Yngwie Malmsteen goes on rant against his previous vocalists. All of them.

By BRIAN GIFFIN

SWEDISH guitar shredder and well known hothead Yngwie J. Malmsteen has called out every vocalist he’s ever worked with for “capitalizing” on his legacy.

Malmsteen took to X on Thursday with the claim that his former singers are basing their careers on music they were hired by him to record.

“So it has come to my attention that these hired and paid singers that I hired for my solo records are all trying to capitalise from my brand!” he declares. “Let’s be clear: performing on MY SOLO records does not equal ownership, authorship, or legacy. Writing a line here and there doesn’t make someone a songwriter, and singing my material doesn’t make it theirs. They were merely given a salary (work for hire) to put down MY written parts, just like the keyboard player, bassist, drummer, etc. If the only way you can tour or get attention is by leaning on my brand and using my name and album titles and my SOLO catalogue, then you’ve already answered the question of who actually built something. And – what have they recorded/created the last 30, 40 years? [sic]”

Given that some of the vocalists he’s worked with include Graham Bonnet, Joe Lynn Turner, Jørn Lande, Jeff Scott Soto and Tim “Ripper” Owens, that’s some burn.

It’s not made clear who the rant is actually directed at, but several former Malmsteen vocalists – Mark Boals, Michael Vescera and Mats Levén, have all promoted shows or tours recently that lean heavily on material from their time with the mercurial guitarist.

On Chris Akin Presents earlier this year, Malmsteen made the assertion that even his time with LA shred metal unit Alcatrazz was a solo stint, though he appears to backtrack immediately and suggest he merely “wrote everything” on their 1984 debut No Parole From Rock n Roll.

“Every time I wrote a song when another singer sang it,” he suggested, “I wrote the vocal melody and I wrote the lyrics. Except in Alcatrazz, I wrote the vocal melody, but Graham wrote the lyrics, which is the words. The musical melody that he sang, I wrote that.”

The official Alcatrazz Facebook page has since hit back with a simple rebuttal that Malmsteen’s claim is untrue.

“Graham wrote and writes his own vocal melodies, he was always great at that!” says the post.