Yngwie Malmsteen

Yngwie Johan Malmsteen born on 30 June 1963 is a Swedish guitarist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and bandleader. Malmsteen became known for his neo-classical playing style in heavy metal. According to Steve Huey of Allmusic, "Yngwie Malmsteen is arguably the most technically accomplished hard rock guitarist to emerge during the '80s."

Malmsteen was born Lars Johan Yngve Lannerbäck in Stockholm, Sweden, the third child of a musically-talented family.
Malmsteen has stated that Jimi Hendrix had no musical impact on him and did not contribute to his style, but watching the 18 September 1970 TV special where Hendrix smashed and burned his guitar made Malmsteen think, "This is really cool". To quote his official website, "The day Jimi Hendrix died, the guitar-playing Yngwie was born".

At the age of 12 he took his mother's maiden name Malmsten as his surname, slightly changed it to Malmsteen, and Anglicised his third given name Yngve to "Yngwie". Malmsteen created his first band "Track on Earth" at the age of 10, consisting of himself and a friend from school on drums (Armin).

As a teenager, he was heavily influenced by classical music, particularly 19th century violinist composer Niccolò Paganini, and also discovered his most important guitar influence, Ritchie Blackmore. Uli Jon Roth is also cited as a significant influence, as is Brian May of Queen.