a notable musician in the Denver music scene from 1988 and on, as a guitarist in Grey Haven and Killing Time, and as a guitarist and vocalist in Industrial Eden. Broderick has a degree in classical guitar music performance from the University of Denver's Lamont School of Music and started teaching guitar lessons in the early 1990s. He is heavily influenced by flamenco music and rates guitarists Paco de Lucia and Paco Peña highly.