At a press conference during this year’s Hellfest, Yngwie Malmsteen recalled discovering Deep Purple and Ritchie Blackmore around age 9 and quickly mastering that style of playing.
Malmsteen has often been viewed as influenced by Ritchie Blackmore. In the conference, he addressed these comments by saying he completely stopped listening to Deep Purple at an early age. He explained:
“And the next thing I heard was ‘Made in Japan.’ By the time I was nine years old, I could play every note on ‘Made in Japan’, note for note, everything.”
Even though it didn’t take him long to learn the song, he intentionally moved away from pentatonic-based guitar playing after stopping listening to the band.
Blackmore’s Thoughts On Malmsteen
Malmsteen might have stopped listening to Purple a long time ago, but Ritchie Blackmore himself still made some comments about the guitarist.
In another interview with Guitar World, Blackmore was asked by Guitar World to share his thoughts on Malmsteen. He said:
“I know him and he’s a very nice guy. Excellent guitar player. A lot of people have kind of questioned his angle, but he obviously knows his stuff. He might be a bit too tall, but that’s my only criticism. I did meet his mother in Sweden, a very nice woman who reminded me of my mother back in England.”
The guitar also mentioned Malmsteen’s most interesting feature:
“So Yngwie and I get on fine. He’s like a family member. I definitely think he’s probably the best at what he does and – for what it’s worth – the fastest. And he doesn’t play the typical blues, minor kind of interpretations. He knows his scales. It’s more interesting.”
You can watch the rest of the press conference below.