(Photos by Kevin Ryan of House of Shred)
April 21, 2001
[This statement is in response to the Jorn Lande interview
posted by The House of Shred website.]
This message is spoken directly
to my fans. I am extremely sorry that many of you were
not able to come to my shows [April 10 - 28, postponed
due to departure of Jorn Lande and John Macaluso]
and share an evening of great rock 'n roll with me on
what has been scheduled as my biggest world tour in 8
years. While I do not intend to stoop to the level of
the National Enquirer, fighting back and forth on every
website over the events that have derailed my USA tour
and made planning for the European tour very difficult,
I do want to set a couple of things straight.
When
Jorn Lande was offered a slot on the WAR tour beginning
in March, he told me that he would do part of it, but
not all, because he had other plans for some of those
dates. When he was finished with his other business, then
he would rejoin the tour later. I told him that wouldn't
be acceptable - it was all or none. He then signed a binding
contract to perform all the shows of the complete tour.
I firmly believe that he created the "event"
in Cleveland in a premeditated way so that he could leave
the tour and follow his own personal business. Some of
his own comments in his interview [on the House of Shred
website] seem to support this supposition. In any event,
he chose to do it in such as way as to make me look as
bad as possible. By choosing to quit the tour, he has
committed a breach of a legally signed contract, and I
want all of you to know that.
As the staff at the Cleveland
venue will agree, both Jorn and John Macaluso did not
show up on time for the show, and kept the rest of the
band waiting in the dressing room, ready to go onstage.
When they finally did arrive, Jorn said in a very belligerent
way that he was not going to do this show and that he
was quitting the tour. My wife told him that there were
fans outside waiting to see the show and this was really
unprofessional of him... he had signed a contract and
he should keep to it. As the police report states, he
then grabbed my wife roughly by the arm, cursing at her
and calling her things that I won't repeat here, inflicting
bruising and a red swelling on her forearm, which was
observed by the officers called to the scene by the venue
manager. Although I would have liked to knock the guy
flat on his back, I am well aware of the trouble that
would come from such a physical attack. Instead, I immediately
ran to get the venue security, because I saw in a flash
what he was trying to provoke.
I
am very demanding of myself and thus I am very demanding
of those around me. This intensity is sometimes misunderstood,
to be sure, but it's pretty clear from concert reviews
posted on the Internet that fans who have met me after
the shows have a different impression from that described
in Jorn's interview. Despite being bone-tired and sick
with the flu, I allowed fans to come on the bus for a
quick handshake and autograph. This often put us an hour
or two late leaving the venue. I could have just gotten
on the bus and told the driver to drive away, but I didn't.
I am extremely disappointed
at Jorn's lack of professionalism, calling my wife and
my family "gypsies" etc. Let me state clearly
that only my wife, April, was officially on tour with
me. It was her job to handle the merchandise and to arrange
the meet-and-greet with the fans. My mother-in-law joined
us for a few days in order to bring our son to see us.
My father-in-law joined us for just a day, to help us
get a replacement tour bus of a better quality than the
one we were trying to travel in. They were certainly not
part of the tour, nor were they running my "family
business." I'm appalled that they got dragged into
this sorry mess by someone who could not control his behavior
and who would just walk away from his signed contract,
refusing to perform the job he was hired to do.
I will hire someone else and
my tour will continue, but it is you, the fans, who have
been cheated the most by his actions. I will do everything
in my power to return later in the year and make up the
lost dates for you, if promoters are willing. I have given
110% at all of the shows, no matter how difficult the
circumstances. That's what being a true professional is
all about. See you on the road...
--Yours faithfully,
Yngwie Malmsteen
