Famous hard rock vocalist Mark Boals, who has recorded vocals on four of Yngwie Malmstein’s studio albums, including the hard rock classic “Trilogy”, spoke about his collaboration with the virtuoso guitarist during a recent performance on “Waste Some Time With Jason Green”.
For the past four decades, Yngwie has collaborated with the best hard rock vocalists, but now he has decided to record vocals in his own band. Boals spoke about his reaction to Malmsteen’s vocals:
“Unfortunately, I can’t forget what I heard. But I knew what his voice had been like before. When we were recording “Alchemy “[1999], he came up to me and said ” Dude, I’ve been taking vocal lessons for eight years. What’s wrong? What am I doing wrong?” and I said, “Well, Yngwie…” His voice doesn’t sound very good, it sounds so-so, it’s unpleasant to listen to. He can sing by the notes, but it sounds unpleasant. I didn’t know what to say to him. But it’s a fact. He’s trying very hard.
A singer is a very different situation from a musician. You can’t just take Ronnie James Dio’s voice model and sing like Dio or take Ian Gillan’s voice and sing like him. You have to work with what you have; it’s physical limitations, and it’s talent. Just like playing the guitar. I can’t pick up a guitar and play like Yngwie, so I don’t know why he thinks he can just walk up to the mic and sing like me or someone else.”
Regarding the opinion that Malmsteen’s decision to take up vocals himself in order to avoid conflicts with the vocalist is not the best solution, Boals said:
“I tend to agree with this as many other people do, but he doesn’t understand it. I don’t know why he was so lucky — he had the best vocalists around him. He had Jeff Scott Soto and he’s great. He had Joe Lynn Turner — I love Joe. He had Doogie White, another cool singer. He had Ripper Owens, another guy from Ohio, and he’s a great singer too. And I think after that, he just stopped hiring vocalists.”
Mark answered a question about whether there is any chance that he will ever work with Yngwie again:
“Well, I don’t want to say that there is no chance at all, but I can say that it will happen when hell freezes over. It will require some changes — that’s all. I’ve always respected his talent, and I’ve tried to get him to do things a little differently, but he’s a very stubborn guy and he does what he wants. I don’t think that’s going to happen, because he would have to admit he was wrong. He has to realize that he needs a vocalist, because he took the position that he doesn’t need one.”
