In a new interview with Marko Syrjälä of Chaoszine, acclaimed hard rock vocalist Ronnie Romero, who has previously worked with such legendary guitarists as Ritchie Blackmore, Michael Schenker and Adrian Vandenberg, was asked if he would “seriously consider” playing with Yngwie Malmsteen if the iconic Swedish guitarist approached him about it. Ronnie responded: “I wouldn’t think about it. I wouldn’t wanna do it because of all the stories I’ve heard from people I’ve worked with who have worked with him. I’ve worked with people like the Johansson brothers [Jens and Anders], Jeff Scott Soto and Mark Boals. I know all those guys, and they’ve told me some stories, and I was, like, ‘I don’t know…’ So, when somebody asks me, ‘What if Yngwie calls you?’ I would say, ‘No.’ I’d hang up the phone. But I would say that the way I discovered Yngwie was actually when [Swedish singer] Mats Levén was in the band. The first Yngwie album I heard was the [1998] live album ‘Live!!’, and Mats was singing on it. Then I heard ‘Facing The Animal’, which is one of my favorites, together with ‘The Seventh Sign’. So yeah, if that ever happened, I’d choose just one song — and that would be ‘Facing The Animal’, for sure.”

After Syrjälä noted that Levén will play shows in Japan in May where he will perform the entire “Facing The Animal” album, Ronnie said: “Yeah, he told me that, and that’s fantastic. He’s a great singer. As I said in a post the other day, he’s one of my heroes. Together with David Coverdale and later Ian Gillan, he was one of the first singers who really blew me away. I was, like, ‘How can this guy sing like that?’ On that live recording, he’s just killing it.”

Romero made his live debut with RAINBOW in June 2016 after he was selected to front the latest version of the band Ritchie Blackmore had formed after quitting DEEP PURPLE.

In addition to RAINBOW, Romero has recorded and/or toured with MICHAEL SCHENKER GROUP, LORDS OF BLACK, THE FERRYMEN, ELEGANT WEAPONS, SUNSTORM and VANDENBERG.

The Chilean-born Romero parted ways with VANDENBERG after recording only one album with the Adrian Vandenberg-led group, 2020’s “2020”.

Romero has previously outed in an interview with Blabbermouth that he contemplated suicide after the negative reactions he received in RAINBOW.