For the scores of fans who came upon The Scorpions' website to read an entry titled "Important Message To Our Fans," the words that followed truly signaled the end of an era. The German rockers who created such classics as "Rock You Like A Hurricane," "Wind Of Change," and "Still Loving You" announced that they would be retiring after 45 years in the business. A band that has witnessed everything from the rise of hair metal to grunge to the guitar solo revival, The Scorpions will call it quits directly following a final world tour. The decision came to fruition while the band listened to the finished product of Sting In The Tail (set for release on March 19), and guitarist/founding member Rudolf Schenker told Ultimate-Guitar that he's "ready to enjoy every minute" of the next few years.
Schenker's riff-driven work, highlighted by his unmatched stage presence, has become a staple in the rock world since he first became a household name (alongside brother Michael) with the
Scorpions' debut record Lonesome Crow (1972). For
Sting In The Tail, fresh collaborations with producers
Mikael "
Nord"
Andersson and
Martin Hansen allowed
Schenker to rekindle the classic hooks that originally brought
The Scorpions into the limelight. When we talked with
Schenker, the 61-year-old powerhouse player still relayed the enthusiasm and excitement of a musician who just landed his first music deal. It was quite obvious that
Schenker had the intention of making every last date on his final world tour with
The Scorpions not only memorable, but also a party that fans won't soon forget.
UG: You recently announced that The Scorpions would be officially retiring from the music business following the upcoming world tour. Did you come to that decision while making Sting In The Tail or after the recording process?
Rudolf Schenker: It came immediately when we were listening to the album. Somehow the excitement came, especially by starting the mastering and hearing everything bit by bit. We were really excited. Our manager said, “Guys, this album is really the essence of the 80’s. If you took all the songs from the albums in the 80’s, including Lovedrive, then you’d have Sting In The Tail.” So in this case he said, “It would be fantastic to keep it on this kind of high level. If we’re having a big world tour with all the fans and bringing the essence of Scorpions onstage again and really finished high profile, then you don’t want to go downhill slowly but surely and play clubs. That’s not the right thing, especially after a career like The Scorpions.”
We talked about it, and more and more we thought about it. We came to the solution that this is an amazing idea. We’ll put on a great rock show, including a deck that’s walkable over the crowd. It will have all these great things in the 80’s that The Scorpions became famous for. We want to add even more and make it a big party around the world. We worked this album with the producers, who are two Swedish guys. One is a very good guitar player and the other is a very good sound engineer. Doing this album right here in my studio in Germany and some parts in Stockholm was a great thing. We enjoyed every minute of it.
It was fantastic to see that creativity is still flying around. The Scorpions is known as a very good live band, and it would be terrible if we later had problems and were just standing around. It would be terrible. In this case, I think the idea was very good to do this. The announcement was a shock for many fans. But on the other hand, they know what we’re talking about. In the end, I think everybody is excited to do this world tour, release this album, and really enjoy every minute of it.
"Doing this album right here in my studio in Germany and some parts in Stockholm was a great thing."
Two-and-a-half or three. It’s up to everything. It’s up to us.
Will this be your longest tour ever?
Our longest was one-and-a-half years.
So this is a huge deal for the band.
We have an amazing crew. It’s a crew that gives us the possibilities to play in places like Manaus, the main city of Amazonia. We played in Mongolia. We’ve played in places where nobody has played before. This crew is so amazing. We’re friends and we really enjoy journeying around. In this case, it will not be like a hard thing in the 80’s. In the 80’s it sometimes was very difficult because we partied like crazy. It was really hard the next day to make it up onstage and play well. We learned how to party and we learned how to play onstage. In this case it will be a great party and a long party. It will be a party to celebrate with all of the fans around the world.
Sting In The Tail will be the 17th studio album from The Scorpions. After so many different experiences in the studio, did you dabble with any new techniques or equipment this time around?
The process this time around was to really get the essence pure on tape or on hard disk. One of the guys is a very good guitar player from Sweden and the other is a very good sound engineer. The guitar player went through all of the Scorpions’ CDs and albums and stuff. He said, “Look, guys. I found out the secret of The Scorpions. The Scorpions’ sound is great guitar riffs and great melodies. That’s what we want to do on this album.”
