Guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen on His Metal

Yngwie J. Peacock.

That’s what some have dubbed Yngwie (pronounced ING-vay ) Malmsteen, the 25-year-old Swedish guitarist who has heavy-metal freaks salivating over his dazzling skills.

Malmsteen, who headlines tonight at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, is a tall, slender peacock, swaggering, bragging and coming on like an ultra-hipster.

Hailed as the second coming of Jimmy Page and Eddie Van Halen, Malmsteen really is good. And he’s the first one to tell you.

“I don’t mean to brag, but I do play better than most of those guys--nearly all those guys out there,” Malmsteen said. “I’m going to say it. It should be said.”

Guitarists Paul Gilbert, Vinnie Moore and Tony MacAlpine are challenging Malmsteen, but he dismissed them as copycats--even referring to MacAlpine as MacMalmsteen.

“They’re copying me,” Malmsteen said. “I’m the master. I wrote the book. Are they faster? I don’t know and I don’t care. I just know I’m better.”

Influenced by Jimi Hendrix, the self-taught musician started playing guitar in Sweden at age 7. His band Rising Force went nowhere because Sweden is not a metal hot spot, so Malmsteen migrated to the United States in 1983 and played guitar in two bands--Steeler and Alcatrazz--before re-forming Rising Force.

Malmsteen’s latest PolyGram album, “Odyssey,” is his biggest seller. Featuring the vocals of Joe Lynn Turner, formerly of Rainbow, it’s also his most commercially designed effort yet.

Surprisingly, Malmsteen is more interested in classical music than metal.

“I like to listen to Vivaldi, Bach, Beethoven, Handel,” he said. “Classical influences are all through my music.”

But, he lamented, many of his unsophisticated metal fans don’t realize this: “Often I’m playing to people who don’t understand what’s in the music. Sometimes I’m playing way over people’s heads. There’s nothing I can do about that.”

If he loves it so much, why doesn’t he just focus on classical music?

“I like the melodic and harmonic feel of classical music and the logic behind it but I love the aggression, the impact, the noise and the extreme power of metal. I need that in my music. It’s not there in classical.”

But you won’t find Malmsteen, who counts Hendrix and Ritchie Blackmore as his biggest influences, listening to metal--not even to the gods of the genre, Led Zeppelin.

“I never thought they were that much,” Malmsteen said. “And (Zeppelin’s) Jimmy Page, he’s not that great. Ritchie Blackmore overshadows Jimmy Page by light years.”

Last year was a rotten one for Malmsteen. First, he was nearly killed in an automobile accident in June. Later in the year, his mother died.

“You’d have to be an iron man to get through what I did last year,” he said. “But I have incredible willpower. I was able to do it.”

Last June, Malmsteen crashed his Jaguar near his Woodland Hills home (he has since moved to New York). He’s still not sure what happened.

“I have a total memory loss of what happened five days before and 10 days after,” he said. “I was in a coma for eight days. I don’t think I was drunk. I always refused to drive that car when I was drunk.”

Malmsteen was in intensive care for two weeks.

“They didn’t know if I would walk or talk or live--let alone play the guitar,” he recalled. “My right arm was paralyzed. I couldn’t do anything with it. I couldn’t hold a pick.”

But months of physical therapy have brought him back. “Odyssey” was recorded after the accident.

“I wanted to play again--I had to play again, so I just did it. It took three months before I started playing guitar again. The accident happened in June and I started to record at the end of last year.”

After such an accident, many people might be frightened of driving. Not Malmsteen.

“Me afraid of driving? No way. I was a tremendous driver--an incredible driver--before the accident and I still am. In fact, since the accident, I’m badder than ever--in every way.”

LIVE ACTION: Tickets go on sale Sunday for Earth, Wind & Fire’s Irvine Meadows show on Aug. 12. . . . Tickets will be available next Saturday for Hall & Oates’ July 14 Pacific Amphitheatre date. . . . Zapp featuring Roger, Force M.D.’s and Michael Cooper will be featured in a free concert Sunday at 1 p.m., at Jackie Robinson Stadium behind Dorsey High School. . . . Zapp will also be at the Strand in Redondo Beach on June 14. . . . Redd Kross will be at the Roxy on June 19. . . . Coming to the Palomino: the Paladins and Candye Kane (June 4), Tracy Nelson & Mother Earth and the Wild Seeds (June 10) and Dave Alvin (June 11).