YNGWIE MALMSTEEN On Working With TIM 'RIPPER' OWENS

September 23, 2008

Greg Prato of UGO.com recently conducted an interview with legendary Swedish guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen. An excerpt from the chat follows below.

UGO.com: How did you hook up with [singer] Ripper Owens [ex-JUDAS PRIEST, ICED EARTH]?

Yngwie Malmsteen: I started writing the songs, and once I started recording them with the drummer, Patrick [Johansson], I realized, "Wow, this is turning out to be pretty heavy." Then I started writing the lyrics and melodies, and all the songs started to take form — that's when I realized I needed to have another singer. Because the songs started taking on their own life. What I envisioned in my head, it needed something more powerful. We'd been crossing paths a long time — me and Ripper — I don't know exactly how it happened, but we hooked up, he came down and sang a couple of songs to try out, and that was it. We both realized that was it.

UGO.com: How would you compare working with Ripper to the previous singers you've worked with over the years?

Yngwie Malmsteen: He's very cool to work with. I have a very strong vision of what I'm going for — I showed him the parts and he delivers really well. I'm very pleased with that.

UGO.com: Ever see the movie that was supposedly based on his life, "Rock Star"?

Yngwie Malmsteen: I did see that one — a long time ago, yeah [laughs]. Half of it. It's kind of hard to take it seriously, when you're in that industry yourself, because it's so nuts the way it is. It's Hollywood, y'know?

UGO.com: Any standout memories during the recording sessions?

Yngwie Malmsteen: It was pretty smooth. The album was recorded very different from what I've done before — we started doing the backing tracks, went on tour, came back, did some of the keyboards, went on tour again, and then did some of the guitars. It was done in sections.

UGO.com: What are some of your favorite tracks from "Perpetual Flame"?

Yngwie Malmsteen: They're all "my children," so I love them all. Of course, every time I think of one song, it will have a lot of meaning, like "Death Dealer" — I love the high-energy double bass, "Red Devil". The instrumental, "Caprici di Diablo", is the hardest thing I've ever played in my life! I can go on — every song has a very strong value to me.

Read the entire interview from UGO.com.

Yngwie Malmsteen performing live in 2008:

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