The mid-1980s brought together Yngwie Malmsteen and Rik Emmett for a Triumph tour around the time Malmsteen’s ‘Trilogy’ LP was released. Emmett, having had the chance to listen to the Swedish guitarist’s music up close during the live shows, shared his thoughts on his style in a recent chat with the Rock Interviews Series:
“His band, eh. And the style of music, after you’d heard three or four songs, you’d kind of heard every trick that was in the book, kind of. So, it wasn’t really my cup of tea, necessarily. But there’s people that really do love guitar heroes. And that’s what he was.”
The Guitar Player Was Almost Fired
Malmsteen opened for the ‘Never Surrender’ band during a set of North American dates promoting ‘The Sport Of Kings.’ During this tour, the guitarist’s tendency to extend his performance beyond the scheduled time led to a candid talk between him and Emmett.
The Triumph frontman recalled:
“The first night or two that he played, he kind of went overtime and he was being sort of egocentric in what he was doing. And then there was talk, like they were going to fire him off the tour. And I said, ‘Let me just go talk to him in his dressing room. Y’know, guitar player to guitar player.’ And I think it helped that I was a columnist for Guitar Player Magazine.”
The Talk Solved The Problem
Emmett noted that, when he explained the financial cost of these extended sets and requested Malmsteen to stick to the agreed-upon timings, the guitarist was understanding:
“He was looking at me like, ‘I don’t think anybody ever talked to me this straight before.’ And he went, ‘Yeah. OK.’ And he never played one second overtime after that night. He played his show and it was good, it was great.”
Despite saying he wasn’t particularly a fan of Malmsteen’s neoclassical shred style, Emmett added:
“He’d do those things where he’d swing the guitar around on his strap, hit his poses, and play his Ritchie Blackmore licks, and then play his sweep [picking]. He was a tremendous player.”
You can watch Rik Emmett interview in the video below.
