Yngwie Malmsteen reveals having been offered gigs with David Lee Roth, UFO, and contacted by KISS

Yngwie Malmsteen reveals having been offered gigs with David Lee Roth, UFO, and contacted by KISS

Guitar virtuoso Yngwie Malmsteen was recently interviewed by Eamon O’Neill for UK’s eonmusic. Malmsteen was promoting his new album Parabellum, which was released on July 23, 2021.

In terms of having being asked to join some big bands over the years, Malmsteen indicated (with slight edits): “Yeah, of course. Quite a lot, actually. I was offered a gig in UFO, I was offered a gig with David Lee Roth. There was some murmur about the Ozzy thing. Ronnie James Dio, he talked about it all the time. When I actually lived in Sweden, I was offered a gig in KISS! They wanted to talk to me. They called me up, and I was in Sweden, right, and the guy said; “Are you hot?”, and then he asked me; “Are you six feet tall?”, and I’m metric, right? I’m 6’3, I’m actually quite tall, I’m 192cm, so I said; “No, I’m 192”, and he goes; “What the fuck’s that?!”, so they never called back, so I didn’t end up with an oink on my face!”

With respect to being offered the Deep Purple gig, Malmsteen stated: “There was murmurs. Me and Roger Glover always got along. I got along with Ritchie Blackmore too, but Ian Gillan, for some reason he… I did a show with him once, and we had the greatest time, it was a lot of fun, but then I did a tour with him a few years ago, and he didn’t seem to like me a lot, so I don’t know.”

You can read the rest of the interview with Yngwie Malmsteen at eonmusic‘s website.