Yngwie Malmsteen explained the reason why he didn’t want to join UFO after the band’s frontman Phil Mogg made an offer about it during his latest interview with The Eddie Trunk Podcast.
Yngwie Malmsteen was 19 years old when he started to play with Steeler as their guitarist. However, problems started to rise between Malmsteen and the other members because of the musical differences in a very short time. Thus, the young guitarist knew that he couldn’t stay in the band anymore.
The musician decided to consider UFO’s Phil Mogg’s offer to join the band, but Alcatrazz also called him and wanted to hire him as their new guitarist. Malmsteen had to make a decision, and he chose Alcatrazz. In his interview, he revealed the reason behind his choice saying that he wished to write new songs.
Malmsteen knew that if he had joined UFO, he would have played ‘Doctor Doctor’ every night, but he added that he always appreciated the band’s style and its members’ talents as musicians. However, he only wanted to create new things so he became Alcatrazz’s guitarist.
In Malmsteen’s words, he said:
“There was a time when I was in Steeler, Phil Mogg from UFO came to the show and asked me to come down and see them the next day. I said ‘Okay, sure.’ Then I got a phone call from Alcatrazz people for the same day so I had to choose from doing that in one day.
I decided to do the Alcatrazz thing because I wrote the songs instead of going to the stage and doing ‘Doctor Doctor’ every night even though I love UFO don’t get me wrong.”
Consequently, Yngwie Malmsteen had problems with Alcatrazz members too and decided to leave the band after he punched the frontman Graham Bonnet because of an onstage argument.
