Yngwie Malmsteen

Biography

Yngwie Johan Malmsteen (; born Lars Johan Yngve Lannerbäck, Swedish: [lâːʂ ˈjuːhan ˈʏŋvɛ lânːɛrbɛk] on 30 June 1963) is a Swedish-American guitarist. He first became known in the 1980s for his neoclassical playing style in heavy metal, and has released 22 studio albums in a career spanning over 40 years. Malmsteen is considered to be one of the best guitarists in rock and metal. In the early 1990s, he released the albums Eclipse×Eclipse11 April 1990 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 11 tracks1Making Love4:572Bedroom Eyes4:023Save Our Love5:254Motherless Child4:145Devil in Disguise6:126Judas4:267What Do You Want3:498Demon Driver3:269Faultline5:0910See You in Hell (Don’t Be Late)3:4011Eclipse (instrumental)3:46 (1990), Fire & Ice×Fire & Ice7 February 1992 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 14 tracks1Perpetual4:142Dragonfly4:493Teaser3:304How Many Miles to Babylon6:115Cry No More5:176No Mercy5:337C’est la vie5:208Leviathan4:259Fire and Ice4:3110Forever Is a Long Time4:2811I’m My Own Enemy6:1012All I Want Is Everything4:0213Golden Dawn1:2914Final Curtain4:47 (1992), The Seventh Sign×The Seventh Sign18 February 1994 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracks1Never Die3:292I Don’t Know3:263Meant to Be3:524Forever One4:355Hairtrigger2:436Brothers3:477Seventh Sign6:328Bad Blood4:259Prisoner of Your Love4:2810Pyramid of Cheops5:1111Crash and Burn4:0612Sorrow2:02 (1994) and Magnum Opus (1995).

Early life

Malmsteen was born Lars Johan Yngve Lannerbäck in Stockholm, Sweden, the third child of a musical family. In 1975, his mother reverted to her mother's (Yngwie's maternal grandmother Maud's) maiden name Malmsten, which Yngve promptly also started using as his surname. Later he slightly changed it to Malmsteen and altered his third given name Yngve to "Yngwie". Malmsteen played his first show on 11 May 1976 with his first band, Track on Earth, consisting of himself, his cousin Erik Lannerbäck and a friend from school playing the drums. Later his brother Björn joined on drums.
As a teenager he was heavily influenced by classical music, particularly 19th century Italian virtuoso violinist and composer Niccolò Paganini as well as Johann Sebastian Bach. Yngwie Malmsteen has publicly stated that he is not influenced by the blues or the style of Ritchie Blackmore, the virtuoso claims that his guitar playing is inspired by classical violin, not classical guitar. Malmsteen has stated that Jimi Hendrix had no musical impact on him and did not contribute to his style. However watching the TV news reports on 18 September 1970 of Hendrix's death, which included footage of Hendrix smashing and burning his guitar at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, made Malmsteen think, "This is really cool."