This was the basic situation. We worked on great guitar parts at my studio. We found a very good guitar sound and we added in a lot of great riffs and melodies. That was the situation. We didn’t experiment around because that’s what we did in the 90’s. Because of grunge and alternative, it was really a hard time to find your place in rock. After 2000, the 80’s sound came more and more back. Now we’re in position to play a great guitar riff and do it right. It’s something special.
What guitars did you use on the record?
Because we stayed here in my studio, there was a good chance for me to work with our best guitars. Our best guitars are mostly old guitars that are very expensive and don’t have to travel to America or somewhere else. We could use the best guitars we had. We tried a lot of different amplifiers and sound possibilities. I tried the Diezel amps, which were very good to work with. It was very much straight into the amp. There were direct microphones like the Neumanns and the SM58 and SM57. We would try to get the right angle of the microphone and kick ass!
You mentioned that you used quite a few old, expensive guitars. Is there one particular that you would call “your baby”?
Of course! I have the old ’58. The old ’58 is really an amazing one. It’s unbelievable sound-wise. I’ve used it a few times. Mostly there are old Flying Vs, from ’64 and ’58.
You’ve been in The Scorpions since 1965, which is an amazing amount of time to endure in the music industry. With so many things changing in terms of the Internet and downloading over the years, do you try to conform to the times? Or are you someone who would rather just concentrate on the music and let it speak for itself?
I think we are open for everything. One thing is very important. Everybody is maybe not so happy about downloading and piracy and stuff like this. It’s not good. There’s no question about it. The new technology offers so many interesting things to use, to work with, to play with. It’s up to you how much you work with it. It’s up to you how much you want to be used or to use it. I think it’s great using it, but I’m not so happy getting used by it. In this case, I found a good mixture by enjoying it – but not too much.
I still have time to enjoy playing music and also enjoy writing a book. I wrote a book called Rock Your Life, which is to help people who want to do things the safe way. I give them help in finding new ways to enjoy life and not just go the safe way. In this case, the idea came out to do this because I found out that many people around the world are doing the wrong job and aren’t happy with their job. I said, “You have to find a way where you can have fun with it.”
The other side is composing. I’ve experienced life in The Scorpions and we came out with the Schenker guitar and possibly a Schenker brothers album. There are a lot of possibilities.
"The announcement was a shock for many fans. But on the other hand, they know what we’re talking about."
The highest moment was being invited by Mikhail Gorbachev, when he was still in power, into the Kremlin. It was amazing for a band like The Scorpions, coming from Germany and having been in two world wars against the Russians, doing stuff like this. After playing in Russia in 1988, we wrote the song “Wind of Change.” We were invited by Mr. Gorbachev into the Kremlin, where nobody was invited so far. The man was showing me that rock music can do more than just be part of the rock world. Then you notice there are new generations coming from Germany playing rock music. We were talking about walking down the “Moskva down to Gorky Park” and then listening to the “wind of change.” The wind of change came because rock had made the most peaceful revolution on earth. This, for me, was something very special.
Of course, “Rock You Like A Hurricane” became the anthem of the rock world. In this case, we had a lot of things in our rock history, including Rock In Rio, The Wall in Berlin, playing in front of 800,000 while headlining in Poland. We had a lot of things that we were very happy with. I’m looking forward to our world tour to see something happening special again. If you’re listening to our latest DVD Amazonia: Live In The Jungle, we did two live shows. We have a lot of surprises in the past and a lot of surprises in the future.
What advice would you give to guitarists who want to make a career in music?
I would say trust your feelings, look for real friends, and set expectations. If you go for something, do whatever you want to do. It’s a very important part. You need to do it your way and not the way other people are expecting from you.
At the time of the big announcement, I noticed that there weren’t any tour dates listed for the United States yet. Do you happen to know when you’ll be making a stop in North America?
I think it will be from June to September when we’ll be in the United States. Looking forward to it!
Interview by Amy Kelly
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