Fleet-fingered guitar hero Yngwie Malmsteen has taken to social media to share a message that suggests the festive spirit has not yet visited the Malmsteen household. Instead, he’s taken aim at the various singers who’ve fronted his solo act over the years, using CAPS to emphasise the most pertinent parts of his message.
“So it has come to my attention that these hired and paid singers that I hired for my solo records are all trying to capitalise from my brand!” proclaims Malmsteen. “Let’s be clear: performing on MY SOLO records does not equal ownership, authorship, or legacy. Writing a line here and there doesn’t make someone a songwriter, and singing my material doesn’t make it theirs.
“They were merely given a salary (work for hire) to put down MY written parts, just like the keyboard player, bassist, drummer, etc. If the only way you can tour or get attention is by leaning on my brand and using my name and album titles and my SOLO catalogue, then you’ve already answered the question of who actually built something. And – what have they recorded/created the last 30,40 years?
Singers who’ve fronted the Swede’s many solo outfits include Jeff Scott Soto, Mark Boals, Mark Weitz, Joe Lynn Turner, Göran Edman, Michael Vescera, Mats Levén, Jørn Lande, Doogie White and Tim “Ripper” Owens.
“I need to explain something to you,” he instructed Classic Rock in 2023. “The way I work is different to everybody else. I can wake up in the middle of the night and hear a perfectly completed song – including the production.
“Therefore, I don’t need producers, outside writers, and I no longer need singers. When I had singers, I wrote the vocal melodies the way I heard them in my head and taught them to Graham Bonnet or whoever.
“Until I came to the States, I was the singer, guitar player and writer, all I needed to do was hire a bass player and drummer. Over my career, there was only a small [period of time] when I used singers. It’s just easier to do it myself.”
Earlier this year, Graham Bonnet revealed that Malmsteen’s difficult relationship with frontmen extended as far back as his stint with Alcatrazz in the early 1980s.
“Yngwie had no stage etiquette,” Bonnet told MusicRadar. “He’d walk in front of me, going widdle-widdle-widdle over a verse of a song. It was very rude!”