New Metal
When John Norum left the poised-for-stardom band Europe about a year ago, most people thought he was out of his mind (a well-known Swedish magazine named him “Artistic Soul Of The Year”). At the time, the Swedish rock band topped most of the European charts with “The Final Countdown,” Japan was already defeated and the album of the same name had started to move upwards on the American Billboard chart.
New Metal
JOHN NORUM
Why did this man leave Europe just as the final countdown began?
by Jorgen Holmstedt
When John Norum left the poised-for-stardom band Europe about a year ago, most people thought he was out of his mind (a well-known Swedish magazine named him “Artistic Soul Of The Year”). At the time, the Swedish rock band topped most of the European charts with “The Final Countdown,” Japan was already defeated and the album of the same name had started to move upwards on the American Billboard chart.
No wonder many thought that Europe’s guitarist could have picked a better time to leave the band.
But for John Norum, all these things were without importance. He’s a man who’s always chosen freedom above all. In order to avoid any possible misunderstandings you should know there were basically three reasons the guitarist left Europe, namely:
1) The Music. “Europe isn’t my bag anymore,” John Norum says. “They want to play that wimpy crap with lots of vocals and keyboards. Myself, I’m into more guitar-oriented rock, like Dokken and Scorpions.”