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"People outside of this country do not just like BRITNEY SPEARS and N' SYNC" -Yngwie Malmsteen

Legendary Swedish guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen recently spoke to
Rock Confidential about the long-overdue U.S. release of his latest album.

- People living in the United States seem to think the United States is the
world. The world is not the United States. I love this country. I've lived
here for a long time. Not only is there a world outside of the United
States, but those people outside of this country do not just like BRITNEY
SPEARS and N' SYNC.

When we went out on the G3 thing [with Joe Satriani and
Steve Vai], none of us have really been in the limelight for quite some
time. We were filling the places, cramming 'em in. The bottom line is this:
The unfortunate part of the music industry is that it's very non-diverse in
the United States. In 1987, '88, if you didn't look and sound like BON
JOVI - forget about it. In 1990, '92, if you didn't look and sound like
NIRVANA - forget about it. That's not right. That's not the way shit should
be done. That's not what everybody in the world is supposed to sound like.
For worse or better, I don't know. I think it's been pretty much the same
for the last 30 years. It's all about money. That's all it is. A lot of
times people ask me if I have any advice to become successful in the music
business. I say, 'Let me ask you a question. Do you want to get good or do
you want to get famous?' They are two different things. You can get famous
without being good. You can be really good without being famous.

"With a combination of CD burning, the internet, cell phones, and the VH1s
and MTVs, people get lazy. They don't want to go out and stand in line to
see a show. The concert business and the record selling business has gone
down. Let's say you're a kid and you have a vision that you want to be rich.
Well, one thing you should not do is to get into music. That ain't happening
anymore. It's a sad fact, but it's a true fact. A cold hard fact."

- To read the entire interview please go to www.rockconfidential.com/YngwieMalmsteen.html

Posted by MK Magazine at February 6, 2004 12:31 PM