“I Didn’t Know What the Fk Was Going On”: Yngwie Malmsteen Reveals He Was Asked to Join Kiss… and the Bizarre Reason They Backed

Kiss are one of many iconic bands that have tried to recruit Yngwie Malmsteen over his hugely successful career.

Yngwie Malmsteen was once asked to join Kiss, but the reason why he was eventually turned down had nothing to do with his legendary skills on the guitar. A member of the band’s team was deeply interested in having Yngwie Malmsteen on board, according to the virtuoso himself, but they never called him back after learning he was above six foot in height.

In an interview with eonmusic, Yngwie Malmsteen was asked about the famous bands he’s been invited to join across his career, including when he was nearly recruited to play for Ozzy Osbourne after the tragic death of Randy Rhoads.

“It was right after,” he confirms. “What happened was, I sent this cassette tape to Guitar Player magazine, and it was me playing drums, bass, keyboards, guitar, obviously, and vocals, and they went fucking ape shit. And this guy, he would send my cassettes to everybody. I had people from Kiss, from Night Ranger calling me.

“I can’t remember all the people who would call. I was still in Sweden. I was 18 years old, a kid. I didn’t know what the fuck was going on. It was funny because I remember with Kiss — I don’t know if it was a manager or whoever called — but he kept saying, ‘You’re hot, you’re hot.’ I’m like, ‘What? What the hell?’, because I was speaking the Queen’s English in those days, and I didn’t know what ‘hot’ meant!”

He adds, “Anyway, they wanted me to come over and join Kiss, and they asked me if I’m six foot tall, apparently they wanted me to be six foot and I’m more than that, so they didn’t call back.”

Kiss wrapped their farewell tour, End Of The Road, in 2023 with a massive show at Madison Square Garden in New York. And, of course, the band are set to continue on with a string of widely anticipated avatar shows in the style of ABBA’s Voyage in the future.

At the time, fans called on the band to do a mighty show at the Las Vegas Sphere. Speaking to American Songwriter, Kiss frontman Paul Stanley explained why they were never tempted by the venue.

“Towards the end of the tour, people were saying, ‘Why don’t you play the Sphere?’” Paul Stanley recalled. “The truth of it is, the Sphere minimises a band. It makes a band miniature. You’re not going there to see a band – you’re going to see screens.”