Ronnie Romero has sung for some of the most demanding figures in hard rock — Ritchie Blackmore, Michael Schenker, Adrian Vandenberg — and come out of each chapter with something useful to say about the experience. He’s not a man who tends to shy away from direct answers. So when Chaoszine‘s Marko Syrjälä asked whether Romero would consider joining forces with Yngwie Malmsteen if the call came in, the response was about as clear as it gets.
“I wouldn’t think about it,” he said. “I wouldn’t wanna do it because of all the stories I’ve heard from people I’ve worked with who have worked with him. I’ve worked with people like the Johansson brothers — Jens and Anders — Jeff Scott Soto and Mark Boals. I know all those guys, and they’ve told me some stories, and I was, like, ‘I don’t know…’ So, when somebody asks me, ‘What if Yngwie calls you?’ I would say, ‘No.’ I’d hang up the phone.”
That said, Romero is careful to separate the man from the music. His entry point into Malmsteen‘s catalogue came through Swedish singer Mats Levén, and it left a mark. “The way I discovered Yngwie was actually when Mats Levén was in the band. The first Yngwie album I heard was the 1998 live album Live!!, and Mats was singing on it. Then I heard Facing the Animal, which is one of my favorites, together with The Seventh Sign. So yeah, if that ever happened, I’d choose just one song — and that would be ‘Facing the Animal’, for sure.”
When the interviewer mentioned that Levén is set to perform the entire Facing the Animal album in Japan in May, Romero didn’t hold back his admiration. “Yeah, he told me that, and that’s fantastic. He’s a great singer. As I said in a post the other day, he’s one of my heroes. Together with David Coverdale and later Ian Gillan, he was one of the first singers who really blew me away. I was, like, ‘How can this guy sing like that?’ On that live recording, he’s just killing it.”
Romero made his live debut with Rainbow in June 2016 after Blackmore selected him to front the reformed lineup. Beyond Rainbow, his CV includes Michael Schenker Group, Lords of Black, The Ferrymen, Elegant Weapons, Sunstorm, and Vandenberg — with whom he recorded the 2020 album 2020 before parting ways.
His most recent solo release is Backbone, put out via Frontiers Music Srl, produced by Romero himself and mixed and mastered by guitarist Jose Rubio Jimenez. It features contributions from former Europe guitarist Kee Marcello and songwriter Russ Ballard, who penned the track “Hideaway.”
Backbone followed Too Many Lies, Too Many Masters, his first solo album of original material, and two covers records: 2023’s Raised on Heavy Radio, which took on material from Ozzy Osbourne, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Accept, and Metallica with guests including Gus G., Chris Caffery, and Roland Grapow; and his debut Raised on Radio, which traced his roots through classic rock from Survivor, Bad Company, Foreigner, Queen, and Led Zeppelin.
The post RONNIE ROMERO Says He Would Never Work With YNGWIE MALMSTEEM If Asked: “No, I’d Hang Up The Phone” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.