John Norum (born 23 February 1964) is a Norwegian-Swedish guitarist and one of the founders of the rock band Europe. Concurrent to his role with Europe, he also maintains a career as a solo artist. Biography As an infant, Norum moved with his parents to Upplands Väsby (a Stockholm suburb), where he grew up and has spent most of his life. During his career in music, Norum has played with Eddie Meduza & the Roaring Cadillacs, Dokken, Don Dokken's solo band, as well as collaborated with other well-known artists on his solo albums, including Glenn Hughes, Kelly Keeling, Peter Baltes, Simon Wright and Göran Edman. His influences include Gary Moore, Michael Schenker, Frank Marino, John Sykes and Ritchie Blackmore. In 1979, John Norum formed Force, which was Europe's first name, with vocalist Joey Tempest. Europe participated in and won the "Rock Sm", Swedish championship of rock, broadcast on television in 1982, with Norum being voted best guitarist and Joey best vocalist. The championship prize was the recording of a studio album by a small Swedish label. The album Europe was released in February 1983, and became a hit in the band's home country and in Japan. In February 1984 Wings of Tomorrow, the band's next album was released, and the band started to become very popular on the Swedish scene, touring throughout the country, and also gaining recognition in Japan. The band signed to Epic Records in 1985 and recorded the album The Final Countdown at the end of the year. In May 1986, The Final Countdown was released, and quickly achieved success in several European countries, Japan, and United States. A series of disagreements between Norum and the band's manager Thomas Erdtman began to occur even before the tour began, which led the guitarist to decide to leave the band in October 1986. After having left Europe, Norum signed a solo contract for three studio albums with Europe's label. His solo debut, Total Control, was released in October 1987. Norum sang on almost all of the songs, while Göran Edman sang on the other three. The album was successful in Sweden, getting to No. 4 in the Swedish charts and gaining platinum status (the single "Let Me Love You" also went to No. 4 in the Swedish charts; the ballad "Back on the Streets" to No. 34 Billboard US Rock). Norum won all the music awards of the year