Former Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore has opened up about his thoughts on neoclassical shred guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen. He offered a candid assessment of the fellow guitar icon.
Both guitarists have reputations for being difficult to work with. Blackmore’s remarks, however, focused on Malmsteen’s musicianship and personality rather than any friction between the two.
“I know him, and he’s a very nice guy,” Ritchie Blackmore said. “Excellent guitar player. A lot of people have kind of questioned his angle, but he obviously knows his stuff. He might be a bit too tall, but that’s my only criticism.”
Blackmore went on to praise Malmsteen’s technical ability and unique approach to playing.
“I definitely think he’s probably the best at what he does and – for what it’s worth – the fastest,” he continued. “And he doesn’t play the typical blues, minor kind of interpretations. He knows his scales. It’s more interesting.”
Blackmore’s comments add a notable endorsement from one guitar icon to another. Both are known for their distinct styles and strong personalities in the rock world.
These remarks are far from a one-off compliment. Blackmore’s admiration for Malmsteen extends beyond his playing style into a genuine personal fondness. It reveals a warmer side to a relationship often defined by the two guitarists’ shared reputation for being demanding perfectionists.
Blackmore has spoken about meeting Malmsteen’s mother in Sweden. He described her as someone who reminded him of his own mother back in England, a small but telling detail that points to a friendship built on more than mutual respect for technique.
Malmsteen, for his part, has offered a more complicated picture of the relationship between the two guitarists’ styles. He grew up idolizing Blackmore and has called him “extremely good.” Still, he has pushed back on the idea that Blackmore was his primary influence, crediting classical violin composers instead for shaping his approach to the guitar.
That tension between admiration and independence has defined how Malmsteen discusses his own musical roots for decades. He has firmly rejected the notion that his neoclassical style descended directly from Blackmore’s blues-rock foundations. Instead, he insists his sound was forged from an entirely different set of influences.
“I love Ritchie Blackmore, no doubt about it, but my playing is nothing like his,” Malmsteen has said. Even as two of rock’s most technically gifted and famously exacting guitarists trade compliments, they remain distinct voices with very different musical DNA.
