Yngwie J. Malmsteen’s management explains his comments towards former lead vocalists

Yngwie J. Malmsteen’s management explains his comments towards former lead vocalists

Guitar maestro Yngwie J. Malmsteen‘s comments about not working with his former lead vocalists has incited singers Jeff Scott Soto and Joe Lynn Turner to each publicly fire back, which has generated a flurry of media coverage. Malmsteen‘s management appears to want to clear the air somewhat to dissipate any notion of a feud between the guitarist and his former singers.

The following message was posted on Malmsteen‘s Facebook page about an hour ago:

“STATEMENT REGARDING PAST VOCALISTS:

Hello all,

Firstly, we would like to apologize in advance that this statement must even be written, but it seems that some comments from past vocalists that Yngwie has worked with in the past have been getting twisted and blown out of proportion. Allow me to set the record straight.

I think the response to Yngwie‘s off-hand comments (of which his previous hired vocalists were not specifically named) has only served to prove them true – because Yngwie said something that they didn’t like, they came out enraged, spitting insults and profanities at him. This of course leads to the media bloating their responses and proclaiming it to be some sort of “feud” when it’s absolutely nothing of the sort.

Yngwie never mentioned any of them by name (the journalist did, however) – he merely stated that he was not interested in working with any singers anymore because he did not feel it conducive to his style of writing and performing. If Yngwie had a problem with his hired musicians having an ego, he had every right to fire them (they did not “quit” or “leave” as they would like to have you believe) because it was, and still is his own project. He leads and he has the final word.

It’s very unfortunate that these past hired vocalists must resort to mudslinging and insults to elicit any kind of media attention towards them. Such classless, puerile words are ungentlemanly at best and absolutely disgraceful at worst.

Meanwhile, these hired vocalists have been attempting to reach Yngwie throughout the past 35 years and to as recent as this year, have tried to reconnect with Yngwie, start projects and/or be rehired by him, among other things. At the same time, they have repeatedly spouted out these increasingly juvenile insults – a recent incident telling Yngwie to “sit on this” (a picture of the vocalist’s middle finger) on social media sticks out particularly – which makes it very hard to believe their reaching out is based in any sort of goodwill. These incidents tend to increase in frequency when their attempts are not humored.

Above all, the most laughable thing about the statements from all of these different singers is that they all claim to be individually and solely responsible for Yngwie’s success! How strange and amazing is it that they all did it by themselves? It would be slightly more believable if they had the ability to generate media coverage without attaching Yngwie‘s name to themselves – but alas, this is not the case, and as such their stories only seem to be about their tantrums toward Yngwie.

It is simply impossible, then, for one to take such statements seriously when these vocalists have sung such a different tune when dealing with our end. To literally take a picture of yourself flipping off Yngwie‘s family and then right afterward show up at his concert asking for free tickets does not do a lot to instill trust. Such behavior simply comes across as being disingenuous and trying to ride on Yngwie‘s coattails.

I think that these past hired vocalists would find it in their best interests to do as Yngwie does by moving on and focusing on creating and performing new music, instead of grasping as tightly onto the past as they can.

Thank you for your time and I bid you a good day.

~Daniel Baker, Malmsteen Management“