Yngwie Malmsteen discussed artificial intelligence and its role in music creation, saying people will always want to see real musicians perform live, speaking on Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk.
Malmsteen was asked about his concerns regarding AI replacing artists, particularly in the songwriting process. He shared his thoughts on whether artificial intelligence will become a threat to live music and human creativity.
“Yes and no. I think that it could be a temporary trick almost. But I think ultimately — think about this — people are not gonna go to an arena and buy tickets to watch a robot play. I don’t think so. I think people still want to have some sort of human interaction,” Malmsteen said.
“But I could be wrong. Hopefully not. I don’t think that it’s gonna replace it. It could be adding a lot of things that are fake, but we’ll see. But at the same time, even with all the trends coming back and forth, going out and in and stuff like that, it’s always gonna be an urge for that rock and roll, or whatever you wanna call it, impact of some real people playing. I’m pretty sure of that. But I could be wrong, I guess.”
Malmsteen explained his personal stance on artificial intelligence in music and other fields. “I’m not really using [A.I.] for anything, but I kind of know what it is. I think A.I. is probably a good tool in certain things, like in legal matters and whatever, where you just wanna have a lot of information. But I think that if it gets into wrong hands, it could be also bad.”
He added his view on technology more broadly. “I think technology’s not bad on its own. I think technology could be used for a bad purpose, but I don’t think it itself is bad.”
Malmsteen made these comments during a discussion about artificial intelligence’s growing use in music creation.
Malmsteen appeared on the October 27 episode of SiriusXM’s Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk to discuss the growing role of AI in music. The guitarist has been active with touring and new material over the past year. He will release his album Hell or High Water on November 13 via Music Theories Recordings / Artone Label Group, featuring the closing track “Father,” written in honor of his father who passed away in 2025. The album was recorded with his current band lineup of keyboardist Nick Marino, bassist Emilio Martinez, and drummer Kevin Klingenschmid.
Malmsteen has multiple tour dates scheduled for 2026. He performed at the Monsters of Rock festival in São Paulo, Brazil in early April and had additional appearances at Monsters of Rock on April 4 and at Wacken Open Air in the summer. European and UK dates filled June and July, followed by an Asian leg in September and a North American tour stretching through October and November.
The guitarist’s touring continues to support his catalogue following the release of Parabellum in July 2021. Malmsteen’s perspective on AI reflects a common concern among musicians about the technology’s impact on the industry, but he remains confident that live performance and human creativity will endure as central to rock and roll’s appeal.
