“People forget that in the ’80s, the Fender Strat was like having an old car and someone saying, ‘Why are you driving that piece of crap?’” Yngwie Malmsteen explains how he broke the mold for rock guitar – and brought the Strat in from the cold

Yngwie Malmsteen in 1985, playing a Candy Apple Red Fender Stratocaster, dressed in some extravagant stagewear – even for the period.

Yngwie Malmsteen will be the first to tell you that 1984’s Rising Force wasn’t supposed to be a hit. But it definitely was – and the young Swedish virtuoso’s unexpected success led directly to the recording of a second album, 1985’s Marching Out, and a world tour.

Malmsteen describes Marching Out as “quickly thrown together,” which didn’t seem to matter, as it climbed to Number 52 on the Billboard charts. According to the shredder, the lightning-rod success of his two first albums came via his laser focus.