Yngwie Malmsteen the great guitarist was born in the land of Sweden, Stockholm, on June 30, 1963. He was the youngest child in a household. His mothers name was Rigmor, sister Ann Louise, and brother Bjorn.
While he was young he had no interest in music. However, on September 18, 1970, Yngwie was watching a special televison program on the death of the famous guitar iconoclast Jimi Hendrix. This inspired the seven-year-old Yngwie who watched with wonder the video as Hendrix blasted the audience with great torrents of feedback and was sacrificing his guitar in flames. They say the day when Jimi Hendrix died, the guitar-playing Yngwie was born.
At the tender age of 10 he took his mother's maiden name which was Malmsteen as his own surname, and anglicised his given name Yngve to "Yngwie".
While Malmsteen was still a teenager he first got introduced to the music of the 19th century violin virtuoso Niccolò Paganini, whom he still mentions as his biggest classical music influence. Through his discovery of Niccolò Paganini concerto pieces on his strat guitar, Malmsteen developed a amazing prodigious technical fluency. Malmsteen also proclaims that Jimi Hendrix, Brian Steve Hackett of Genesis, May of Queen, Uli Jon Roth, and Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple where his major influences.
In the late 1988, Malmsteen's signature Fender Stratocaster guitar was released, making him and Eric Clapton the first artists to be honored by Fender.