Yngwie Malmsteen

'Spellbound' has a lot of guitar playing on it, obviously, but I wanted to keep it with a more straightforward beat. It…

— Yngwie Malmsteen

I didn't have to apply my mind to the aspects of scales and playing, and instead, I focused on creativity. I wrote…

— Yngwie Malmsteen

I am convinced that there are few, if any, American people that could even start believing or understanding what living in a…

— Yngwie Malmsteen

I'm working on guitars for free, because I love working on guitars anyway.

— Yngwie Malmsteen

I'd rather have people dislike my style than change it. If someone says, 'Hey, Yngwie, you play too damn much,' I don't…

— Yngwie Malmsteen

A lot of people don't know this, but I started out as a blues-based player, and then, when I realized after playing…

— Yngwie Malmsteen

I listened to all those blues records. They were great - Clapton, John Mayall. Then eventually I heard Genesis with Peter Gabriel,…

— Yngwie Malmsteen

At first, I didn't think playing guitar was the right thing for me to do. But after seeing Jimi Hendrix on television…

— Yngwie Malmsteen

The only thing I ever really wanted was a Strat .. I started playing guitar after seeing Jimi Hendrix on TV the…

— Yngwie Malmsteen

I've learned not to say, 'No, I'd never do that.'

— Yngwie Malmsteen

When I was a kid, I played drums, and when I first got a 4-track, I would put down drumbeats and then…

— Yngwie Malmsteen

To get a feel for the right-hand picking technique, you have to let the pick 'fall' from string to string as if…

— Yngwie Malmsteen

I emigrated to the U.S. on February 3, 1983, when I was 19 years old. I joined Steeler right away and recorded…

— Yngwie Malmsteen

Sweep picking is when the right hand sweeps down and up the strings in succession. But when you do sweep picking, one…

— Yngwie Malmsteen

I've always been heavily influenced by classical music, mostly by baroque music.

— Yngwie Malmsteen

I still love to go in the studio and write and all that.

— Yngwie Malmsteen

I've used Fender Strats with Marshalls since forever, though since I last played London, I've switched to my YJM Seymour Duncan pickups,…

— Yngwie Malmsteen

My mom really wanted me to be a musician so she gave me a guitar for my fifth birthday, but I didn't…

— Yngwie Malmsteen

Every other guitar player was just copying other guitarists. From the time I was 13 up until 18, I practiced at least…

— Yngwie Malmsteen

Most Americans, I don't think, could fathom the society that I grew up in. It is a completely different philosophy from America's.…

— Yngwie Malmsteen

I had my own label, Rising Force Records, and made records, but had them distributed to the chains, to the retailers, but…

— Yngwie Malmsteen

The business has changed dramatically from what it was even just a few years ago. Music isn't even distributed the same way…

— Yngwie Malmsteen

Just the whole thing of getting up in the morning - I love the sunshine, I love the palm trees. I'm that…

— Yngwie Malmsteen

I don't think you can learn to be a complete musician. That has to come from within, and it entails a lot…

— Yngwie Malmsteen

People - myself included - expect a certain standard from me. I always have to elaborate or improve on my playing. My…

— Yngwie Malmsteen