As Above, So Below - The Unauthorized Yngwie Biography by Tengner Anders

Author:Tengner, Anders [Tengner, Anders]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biografier och memoarer
Publisher: Bokfabriken World Wide
Published: 2013-05-06T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

“He drove recklessly. He was dangerous behind the wheel.”

“I wouldn’t recommend anyone go for a ride with Yngwie,” says Bazil. “One day, he wanted me to tag along on a drive to San Diego. ‘Man, they have a store there with Swedish groceries: crisp-bread, Kalles caviar spread…the thing is, dude, they have Red Prince cigarettes, too. Let’s go!’ And off we went. But neither of us was sober. Yngwie took the Jaguar anyway; he always drove under the influence. He went fast. Spine-chillingly fast. I was scared stiff and actually thought we were going to crash and burn. He screamed, the engine roared, and he drove like a reckless motherfucker. That’s the last time I was in a car with him driving. After that trip, I refused. He made the car skid, crossed lanes back and forth, and tailgated the cars in front of us. It was sheer luck that we didn’t crash or get caught by highway patrol. The trip back was just as bad. My legs were shaking when we got home. When I read in the paper that a Jaguar had crashed, I knew it was Yngwie.”

Gary Shea, the bass player from Alcatrazz, laughs when he recalls how he and keyboardist Jimmy Waldo taught Yngwie how to drive in the late summer of 1984. “I had this big station wagon from 1970. I drove a lot. Years ago, both Jimmy and I had worked as taxi drivers in Boston to make ends meet and thought we had seen it all. Nothing could scare us! Except Yngwie, that is! Riding with Yngwie turned out to be the most horrific experience ever. I mean, how hard can it be to drive an automatic? A ten-year-old could do it. Just turn the wheel, press the accelerator and brake! We were driving in Laguna Beach, pretty high up, with cliffs along the road. Yngwie had no control over the car whatsoever. He was turning and twisting, and almost killed us all! All of a sudden, he was on his way over the cliff, and there must have been an angel saving us. Two of the wheels were hanging over the edge. I went pale and was scared to death.”

Eventually, Yngwie got his driver’s license. He and drummer Anders Johansson studied for the test together, and Greta Nelson recalls that they both cheated on the test. She continues, “His first car was a red MG that his manager, Andy, leased for him towards the end of 1984. I don’t think he had the license then, but he didn’t give a fuck. One day, probably in around 1985, we were driving home from somewhere, and Yngwie decided to overtake a car that had stopped at a stop sign. He paid no heed to the sign and just drove into the intersection—and rammed into a VW Beetle coming from his right. I saw the accident as if in slow motion—how the Beetle turned and tumbled, and came to a stop on the road. The driver got out, bleeding and in shock.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.