“I hear the promoter got a phone call from Eddie, who said, ‘If Yngwie Malmsteen is playing, I'm not playing’”: Yngwie Malmsteen claims Eddie Van Halen felt “threatened” by him

Yngwie Malmsteen and Eddie Van Halen.

In a new interview with Classic Rock, Yngwie Malmsteen has looked back on his near-meetings with Eddie Van Halen – and claimed the late electric guitar legend felt threatened by him.

Van Halen had burst onto the scene in the late 1970s, with the likes of Eruption rapidly setting the guitar world alight. Malmsteen, who got his big break thanks to Guitar Player, was hot on his tail, with the pair of six-string speed merchants flipping the industry on its head across a flurry of releases in the ensuring decades.