Graham Bonnet gave details about the infamous incident between him and Yngwie Malmsteen during their Alcatrazz days when the guitarist tried to strangle him. Bonnet shared with Vintage Rock Pod what took place that night; he explained:
“What happened one night, I don’t know if you heard the story, but he grabbed me. I went off stage, and I went off to the bus, and he came off stage and grabbed me by the throat and started pressing in, trying to destroy my tonsils and whatever else. I was like, ‘What are you doing’ he said, ‘You bastard, you’re f*cking pulling my cord down from my guitar when I was doing my lead,’ and I didn’t at all.”
The guitarist was just starting in the industry when Alcatrazz hired Yngwie to perform in one studio album. However, over time, Graham realized that with each performance, the guitarist’s ego got the better of him, and it was clear that he wanted to do his own thing.
So, when Graham accidentally pulled the cord off of the amplifier that night, and Yngwie almost crushed his throat, that was the last straw before he was fired, the singer continued:
“I didn’t know I actually walked upstairs and had pulled it out by accident because the stage was dark, the spotlight was on him, and I’d gone off to the bus just to get some air. He thought I did it on purpose, which I didn’t, and so he tried to kill me basically, and it was you could just show my vocal cords and my tonsils whatever as I said he was bigger than me.”
You can watch the clip where Graham Bonnet explains the situation to Vintage Rock Pod below.
