"Hahaha, no. I'm sorry, I have to laugh, this is actually quite funny hahaha."

German hard rock legends The Scorpions have announced that at the end of their upcoming world tour they will be retiring. The tour will be in support of their new album, 'Sting in the Tail,' which is set for release on March 19th (details).

We are talking to guitarist Matthias Jabbs.

An interview conducted by Nasso Ruskov

HEY HOW ARE YOU MATE?
I'm excellent.

IT'S BEEN A WHILE SINCE YOU WERE LAST IN BULGARIA. MUST BE ABOUT, OOOOH, AT LEAST 2-3 MONTHS.
Haha, yes, at least.

YOU NOW HAVE A POLE AND AN AMERICAN IN THE BAND, MAKING THE SCORPIONS A TRULY INTERNATIONAL BAND, DID YOU EVER THINK THAT WAS POSSIBLE BACK WHEN YOU JOINED THE BAND, ESPECIALLY WITH ALL THAT IRON CURTAIN SHIT GOING ON BACK THEN?
Obviously it was not possible. The band started out as being a German band. To include musicians from another country was not so easy, at least not back then. Because you want to work as a tight unit, you want to be living close to each other. But this has all changed. Now it's easy to jump on a plane.

In the late 70s it was an adventure to fly from A to B. Now it's like getting the bus. So James flies in from California at any time - you call him today, he's there tomorrow, so therefore it's not a problem. Pawel takes a shorter flight, Krakow-Munich-Hannover and he's there in a few hours, so therefore it's no problem. It was a problem when we started out and that's why we were all Germans, but now we go for the best people we can get. It's funny and accidental that one guy's from the East and the other is from the West - we're from the Middle.

LOOKING BACK ON SUCH A PRODUCTIVE CAREER, APART FROM THE NEW ALBUM, WHICH WOULD YOU SAY IS YOUR FAVOURITE SCORPIONS ALBUM?
I'll have to tell you two albums, I don't have only one favourite. Mine are BLACKOUT and LOVE AT FIRST STING. As far as the new album, we've just finished it, it's going to be released end of March.

Going into the studio we though...we've heard so many times from our fans what the quintessential Scorpions sound is - people say it's BLACKOUT and LOVE AT FIRST STING, which are my favourite albums too. So the new album is much closer to that period than to the last album for example. We thought that since it's our last studio album we should focus on what people like most about us. So it's much closer to LOVE AT FIRST STING than any other album.В 
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DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE SOLO OF YOURS OR MAYBE A GUITAR RIFF, I MEAN IT DOESN'T NECESSARILY NEED TO BE A BIT WHERE YOU'RE NOODLING, DOES IT?
Fortunately I have a few of those. I would say 'No One Like You'. For example the intro melody of 'No One Like You' is used as a commercial to sell tickets for shows, especially in the US, but also in other countries.

Without the vocals kicking in, just the beginning. You know instantly who it is and which song it is - I think that's more important than a fast, noodling solo.В 

TELL US ABOUT THE NEW ALBUM - STING IN THE TAIL. HOW DID YOU FEEL GOING INTO THE STUDIO, KNOWING THAT THIS WOULD BE THE VERY LAST SCORPIONS ALBUM? ASSUMING YOU GUYS DON'T GET THE ITCH AND REFORM IN A COUPLE OF YEARS THAT IS...
Haha, don't confuse us with Kiss, we are trying to be serious about this. Actually when we went into the studio sometime in May, we had a different concept.

Since we had shows in the Summer and Fall, we thought "let's not spend four months in a row in the studio, let's go in for a couple of weeks, then play some shows, then go back in". Just to keep it fresh.

It can get very boring and tiring to be in the studio every day for months, so we wanted to keep it fresh. In the Summer we didn't know it was going to be our last album.

When we recorded the first songs our manager came up with the idea, he said: "This sounds great, you should think about making this your last studio album, because it will be very hard to top it in like three or four years."

And then considering the age of some of my friends...So that's how it happened, we didn't really go in the studio thinking this would be the last album, we more or less decided after it was finished.

YOU GUYS ARE ALL A BIT MORE GROWN UP NOW, BUT "BACK IN THE DAY", ESPECIALLY IN THE DECADENT 80S, DID YOU LIVE THE SEX, DRUGS AND ROCK'N'ROLL LIFESTYLE?
Well, we always tried to stay away from it, but were not always successful. It was part of the whole lifestyle of the 80s and it was very hard to avoid. But luckily we were always more reasonable than many other examples. We are healthy-orientated people. That's why we keep fit. We eat healthy, we're active,В  that's the good thing. I remember that some bands back in the day used every spare minute to go to the bar.