1980s

From the late 1970s, Malmsteen played in local bands, sometimes together with future Talisman bassist Marcel Jacob, Europe bassist John Levén and architect Eero Koivisto. They recorded various demos and a single for CBS Records but nothing was officially released from this era until the 2002 releases of Rising Force - Birth of the Sun and Yngwie's own The Genesis album.
In early 1982, Mike Varney of Shrapnel Records first heard Yngwie Malmsteen's music through record store owner Bill Burkard, who played for him a demo tape of Malmsteen's early work (likely the 1978 "Powerhouse" demo) recorded when Yngwie was 15. Later in 1982, Malmsteen sent to Varney an untitled demo recording as a submission for Varney's Guitar Player magazine column. Guitar Player published this demo for the February 1983 edition of the magazine.
In 1983, Varney brought Malmsteen to the United States to play on the recording of Shrapnel recording artist Steeler, also featuring singer Ron Keel and bassist Rik Fox for its self-titled album. He then appeared with Graham Bonnet in the band Alcatrazz, playing on its 1983 debut No Parole from Rock 'n' Roll and the 1984 live album Live Sentence. In July 1984, Bonnet and Malmsteen clashed about who was the frontman and had a fight during a show. Malmsteen was fired on the spot from Alcatrazz and replaced by Steve Vai. Vai had one day to learn the songs for the ongoing tour.
In 1984, Malmsteen released his first solo album Rising Force, which featured Barrie Barlow of Jethro Tull on drums and keyboard player Jens Johansson. His album was meant to be an instrumental side-project of Alcatrazz, but it ended up featuring vocals by Jeff Scott Soto before the release of Rising Force.
Rising Force won Guitar Player's award for Best Rock Album and was nominated for a Grammy Award for 'Best Rock Instrumental', reaching no. 60 on the Billboard album chart. Yngwie J. Malmsteen's Rising Force (as his band was thereafter known) next released Marching Out (1985). Then he recruited Jens Johansson's brother Anders to play drums and bassist Marcel Jacob to record and tour with the band. Jacob left in the middle of a tour and was replaced by Wally Voss. Malmsteen's third album, Trilogy×Trilogy10 October 1986 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 9 tracks1You Don’t Remember, I’ll Never Forget4:312Liar4:103Queen in Love4:054Crying5:045Fury3:566Fire4:127Magic Mirror3:548Dark Ages3:549Trilogy Suite, op. 57:17, featuring the vocals of Mark Boals (and Malmsteen on both guitar and bass), was released in 1986. Boals left the band in the middle of the tour and was replaced by the former singer Jeff Scott Soto. The tour was cancelled after Malmsteen was involved in a serious car accident, smashing his V12 Jaguar E-Type into a tree, which put him in a coma for a week. Nerve damage to his right hand was reported. During this time, Malmsteen's mother died from cancer. New line-up changes for the next album included former Rainbow vocalist Joe Lynn Turner joining the band, along with session bassist Bob Daisley, who was hired to record some bass parts and help with the lyrics. In April 1988, he released his fourth album Odyssey. Odyssey was his most successful album, in part due to the success of its first single "Heaven Tonight". Shows in the Soviet Union during the Odyssey tour were recorded and released in 1989 as a fifth album Trial by Fire: Live in Leningrad×Trial by Fire: Live in Leningrad17 October 1989 · Album · LiveSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 11 tracks1Liar3:572Queen in Love3:553Deja Vu4:064Far Beyond the Sun8:175Heaven Tonight4:276Dreaming (Tell Me)6:357You Don’t Remember, I’ll Never Forget6:048Guitar Solo (Trilogy Suite Op:5/Spasebo Blues)10:169Crystal Ball6:0410Black Star6:0911Spanish Castle Magic (LP version)6:45. The classic Rising Force line-up with Malmsteen and the Johansson brothers was dissolved in 1989 when both Anders and Jens left. That year later, Jens joined Dio replacing keyboardist Claude Schnell.
Malmsteen's neoclassical style of metal became popular among hordes of guitarists during the mid-1980s, with contemporaries such as Jason Becker, Marty Friedman, Paul Gilbert, Tony MacAlpine, and Vinnie Moore becoming prominent. In late 1988, Malmsteen's signature Fender Stratocaster guitar was released, making him and Eric Clapton the first artists to be honored by Fender.

1990s

In the early 1990s, Malmsteen released two albums, Eclipse×Eclipse11 April 1990 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 11 tracks1Making Love4:572Bedroom Eyes4:023Save Our Love5:254Motherless Child4:145Devil in Disguise6:126Judas4:267What Do You Want3:498Demon Driver3:269Faultline5:0910See You in Hell (Don’t Be Late)3:4011Eclipse (instrumental)3:46 (1990) and Fire & Ice×Fire & Ice7 February 1992 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 14 tracks1Perpetual4:142Dragonfly4:493Teaser3:304How Many Miles to Babylon6:115Cry No More5:176No Mercy5:337C’est la vie5:208Leviathan4:259Fire and Ice4:3110Forever Is a Long Time4:2811I’m My Own Enemy6:1012All I Want Is Everything4:0213Golden Dawn1:2914Final Curtain4:47 (1992), with the singer Göran Edman (ex-Madison and Vinnie Vincent Invasion), followed by The Seventh Sign (1994) and Magnum Opus (1995) with former Loudness singer Mike Vescera. Despite his early and continuous success in Europe and Asia, by the early 1990s heavy metal styles such as neoclassical metal and shredding had gone out of fashion in the US.
Around 1993, Malmsteen's future mother-in-law – who opposed his engagement to her daughter – had him arrested for allegedly holding her daughter hostage with a gun. The charges were later dropped. Malmsteen continued to record and release albums under the Japanese record label Pony Canyon and maintained a devoted following with fans in Europe and Japan and to a lesser extent in the US.
In the mid 1990s, Malmsteen released the albums Inspiration×Inspiration20 September 1996 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 10 tracks1Carry On Wayward Son5:092Pictures of Home4:563Gates of Babylon7:124Manic Depression3:405In the Dead of Night6:116Mistreated7:307The Sails of Charon5:068Demon’s Eye4:539Anthem4:1810Child in Time8:08 (1996) featuring three of his former singers Soto, Boals and Turner, Facing the Animal (1997) featuring Mats Levén on vocals and Cozy Powell on drums, followed by a live record Double Live! (1998) and another studio recording Alchemy (1999) featuring once again Mark Boals on vocals.

