Back when he was a young but aspiring guitarist, Yngwie Malmsteen needed a helping hand to make a breakthrough. That help came from Mike Varney, the record producer who founded Shrapnel Records and got the guitarist in Steeler. Speaking to Eddie Trunk, Varney admitted that he was initially against the idea of bringing Malmsteen to the United States to work with him.
“Steeler was probably the first real project where I said, ‘Okay, I’m getting my checkbook out, and it’s not much in the account,’” Mike Varney recalled. “‘We’re going to take a shot here.’ I wanted to do something with Yngwie, Billy Sheehan, and Warren Haynes, an instrumental record. And then Ron [Keel] came up to the house right around when I was looking to put that together and said, ‘Hey, I got this thing happening in L.A.’ I brought this up, and I played a bunch of guitar players. Then he said, ‘Hey, that’s the guy right there.’”
Asked whether Yngwie had submitted a demo tape to him through the guitar column, he said, “Yes, but I have to talk about the record exchange that created all. Bill Burkard, that proprietor, the guy who brought all the cool metal to the Bay area and helped inspire me to want to do a label. Bill had a Swedish exchange student who came into his store and had a demo of Yngwie. When I was over there buying records one day, probably in 1981 or maybe early 82, Bill said, ‘Hey, you gotta hear this Swedish guy.’ So I sat down and said, ‘Whoa.’”
Recalling his conversation with Bill, Mike continued, “He said, ‘What do you think? Do you want to do stuff with him?’ Then I said, ‘Well, one second there.’ I said, ‘Well, I would, but man, there’s immigration; there’s the cost of flying the guy from Europe to the United States.’ I just wasn’t quite ready. I was the guy in my mid-20s, and making a commitment like that seemed a little ahead of me at that time.”
“So, I decided this was just too much for me,” he admitted. Varney added, “It was a thought of mine to do something, but I just had to put it out of my head. Then six months later or so, Yngwie sent a demo to the call. Then I said, ‘Okay, well, this is cool.’ By then, I had sold more records. I said, ‘Okay, maybe I’m ready to do something like that.’ So, yeah, that was cool. We got him out there, and it worked out.”
Steeler signed with Mike Varney’s Shrapnel Records in 1983 and released their self-titled album featuring Yngwie Malmsteen. Before deciding on working with Yngwie, Steeler’s Ron Keeler heard his guitar playing through Mike. As it seems, Varney already knew about Yngwie thanks to Bill Burkard and was impressed with his guitar playing. However, thinking about the expenses and believing he wasn’t ready, Mike initially refused to bring the guitarist to the U.S.
