“My father was basically doing what James Bond did… Maybe I shouldn’t talk about this”: Yngwie Malmsteen reveals the wild story of how his father’s work as a spy in the Soviet Union led him to play 20 shows behind the Iron Curtain in 1989
Yngwie Malmsteen reveals a wild Cold War story involving his spy father, the KGB, 14 million sold copies of Trilogy and 20 packed Soviet shows.
Yngwie Malmsteen has had one hell of a storied career to date, but this might just be one of his wildest stories yet.
Spies. The Cold War. A Soviet pressing of ‘Trilogy’ that Malmsteen says sold 14 million copies. An opera singer in Moscow. The KGB. Twenty packed-out shows behind the Iron Curtain.
The whole thing could have been lifted from an Ian Fleming novel – but who would be playing Bond in this particular chapter? By the sounds of it, none other than Yngwie’s dad.
As Malmsteen tells Jonathan Graham, the story begins with his father, Lennart Lannerbäck, and his military career.
“My father joined the army when he was 13 years old in the National Guard when he was a little kid,” Malmsteen says. “And he was always in the military.
“In Sweden, you have to join the military when you’re 18, but then you leave, but he never did. So then he worked in the UN forces. He was in the Green Berets.”
As Malmsteen explains, his father then pursued intelligence work that required him to learn Russian and enter the Soviet Union posing as a businessman.
“He decided to apply for basically doing what James Bond did,” he says. “Believe it or not, being a spy, he had to learn how to speak fluent Russian and go to Soviet Union and infiltrate them as a businessman or something.”
Sweden’s position during the Cold War put it in a strategically sensitive part of Europe, with the Soviet Union across the Baltic and NATO-member Norway on its western border. Malmsteen remembers Soviet activity around Sweden being a very real concern at the time.
“They would come in, they would have U-boats go in Swedish waters,” he says. “They would have truck drivers go on the ferries and go and map out the roadworks in Sweden. Really crazy stuff. No one really knows about this stuff.”
Then he adds: “Maybe I shouldn’t talk about this.”
So how does any of this end with Yngwie Malmsteen playing 20 shows in the Soviet Union? Well, that’s where ‘Trilogy’ comes in.
Released in 1986, Malmsteen’s third studio album somehow ended up with Melodiya, the Soviet Union’s state-owned record label.
“In 1986, some numbskull at PolyGram Records sold the rights of ‘Trilogy’ to Melodia, the only state, communist state-owned record label – official music label – in Soviet Union, for $3,000!” Malmsteen says.
According to Malmsteen, the Soviet pressing went on to sell 14 million copies behind the Iron Curtain.
His father discovered just how big his son had become there almost by accident.
“My dad got friendly with an opera singer in Moscow or somewhere like that, and they’re sitting there drinking,” Malmsteen recalls. “And he goes, ‘Lennart’ – my father – ‘Hey, Lennart, you must hear this record. This record is amazing.’
“And he shows it to my dad, and my dad goes, ‘Yeah, that’s my son.’”
From there, Malmsteen says, his father got in touch with his management.
“And that’s what started it,” he says. “And we did 20 shows in two cities.”
Those shows took place in 1989, with Malmsteen playing 11 nights in Moscow and another nine in Leningrad.
“So when somebody plays Wembley two nights, it’s like, ‘Wow,’ you know,” he says. “I did 11 nights in Moscow in a hockey stadium and nine nights in Leningrad. It was like going to work every day. Fucking stadium full. It was crazy. It was crazy.”
The Cold War was not yet over, and neither was the scrutiny that came with bringing a Western rock band into the Soviet Union.
“We had KGB up our ass all day long,” Malmsteen says. “It was crazy. I was there for two months… I was behind the Iron Curtain. No one knew what the fuck was going on over there.”
The Leningrad shows would later be documented on 1989’s ‘Trial by Fire: Live in Leningrad’.
The story carries added weight now. Lennart Lannerbäck passed away in 2025, and Yngwie’s new album, ‘Hell Or High Water’, due November 13, 2026, closes with “Father,” an instrumental dedicated to his memory.
Nearly four decades on from those nights in Moscow and Leningrad, Malmsteen doesn’t hesitate when it comes to who made this early chapter of his career possible.
“It was my dad did it.”
Pre order ‘Hell Or High Water’ right here and check out his new single “Now or Never” below.