Special guest appearances and side projects

In 1996, Malmsteen joined forces with former band members Jeff Scott Soto and Marcel Jacob on the album Human Clay where he played lead guitar on the track "Jealousy". In the same year, Malmsteen recorded guitar solos for two different Deep Purple tribute albums, Smoke on the Water and Black Night – Deep Purple Tribute According to New York, using the alias "Lars Y. Loudamp" on the latter to avoid contractual conflicts. He also guested with Saxon on the song "Denim And Leather" on their live album The Eagle Has Landed – Part II (released in 1997). Later that year, Malmsteen recorded the tracks "Enigma suite" and "All opposable thumbs" with his former band members Jens Johansson and Anders Johansson on their album Johansson/Sonic Winter.

2000s

In 2000, he signed a contract with the US record label Spitfire and released his 1990s catalog on the US market for the first time, including what he regards as his masterpiece, Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra, recorded with the Czech Philharmonic in Prague.
After the release of War to End All Wars in 2000, singer Mark Boals left the band. He was replaced by former Rainbow vocalist Doogie White, whose vocals were well received by fans. In 2003, Malmsteen joined Joe Satriani and Steve Vai as part of the G3 supergroup, a tour showcasing guitar performances. Malmsteen made two guest appearances on keyboardist Derek Sherinian's albums Black Utopia (2003) and Blood of the Snake (2006), where Malmsteen plays on the same tracks as Al Di Meola and Zakk Wylde. In 2004, Malmsteen made two cameo appearances on Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law. In 2005 Unleash the Fury was released through Spitfire Records. As stated in an issue of Guitar World magazine, he titled this album after an infamous 'airline incident', which occurred on a flight to Japan during a 1988 tour. He was drunk and behaving obnoxiously, until he fell asleep and was roused by a woman pouring a jug of iced water on him. Enraged, he shouted, "You've released the fucking fury!" The audio from this incident was caught on tape by a fellow band member. Malmsteen says that the name of the album refers to both the energy of the album and the incident. The release of Unleash the Fury was followed by a DVD release of Concerto Suite For Electric Guitar And Orchestra in E Flat Minor, Op. 1 – With The New Japan Philharmonic Live. The DVD chronicles Malmsteen's first time playing in front of a live audience with an orchestra, an experience that he describes as "fun but also extremely scary".
In 2007, Malmsteen was honored in the Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero II. Players can receive the "Yngwie Malmsteen" award by hitting 1000 or more notes in succession. February 2008 saw the replacement of singer Doogie White with former Iced Earth and Judas Priest and current Beyond Fear singer Tim "Ripper" Owens, with whom Malmsteen had once recorded a cover of Ozzy Osbourne's song "Mr. Crowley", for the 2000 Osbourne tribute album Bat Head Soup: A Tribute to Ozzy. The first Malmsteen album to feature Owens is titled Perpetual Flame and was released on 4 October. On 25 November 2008, Malmsteen had three of his songs ("Caprici Di Diablo", "Damnation Game", and "Red Devil", all from this latter album) released as downloadable content for the video games Rock Band and Rock Band 2, and later for Rock Band 3.
In 2008, Malmsteen was a special guest on the VH1 Classic show That Metal Show. On 10 March 2009, Malmsteen's label Rising Force released Angels of Love, an all-instrumental album, which featured acoustic arrangements of some of his best-known ballads. Malmsteen released a compilation album titled High Impact×High Impact9 December 2009 · Album · CompilationSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 14 tracks1Caprici di Diablo4:292Brothers3:473Blitzkrieg4:134Trilogy Suite7:205Red House4:086Finale3:557Magic City7:278Arpeggios From Hell4:159Far Beyond the Sun10:0210Cantabile2:0411Blue4:1012Overture 16222:4313Fugue3:3714Beat It4:40 on 8 December 2009.

2010–present

On 23 November 2010, Relentless was released, the second album to feature Tim "Ripper" Owens on vocals. The US version featured a remake of "Arpeggios From Hell" as a bonus track. Yngwie appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on 3 February 2011 to promote his album. On 6 August 2011, Malmsteen made another appearance in the United States, playing a rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" before a game between the St. Louis Cardinals and Florida Marlins at Sun Life Stadium. Although rarely seen in his native country of Sweden, Malmsteen played one gig there in 2012. On 7 July, he ended the Getaway Rock Festival in Gävle, which he was headlining with Nightwish and Manowar. On 5 December 2012, Malmsteen released the album Spellbound. 2013 saw the release of Yngwie's official autobiography Relentless.
On 12 June 2014, Malmsteen kicked off his "Guitar Gods 2014 Tour" at the F.M. Kirby Center in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania alongside former Guns N' Roses guitarist Bumblefoot and guitarist Gary Hoey. In February 2015, it was announced that Malmsteen was in the studio working on a new album. In April and May 2016, Malmsteen was one of five guitarists featured on the Generation Axe tour.

