Yngwie Malmsteen

When I grew up, there was no TV, nothing. The guitar could be my whole life. The kids today have Internet and TV and games and all that stuff.

I am so extremely busy with what I am doing myself. When I am not playing music, I am usually doing other things. Playing around with my Ferraris and playing tennis and things like that. What I understand, there is a new group of kids that are very serious about playing, which is great; I think that is a good thing.

When I was a kid, I played drums, and when I first got a 4-track, I would put down drumbeats and then do the rest of the tracks on top.

I wanted to learn how to play guitar so I could smash it up and burn it. I was only a little kid, so that was my incentive.

I learned a lot from other people, and was inspired by what they did, but I didn't copy anyone. I put many different blocks together to become what I am. I don't know if that would have happened if everything was handed to me on a plate.

I always wrote everything - I wrote all the lyrics, I wrote all the melodies, everything; it's just somebody else sung it. And to me, the singer is nothing else than a different... like a bass player or a keyboard player - they're not more important than any other musician.

It doesn't matter what you make - if you create a movie or build a car or whatever, it's the amount of blood, sweat, and tears and money and everything that goes into it that needs to be rewarded.

I remember when I was a kid, if you had your name on a piece of vinyl, man, you were, like, in the halls of Valhalla; all of sudden, you were hanging out with Odin and being at the table of the gods. You were the real deal; you weren't some guy struggling in a garage somewhere.

I'm very comfortable singing myself, first of all. Secondly, there's a certain disconnect when you write the song and you have someone else sing it for you. And it's kind of like a fakeness about it.

Everything that I think that a society should offer someone, which is nothing other than the ability to be able to do what you wanna do, is offered by America.

Just the whole thing of getting up in the morning - I love the sunshine, I love the palm trees. I'm that kind of guy. I like to drive around with the top down and just enjoy life. I never did that before, so it's a beautiful thing.

I love all kinds of Indian music, and Indian food as well. If the chance arises for me to play in India, I'm there.