"He said we're responsible for the baby boom in 1985 - because of "Still Loving You"!"

Tangra Mega Rock conducted a friendly conversation with 58-year-old Hanover-born founder and guitar master of Germany's hard rock veterans Scorpions, Herr Rudolf Schenker, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the band's birth...

Vassil Varbanov: How are you doing, Rudolf?

Rudolf Schenker: Fantastic! We're in the studio at the moment, working on a new album. We're also happy to have this 3-CD "The Platinum Collection" out now - hopefully everybody will like it.

V. V.: Usually bands release such "platinum collections" on two occasions - either when they decide to call it a day or when they try to make a new start. What's the case with this one?

R. Sch.: It's like a box stop, like in Formula 1 - you know, when they race and race and then have to stop to change the wheels and get new fuel. That's the case. We make a stop to look back in time - how fast, good, great, etc. it's been, and then we go to the next one.
Scorpions is 40 years old now - I founded the band in 1966... actually in 1965, when the band was nameless, and in '66 I decided to call it Scorpions,В as it's an international name. It was a good start, because people remembered the name very easily, and then we went for a career. We visited different countries and recorded many albums. Now, when I was looking backВ at what we've done, I said, "Oh, mamma mia, that's a lot of stuff!", and our record company had this idea - to put out a collection celebrating our 40th anniversary. During the 70's, when we were signing contracts, we didn't take care of the fact that the record companies are not allowed to release too many best-of's, and they put out quite a lot compilations that we weren't happy with, but now this 3-CD-collection makes sense to us. It's got the right selection of songs, the right booklet and the right cover.

V. V.: If you play song by song everything you've recorded throughout these 40 years, how many hours or days do you think it will take to listen to the whole stuff?

R. Sch.: I don't know, but I think you already know the answer while asking me this question, right?

V. V.: Actually no.

R. Sch.: So... You know what? That's a cute question. I'll tell my secretary to take care of it. The good thing is that in the most cases you've got the time written after each song title on the CDs, so you can count them together. Then, when we come over to Bulgaria again, I'll tell you how many hours it's going to take.

V. V.: During these 40 years of existence the German rock and metal scene has changed and developed quite a lot. Which contemporary German band is your favourite one?

R. Sch.: Rammstein. They've got a heavy unique sound and they're really using the vocals - no question about the lyrics, but the singing itself, which they use as an instrument. I think the whole sound of Rammstein is great, as well as their live shows.

V. V.: By the way, Rammstein hail from the former German Democratic Republic. Is there still some sort of a division between Eastern and Western Germany or it's already gone?

R. Sch.: In my mind it's gone long ago, because I'm thinking globally. I've always been a global guy since the day I was born, and I never understood why people start killing themselves because they're from different countries and stuff like that... So for me it's not important whether the guy comes from Eastern or from Western Germany. The question is what his soul and personality is. If they're great, then he's my guy. I think many Germans already share this thought.

V. V.: Last question. Scorpions are famous for their rock songs, but also for their great ballads. Which of these two sides do you personally prefer?

R. Sch.: I'm a rock guy, and if you look at Scorpions' albums, you'll see that each of them has maybe 80% rock songs and 20% ballads. I mean, I'm happy that we can do both sides. Of course I prefer the rock tracks - "Rock You Like a Hurricane" is my favourite - but I also love songs like "Still Loving You". I remember that seven years ago, when we took part in a big TV show, the moderator said, "Hey, guys, you're responsible for the baby boom in 1985!" We were like, "Why!?", and he answered: "Because of "Still Loving You"! Everybody was making love to it!" Maybe because ofВ songs like that or "Wind of Change", which we did for the Perestroyka think, radio stations in Europe play mainly our ballads, while in America things are different. Radios in the USA play 24 hours rock music - stuff like "Rock You Like a Hurricane", "The Zoo", "No One Like You", etc., etc., etc... To put it short - I'm definitely a rock guy, but I'm also very sentimental.

Copyright: Tangra Mega Rock