OR THE TOILET...
I know exactly what you're talking about.

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YOU'VE TOURED WITH EVERYBODY THAT MATTERS IN THE WORLD OF ROCK'N'ROLL. THROUGHOUT ALL THE YEARS WHAT BAND DID YOU REMAIN CLOSEST FRIENDS WITH AND GOT ALONG WITH THE BEST?
Probably Bon Jovi. They supported us in 1984 when we were on the big LOVE AT FIRST STING tour and that's when they started out. I think they became fans of ours and later on they had a great career. Just recently when they played Germany I went to visit them in Munich and in Hamburg. We met in the afternoon and we talked.

Richie Sambora is a friend of mine, he bought a guitar from my store in Munich. I have the closest relationship with Jon and Richie, we speak on the phone, text each other etc. I would say they're my closest friends.

A LOT OF 80S BANDS ARE REFORMING, DO YOU THINK THEY'VE GOT ANY CHANCE WITH NEW MATERIAL OR WOULD IT BE A SAFER BET JUST TO PLAY THE OLD STUFF THAT PEOPLE ARE FAMILIAR WITH? FOR EXAMPLE RATT ARE ABOUT TO RELEASE A NEW RECORD...
I would say chances are that the radio stations are going to play the old stuff and that's sad news. As far as an old band releasing a new album it's like sitting between chairs, because radio likes to play old stuff from the old bands and for newer music they just play new bands.

So for bands like Ratt, I don't know, they will probably remind everybody of their biggest hits from the 80s. I wish every band that reforms are successful with their new material and it reaches the people, but usually it's the opposite.

LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING CURIOUS - BACK IN THE 80S OVER HERE IN BULGARIA NOT MANY PEOPLE KNEW ENGLISH WELL, AS IT WAS A LANGUAGE FROWNED UPON IN FAVOUR OF RUSSIAN, SO SOME PEOPLE ACTUALLY THOUGHT YOUR SONG "Blackout" meant "black people out". THIS WAS A COMBINATION OF THEIR LIMITED KNOWLEDGE OF ENGLISH AND THE FACT THAT YOU WERE GERMANS AND ALL THE STEREOTYPE RUBBISH FROM THE PAST...HAVE YOU EVER OF THIS IDIOTIC INTERPRETATION?
Hahaha, no. I'm sorry, I have to laugh, this is actually quite funny hahaha. I've never ever heard of that before.

SO WHAT WILL YOU BE DOING AFTER THE SCORPIONS THEN?
I don't know. I think no one in the band knows what we will be doing three years from now. let's say roughly three years. Nobody knows. I mean, do you know what you'll be doing in three years? One doesn't know.

One thing I know for sure though - I will not stop making music, I will probably pick my guitar up every day as usual and then we'll see what happens.
DO YOU PLAY OR PRACTICE EVERY DAY?
No, sometimes I don't have the chance. No, but to sit down with the guitar and play a little something - it's good and it eases my mind. It's not only about practice, I just love to do it. It's the extension of my arm so to speak.

IT'S A NATURAL PART OF YOUR BODY NOW, EH?
Absolutely.

NOW THAT YOU'RE RETIRING, IS THERE ANY STORY THAT YOU COULDN'T TELL US BEFORE, BUT CAN SHARE WITH US NOW?
Unfortunately I don't have any stories for you. But let me put it this way, the last tour, which we're starting very soon will be a farewell tour. We have no idea what that means.

We've announced it, but we don't know, we have no experience, thank God, but it will be more or less like a "bye bye" every night. It will be so emotional and sad. The very last concert, in two and a half/three years, will be the worst. Along the line, every night will be like that because in every country we will say goodbye to the fans and we have no idea how to cope with that.


AND FINALLY, DO YOU SEE ANY BIG NEW OR NEWISH (RELATIVELY SPEAKING) GERMAN BANDS RIGHT NOW? RUDOLPH MENTIONED THAT HE LIKES RAMMSTEIN...
Rammstein are definitely a big German band. Personally I don't like them so much. I don't like German lyrics for some reason. There's something in their style that doesn't get to me, I just don't like it. But I know they're very successful.

Other than that I know that some German bands are very successful in South America, bands no one has heard about here in Germany, usually from the metal scene. I don't see anybody emerging at the moment who could be successful in the next few years.В 

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