Vocalist Ronnie Romero — best known for fronting Ritchie Blackmore's RAINBOW and working with MICHAEL SCHENKER GROUP — has been refreshingly direct about one door he has no intention of opening: a collaboration with guitar virtuoso Yngwie Malmsteen.
"I wouldn't think about it. I wouldn't wanna do it because of all the stories I've heard," Romero told an interviewer. "I'd hang up the phone." The only concession he offered was hypothetical: "I'd choose just one song — and that would be 'Facing The Animal'."
By contrast, Romero spoke warmly of his experiences with Blackmore and Schenker. "People think of him as an angry, unfriendly guy, and that's not Ritchie," he said of Blackmore. "He has an incredible sense of humor." Of Schenker, he noted: "Compared to Ritchie, on the personal side he's a bit more distant, but professionally he was very cool and smart."
Romero also paid tribute to Swedish vocalist Mats Levén — a longtime Malmsteen collaborator — calling him "one of my heroes. Together with David Coverdale and later Ian Gillan, he was one of the first singers who really blew me away."
Romero made his RAINBOW debut in June 2016 and has been active as a solo artist, releasing "Backbone" via Frontiers Music Srl. He briefly worked with Vandenberg before parting ways after one album in 2020.