Billy, to be fair as you may have guessed, I have read or seen every interview with Yngwie Malmsteen, since his most early US days, I remember him mentioning Alan Holdsworth a few times, as an inspirational guitarist. He
has mentioned Uli Jon quite a few times and Yngwie has a Roth Sky guitar in his collection, personally given him from Uli. Yngwie when asked to name guitarists he listens to, almost always states he listens to classical music only, mainly violinists, occasionally mentioning Holdsworth as an inspirational player, but we all know Yngwie's influences without him saying it outright. It's in the way he says what he says. That's what I mean by when I say I have studied him to the minute degree as I did with Gary Moore and to a lesser degree Tommy Bolin. Remember Yngwie is Swedish and Europeans tend to state things in a different manner as I'm sure you are aware of, Yngwie's brilliant talent is in organizing his influences to a greater good, as he advises new players to listen with their ears and if it sounds good to you, then it is good!
I can state here that Uli Jon is a
HUGE influence on Yngwie, whether he says it or not, and Roth was hanging with Yngwie at the recent NAMM show, watching Yngwie's performance backstage. Uli Jon has Hendrix's black Strat which is the coolest thing in the world, even more so to me that the Woodstock Strat, as most of my favorite Hendrix music is played on that guitar and I'm sure Yngwie has played it, which he should as in my totally unbiased opinion of course..
Yngwie is the closest interpreter of Hendrix's vibe when he plays Jimi's covers!
Is this Guitar World issue out now, I must get it then!
Also on Yngwie's
Inspiration CD he covers Sails of Charon, as well as Deep Purple, so you know his influences are all right out there.
As far as the other Scorpions, not Micheal Schenker, I knew this guy in Pennsylvania, that hung out on the LA scence a lot and was good friends with Juan and Bobby Blotzer of Ratt. He met the Scorps offstage many times and said they were the most rude assholes he had ever met. I know Uli Jon is totally cool and a very spiritual person, so his influence is deep on Yngwie. Yngwie's ego, which is a key part, of well,...Yngwie, many times dosen't allow him to give proper credit where it's due.
Yngwie is a good soul underneath all the rockstar persona, and if you have met him, believe me his presence is overwhelming, more than any rockstar I have met, there is no doubt, also he is a very deep person and I for one am very offended by this fat talk and all these parodies.
Someone recently said Alex Lifeson packed on a few lbs. and no one was calling him fat, ect.
I will say this about Yngwie as none of are perfect, but he owes JLT an apology for some of the things he has said over the years. JLT saved Yngwie's life after his accident, there is no question, and he owes him eternally for that, Joe said he caught Yngwie doing coke again, right after his rehab!!
So I say Uli is a huge influence on Yngwie still to this day, as far as Ritchie Blackmore, Yngwie says as a young teenager he learned all of Dep Purple note for note and then moved on to his Paganini, Bach type influences, which i believe. Also a misconception about Yngwie that I would like to address, is that he contributes nothing to the development of guitar playing, merely playing the same harmonic minor, arppegiated stuff over and over, I think he has done much more than that, witness the huge explosion of Yngwie clones. I hope I am explaining myself in my point, that Yngwie just by his playing is paying tribute to his influences.
I am personally not enamoured with his current too distorted tone and hope he will see the light tonight and get back to his more pure earlier tone.Thanks for listening.
yngwie308
