Swedish speed merchant Yngwie Malmsteen once said that he arrived in America “with one guitar, one toothbrush,” and a dream, before a Guitar Player spotlight, on a search for “the next big guitar hero,” thrust him into the limelight.
In the latest episode of The Eddie Trunk Podcasthe reveals that both UFO and Graham Bonnett’s Alcatrazz came knocking on his door in 1983.
“I played around with Steeler; we were all over the Sunset Strip,” Malmsteen tells Eddie Trunk. “One night we played in Orange County, and Phil Mogg of UFO came. I love that band, it was great. So, he was all like, ‘Hey, I’m putting UFO back together. I’ve gotta get a great guitar player, so come to my house tomorrow.’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’ll be there.’
“So, the next morning, I get a phone call from somebody. I don’t know who it was. Some manager or something, from what became Alcatrazz. And that was the same day I was gonna see Phil.”
With a love triangle forming, Malmsteen met up with Bonnet and co. first to hear their proposal as the hours ticked down towards his meeting with Mogg.
“So, they come and pick me up, and they bring me to this rehearsal room. I started asking these guys ‘What are your songs like’, and all that stuff. ‘Well, we don’t have any songs yet.’ I said, ‘What’s your direction?’ ‘We don’t have a direction yet… But you got the gig!’ I said, ‘Well, let me think about it. I gotta go see somebody.’”
“I went to Phil Mogg’s house, and he was super cool, but he didn’t really have his stuff together as much as the other camp did. So, I called them (Alcatrazz) from Phil’s house and said, ‘Okay, I’ll do your thing, but (a) couple of conditions: I write the songs, and we get a new drummer.’ We ended up with the guy from Alice Cooper (Jannaro ‘Jan’ Uvena), but that’s how that happened.”
The guitarist would play a key role in the band’s debut LP, “No Parole from Rock ‘n’ Roll”, released in October ‘83, but would soon forge his own path as a solo artist, with Steve Vai picked to replace him.
With 1984’s “Rising Force” and “Marching Out” one year later, the ever-independent Malmsteen no longer needed to listen to offers from other bands. He was a star in his own right. Did he harbor any regrets about turning down the chance to join a band he held in such high regard?
“I mean, it would have been awesome to be in UFO,” he admits, “but that would mean I would have to do a lot of their classics and stuff like that, which is good, but I was more into the fresh start thing.”
Bonnet held up his part of the bargain; Malmsteen has writing credits on each of the record’s 10 tracks. That’s something that would have been highly unlikely had he joined UFO. Japanese shredder Tommy McClendon ultimately got the nod instead, but was replaced by Laurence Archer after two albums,
It’s not the first time a big name guitarist has turned down a chance to join a legendary band, with Jeff Beck famously spurning a spot in John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers as he “didn’t want to be mimicking Chicago blues musicians forever”. In hindsight, he accepted it may have been a better gig than the Yardbirds, with whom he would share a brief guitar partnership with Jimmy Page.
Dave Navarro, meanwhile, turned down the chance to team up with Slash in Guns N’ Roses, believing he was too “left-of-center” for the band, but soon accepted the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ advances as they sought a replacement for John Frusciante.
Malmsteen turned heads last year when he announced he was selling one of his most used Stratocasters, and was throwing in a free Ferrari as part of the deal.
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