YNGWIE MALMSTEEN Blasts His 'Hired' Former Singers For 'All Trying To Capitalize From' His Brand

Legendary Swedish guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen has blasted some of the singers he worked with early in his solo career for allegedly "trying to capitalize from [his] brand".

The 62-year-old musician, who has worked with a number of acclaimed vocalists over the years, including Jeff Scott Soto, Mark Boals, Joe Lynn Turner, Göran Edman, Michael Vescera, Mats Levén and Tim "Ripper" Owens, with Nick Marino most recently handling some of the vocal duties live, took to his social media earlier today (Thursday, December 18),to write: "So it has come to my attention that these hired and paid singers that I hired for my solo records are all trying to capitalize from my brand!

"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 catalog, then you've already answered the question of who actually built something. And -What have they recorded/created the last 30,40 years?"

It's unclear what prompted Malmsteen's latest outburst, but it could have something to do with the fact that Levén recently announced that he will play two shows in Japan in May 2026 that will apparently focus heavily on the material from the sole Yngwie album he appeared on, 1997's "Facing The Animal".

Earlier this month, Mats was asked by a fan if he had any input when it came to writing the lyrics for "Facing The Animal". The Swedish singer responded: "Well, at bit different from song to song…a song like 'Braveheart', Yngwie had the title to the song and then I wrote most of the lyric and some melody lines.

"Yngwie was quite open to letting me contribute. I wrote 30-35% of the 'Facing The Animal' album.

"'Alone In Paradise' was an old idea from the 'Odyssey' [album]. I only completed that lyric. Actually, Joe Lynn Turner's backing vocals were still there when we recorded. Tracks like 'Enemy' and 'Facing The Animal', I wrote all lyrics and melody lines for."

After working with some of the top hard singers of the past four decades, Yngwie now handles much of the lead vocals himself in his own band, backed by a lineup that includes keyboardist Nick Marino, bassist Emilio Martinez and drummer Kevin Klingenschmid.

Only four of the songs on Yngwie's latest album, 2021's "Parabellum" featured vocals. The album title is Latin, translating as "Prepare For War".

This past April, Yngwie was asked by Chris Akin Presents… if he has had to change his compositional approach to accommodate his singing voice compared to how it was in the past when he was working with outside vocalists. Yngwie responded: "Yes and no, because every time I wrote a song when another singer sang it, I wrote the vocal melody and I wrote the lyrics. Except in ALCATRAZZ, I wrote the vocal melody, but Graham [Bonnet] wrote the lyrics, which is the words. The musical melody that he sang, I wrote that. And the same with other singers. Some of the singers, actually, did add words, and I was never happy with that, to be honest with you. And I have to be quite honest, it was just because I was lazy.

"There was a time when I was not so focused and had other things going on and I would allow that to happen," Yngwie explained. "That's why. It's not for any other reason. I'm extremely focused and extremely together right now, so it will never happen again.

"The thing is that, me as a creator, and you've gotta also remember this — I don't know how to say this; I try to say it in many different ways — I am a solo artist since January 1984," Malmsteen added. "Every record I've made, it's been a solo album. I even consider the ALCATRAZZ album a solo album. No. But seriously, I wrote everything on that too. But STEELER, for instance, I wrote, like, maybe two songs. That was definitely not my thing. But the thing is, everything I did since January 1984 has been my solo albums. So if I hired somebody to sing something or hired somebody to play the keyboards or drums or bass or something, that was exactly it. That was it. Having said that, there was a period, couple of small periods — I'd say late '80s maybe — where there was some distractions, some bad things going on. And then I let the reins go a little bit. But I was always, at the end of the day, I was producing and at the end of the day, I was always doing that. But even those times, these are my solo albums. I mean, there are solo artists that don't do anything themselves. They have everybody writing and producing everything for 'em. They still call themselves solo artists. So, I don't know how that works. But anyway… That's cool too… I just find it interesting that some people don't seem to understand that I've been a solo artist since 1984. And it stops there."

Yngwie released a live album, "Tokyo Live", in April via Music Theories Recordings. The concert was recorded at the Zepp DiverCity, Tokyo on May 11, 2024 as part of Yngwie's 40th-anniversary world tour.