In 2018, it was announced that Malmsteen had signed with Mascot Records, with a new studio album expected the following year. In 2019, Malmsteen released Blue Lightning, featuring blues rock songs – mainly covers – with Malmsteen's virtuoso playing. As Malmsteen was quoted: I've been asked to do a blues album for the last 30 years [...] this time I finally said, "Sure, why not? Let's try it!" I just didn't want to be stuck in the standard, pentatonic, play a 12-bar thing. I didn't want to do that.
On 8 May 2021, Yngwie Malmsteen was reported to have launched the Parabellum album and video for the "Paganini-referencing" track "Wolves at the Door". Since COVID-19 restrictions prevented touring, Malmsteen had more time to record the album, and was "clearly delighted with the results."
On 5 August 2026, Malmsteen announced his next studio album, Hell or High Water, set for release on 13 November.

Personal life

Malmsteen was married to Swedish singer Erika Norberg (1991–1992) and was subsequently married to Amber Dawn Landin (1993–1998). Since 1999, he has been married to April Malmsteen. The year before, the two had their first child, Antonio, named after Antonio Vivaldi. The family now resides in Miami Shores, Florida. Malmsteen is a naturalized US Citizen.
Yngwie's father was a military officer and his mother worked for the Swedish Trade Council. They separated only two months after Yngwie was born. Yngwie's mother died in 1987, aged 48. In 1990, Yngwie's grandmother Maud died, and a few months later his brother Björn died in a train accident on Roslagsbanan.
A Ferrari enthusiast, Malmsteen owned a black 1983 308 GTS for 24 years before selling it on eBay, and a red 1962 250 GTO.
In a 2005 issue of Guitar Player magazine, Malmsteen discussed his often-ridiculed behavior, saying that, "I've probably made more mistakes than anybody. But I don't dwell on them. I don't expect people to understand me, because I'm pretty complex, and I think outside the box with everything I do. I've always taken the untraveled path. Obviously, people have their opinions, but I can't get too wrapped up in that, because I know what I can do, and I know what kind of person I am. And I have no control over what anybody says about me. Back in Sweden, I'm 'Mr Personality' in the tabloids, but obviously I can't take that seriously. I know in my heart that if I do the absolute best I can do, maybe ten years from now people may turn around and say, 'he wasn't that bad'."
In August 2009, Time magazine included Malmsteen on its list of the 10 best electric guitar players of all time.

Yngwie Malmsteen Signature Stratocaster

Malmsteen has been a longtime user of Fender Stratocasters with DiMarzio HS3 single-coil pickups "for playing at blistering volume with no hum or screechiness". His most famous Stratocaster is his 1972 blonde Stratocaster, nicknamed "The Duck" because of its yellow finish and the Donald Duck stickers on the headstock. An alternative nickname for this guitar is "Play Loud" due to a sticker that Anders Johansson put on the upper horn of the guitar in Rockshire studios in 1984. Fender made 100 replica copies of this guitar and marketed it as the "Play Loud Guitar". He also has a Fender Yngwie Malmsteen Signature Stratocaster since 1986. It comes in a Vintage White finish with a maple neck, either a maple or rosewood scalloped fretboard and, from 2010, Seymour Duncan STK-S10 YJM "Fury" Model pickups. There is also a signature YJM100 Marshall amplifier, based on the "1959" amplifier range.

Other equipment

Besides Stratocasters, Malmsteen has played and appeared in ads for non-Fender guitars (like Aria Pro II and Schecter in the early 1980s) and played non-Strat-shaped guitars (like Gibson Flying Vs), early in his career.
Today, for acoustic and nylon string guitars, Malmsteen uses his signature Ovation YM68s. Malmsteen uses light-gauge strings on his guitars, stringing his 25-1/2" scale instruments with his signature string sets by Fender (gauges: .08, .011, .014, .022w, .032, .046 and .08, .011, .014, .026, .036, .048) and pairing them with Dunlop Delrin 500 series guitar picks.

Band members

Current members

Yngwie Malmsteen – guitars, vocals (1978–1982, 1984–present)
Nick Z. Marino – keyboards, vocals (2005–2006, 2010–present)
Emilio Martinez – bass, vocals (2017–present)
Wyatt Cooper – drums (2024–present)

Videos

Metallic Live '84 (1984)
No Parole From Rock'N'Roll Tour - Live In Japan 1984.1.28 (2010)