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"ONE DAY I TOOK MY SON TO BEST BUY TO BUY HIM A video game," says neo-classical metal shred god Yngwie Malmsteen. "Well, the guy who works there recognized me and he pulls out this little plastic guitar and starts playing "Smoke on the Water" on Guitar Hero-all I could think to myself is, 'I'm f***ing doomed, man. This is the end.' Well, go figure, but that game has been one of the best things that has happened to me!" Yup, go figure. Life is full of goofy twists, and for the 47-year old Malmsteen, the last thing he expected was a video game and the Internet to bolster his career. But thanks to the popularity of Guitar Hero, which featured downloadable tracks from Malmsteen's 2008 Perpetual Flame album, and Guitar Hero II, which bequeaths the "Yngwie Malmsteen Award" for a 1,000-plus note streak in succession, one of rock guitar's most influential-yet-controversial figures has a legion of new fans.
"Over the past ten years, it seems like I couldn't even get arrested in America," says Malmsteen. "I'd walk into GNC for some vitamins and a Spanish body builder guy would ask me if I'm in Metallica! But now I can't even walk down the street without someone recognizing me from either Guitar Hero or YouTube videos!"
Even if Malmsteen's bombastic blend of Bach and Blackmore isn't your cup of tea, one has to admire the dude's tireless work ethic and dedication to his artistic vision in the midst of constantly changing musical and guitar fads. "I came to America with a guitar, a toothbrush, and no idea what was going to happen to me," Malmsteen says of his arrival in the States in 1982 from Sweden. And what happened was, basically, the "official" emergence of the neo-classical shred genre, with Malmsteen as its leading light.
But as the decades have worn on, and guitarists have aped the single-minded Swede's furious Phrygian and diminished delights to the nth degree, Malmsteen is still the most identifiable shredder ever. He's the last hard rock/metal exponent of the Fender Stratocaster/ non-master volume Marshall amp recipe, and, for the most part, he has been using the same gear since his late teens in Sweden. His tone has always been the...