Quotes from Yngwie Malmsteen

Because I write the music, I write the lyrics, I write the vocal melody lines - I write everything. Just because I let somebody sing something doesn't mean they're more important than the bass player or the keyboard player or the drummer.

When Alcatrazz played in Japan in early '84, the record label offered me the opportunity to do a solo album while continuing to play in the band. I wanted the whole album to have vocals, but the record company didn't want that. Initially, the album was released solely in Japan.

My book is basically a love letter to America.

Every record store and record chain has folded; they don't exist. They do not exist. And the only two outlets that would still sell CDs were Best Buy and Wal-Mart. They now have stopped selling it. There's nowhere you can go into a store and buy a CD in America. That's how it is.

If you suck, you're gonna suck real bad, and if you play well, it's going to sound really good.

I always wrote everything - I wrote all the lyrics, I wrote all the melodies, everything; it's just somebody else sung it. And to me, the singer is nothing else than a different... like a bass player or a keyboard player - they're not more important than any other musician.

There was an old acoustic in the house that my mother had given me for my fifth birthday. I took it off the wall and started jamming. I was seven years old at the time.

Everything that I think that a society should offer someone, which is nothing other than the ability to be able to do what you wanna do, is offered by America.

When the glam metal thing of the late '80s became too glammy, then instead of having two bottles of hairspray in your hair, it became better not to wash your hair at all. To me it's all trend stuff. I don't follow that stuff. I just do what I feel is the right thing. I don't know what the reason is for that. It's not fashion.

When I play guitar, it's automatic. I don't try to do something; I just do it. And it's already so ingrained in what I do, I don't think about it. I don't try to do something - I just do it. And the more I do it that way, the more I surprise myself. And if I surprise myself, that's the best thing.

My mom really wanted me to be a musician so she gave me a guitar for my fifth birthday, but I didn't start playing till I was seven.

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

What I think is the most important thing to learn about any instrument is the basics of music. Learn your ABCs before you write a Hemingway novel.

Every day has to be a day that counts. It can't be a wasted day. I'm very dedicated to always keep doing something that I would consider good.

I learned a lot from other people, and was inspired by what they did, but I didn't copy anyone. I put many different blocks together to become what I am. I don't know if that would have happened if everything was handed to me on a plate.

Steeler was a good start for my career. They didn't play anything dangerous - everything was formulaic - but I played all this crazy stuff on top of it, and that turned out to be an interesting combination. But by the time 'Steeler' came out, I was already out of the band.

I emigrated to the U.S. on February 3, 1983, when I was 19 years old. I joined Steeler right away and recorded the album the following month. I'd been playing in bands in Sweden since the age of 11, but 'Steeler' was my first album.

Sweep picking is when the right hand sweeps down and up the strings in succession. But when you do sweep picking, one note rings into the next, and it sounds almost like you're playing a chord, and that's exactly what you don't want.

I've used Fender Strats with Marshalls since forever, though since I last played London, I've switched to my YJM Seymour Duncan pickups, and I also have a Fender YJM overdrive pedal, which is fairly new.

What I've done from the very beginning is play everything with extreme accuracy. I never said to myself, 'Okay, if I put my fingers this way, it's gonna result in this.' I've never taken a lesson. My way of playing the guitar was a fresh approach to the instrument.

Someone like Allan Holdsworth sometimes plays the wackiest things, but does it with panache, such taste.

'Spellbound' has a lot of guitar playing on it, obviously, but I wanted to keep it with a more straightforward beat. It doesn't have so many stops and things like that. Whereas if you listen to 'Majestic 12,' that's like a little symphony.

If I played something incorrectly, I whipped myself mercilessly. Whenever I made a mistake, I made sure that I would never allow myself to repeat it. Every guitarist wants to play well. But in reality, if good intentions were all it took, then everyone would be great.

It doesn't matter what you make - if you create a movie or build a car or whatever, it's the amount of blood, sweat, and tears and money and everything that goes into it that needs to be rewarded.