Inquirerjohn norum

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What was your first guitar?

A Japanese-made Arbiter, which I got when I was around 12. It had an SG-style body with a Fender headstock and a tremolo bar.

What was the first song you learned to play?

My mum played acoustic, so she showed me my first chords. Because she was into Elvis, she taught me songs like “Jailhouse Rock” and “Hound Dog.”

What was your first gig?

I was about 14 and it was at this school-dance thing in Upplands Väsby, a town just outside of Stockholm where I grew up. It was a three-piece band with me — the original drummer in Europe, Tony Reno, and a bass player called Peter Olsson. We played cover songs from Deep Purple and UFO.

Ever had an embarrassing moment on stage?

It was during the Scandinavian tour we did for The Final Countdown in 1986. It was the last gig of the tour in Stockholm, in front of a home crowd. We were excited and ran out on stage, and I tripped on a cable. When we began the first song, I didn’t realize the cable had broken, so it was dead quiet, and this whole thing was being filmed for TV! We had to stop, change the cord and start the whole thing over again.

What’s your favorite piece of gear?

My first real amp that I got back in the Seventies, a Marshall ’68 Super Lead plexi. I’d been in the hospital for seven weeks after I had an accident, and my mom wanted to give me something special. It cost her a hundred dollars.

The building is burning down; what one guitar would you save?

My ’65 Strat, which I’ve had since 1984 and which has a very unique tone. I’ve used it on pretty much every album since 1984. It’s been on at least a couple of songs on each record. It’s what I used on “The Final Countdown” solo, and I used it exclusively on my first solo album [Total Control], which came out in ’87. The whole album is just that guitar. It’s also the only guitar I still have from the Eighties, so it has a lot of history.