John Norum

Historically, he left Europe and then rejoined – but how will he handle the 10 questions we ask everyone?

1 What was your first guitar and when did you get it?

“It was an acoustic – my mum’s guitar. My whole family are basically guitar players, my uncles, my grandfather… I can’t even remember the name of it. I started off playing acoustic and then my first electric was an Arbiter; I think it was made in Japan. It had an SG-type body but with single coils and a Fender-style headstock, so you had a weird combination of a Strat and an SG with a whammy bar.”

2 Suppose the building’s burning down; which one guitar from your collection would you save?

“Oh, that’s easy: my Fender Stratocaster from 1965. I’ve had it since ’84 and it’s been on pretty much every album I’ve recorded since. It has a nickname, I call it ‘Old Betty’. I don’t know where it came from. Sometimes I refer to it as The Final Countdown guitar because I used it on The Final Countdown album, on all the solos, and on my first solo album, Total Control. I don’t use it live any more, because I feel it’s too valuable, not in terms of money, but more like a sentimental type of thing, you know?”

3 What’s the oldest guitar that you have in your collection?