Yngwie Malmsteen and Kim Mitchell both blocked me on Twitter (X), but I’ll get over it

By Steve Newton

I’ve interviewed a lot of amazing guitarists over the last 40 years or so. Hundreds actually. And I don’t think I’ve upset too many of them.

But for some reason, in the last few years, I seem to have ticked off at least a couple fiery fretburners, who decided to block @earofnewt on Twitter, or X as they call it now.

First to show his displeasure was speedy Swedish picker Yngwie Malmsteen, who I originally interviewed back in 1985, when he was 22 and fast making a name for himself in guitar circles.

I didn’t talk to him again until nearly three decades later, in 2014, and that’s when he made some controversial comments about certain brands of guitars.

At one point in the conversation I asked him what he thought was so special about his weapon of choice, the Fender Strat.

“Well it’s kind of the original instrument,” he replied. “Everything else is a copy of it, you know. All the Ibanez and stuff like that’s just a copy. It’s like a bad copy, really. It’s the same design but it’s a bad copy...”

Malmsteen had just insulted the popular brand of guitar favoured by such mind-boggling technicians as Joe Satriani and Steve Vai, but he wasn’t finished yet. He had his disapproving sights set on the hallowed Gibson Les Paul as well.

“Yeah, Les Paul’s nice bein’ a piece of furniture,” he said. “It’s nice to look at. It wouldn’t survive five minutes with me on stage.”

Apparently, a lot of guitar freaks took exception to Yngwie’s take on Ibanez and Les Paul guitars, as the blog I posted about it went viral and spawned a lot of derisive comments.

I’m thinking now that maybe Yngwie–who has since been spotted shredding on a Les Paul himself–didn’t appreciate all the flak generated by that story. Or the way I sought out Satriani’s response to it.

Anyway, next thing you know I’m blocked from @OfficialYJM.

The latest guitarist to hop on the Let’s-Block-The-Newt bandwagon is Canadian party-rocker Kim Mitchell, who I’ve actually interviewed six times, including three times back in the ’80s, when the only blocking I knew about involved football.

Mitchell barred me from @TheKimMitchell earlier this year, and I’ve got an idea why.

I’m guessing he didn’t like the blog that I posted where I used two-minutes of audio from our 1992 interview in which he talks about guitarists who he thinks are wankers. He repeatedly described Joe Satriani–there’s that Satch connection again!–as blowing his wad during solos when compared to a more controlled player like Eddie Van Halen.

I’ve really enjoyed Kim Mitchell’s music over the years, hence the six interviews. I mean, 1984’s “Diary for Rock ‘n’ Roll Men” is one of the greatest Canuck-rock tunes of all time!

Considering how often I’d talked to Mitchell and how much I loved some of his songs, it kinda hurt my feelings when he blocked me, I gotta say.

Maybe he’s worried that my exhumation of those 30-year-old quotes will blow his chances of ever getting invited on one of Satriani’s G3 tours or something.

Either way, I guess I’ll survive without having access to Kim Mitchell’s social media.

As for Yngwie, if I’ve forever blown my chances of getting a third interview with him, that’s something I can live with as well. He plays too fast anyway.

To hear the full audio of my 1984 and 1992 interviews with Kim Mitchell and my 1985 and 2014 interviews with Yngwie Malmsteen subscribe to my Patreon page, where you can also eavesdrop on over 400 of my uncut, one-on-one conversations with the legends of rock.