THE SCORPIONS KLAUS MEINE TALKS ABOUT THE BAND’S “UNPLUGGED” CD AND NEW MUSIC
Brian Aberback from New Jersey’s Steppin’ Out magazine recently interviewed Scorpions’ vocalist Klaus Meine. Portions of the interview appear below.
Brian Aberback: When the Scorpions released their last studio album, Sting in the Tail, in 2010, the band said it would be its last album and tour. What made the group change its mind?
Klaus Meine: At the end of the tour in 2012 we were proud that we reached the finish line going strong after 200 shows, but we hadn’t played all the countries we wanted to, like Spain, the U.K. and a lot of Asia. There’s a huge demand from the fans and a whole new audience. We have 4.3 million followers on Facebook and the average age is 17 to 26. There’s not a lot planned next year, though. Just a very few select unplugged concerts in Germany and France, plus a few shows in Russia next spring.
Brian Aberback: How did MTV Unplugged come about?
Klaus Meine: We received an offer from MTV. How can you say no when an offer like this comes in, to join this very illustrious family of musicians who have done this since the format started in the late Eighties. Even though we did the Acoustica album in 2001 this was a new challenge, to make it an attractive concept. We have a few new songs and many songs we don’t normally perform live. It’s not all mainstream hits. There are also new arrangements of songs. It was a lot of fun to do. We recorded the album at a beautiful theater in Athens on the highest mountain in the city. Our Greek audience has a big heart for our early material. A lot of people joined us from all over Europe, Canada, the U.S., Russia and other countries. It was a very emotional show.
Brian Aberback: Are you surprised that MTV still plays music in Europe, let alone that Unplugged still exists?
Klaus Meine: It’s fascinating how it changed over the years with the game shows and personality shows. Over here MTV Unplugged is still a very powerful brand. Our show was broadcast to 30 countries. It will be shown in the U.S. on VH1.
Brian Aberback: Does the band plan on releasing additional new music?
Klaus Meine: In the Eighties we wrote so many songs for each album that there were always leftovers. Two of those songs are on the Unplugged album. Those are Dancing With the Moonlight and Rock ‘n’ Roll Band. Two years ago we started looking at these songs to release, but that project was never finished. Some of the songs are complete, some of them had only working lyrics and I started new lyrics. So we may pick up on that when we have time. Maybe it would be good to put it out in 2015 for the Scorpions’ 50th anniversary.
Read more at Steppin’ Out.
source: so-mag.com
As an 18 year old fan, I’m glad they have decided to keep going, as I have never had a chance to see them live and hope to someday and sure there are many, many more fans in this exact position.
The scorpions are a great live band…they definitely give you your money’s worth when they take the stage…like a fine wine they get better with age..definitely going to miss them touring…high energy rock n roll..
It’s amazing that the Scorpions have never toured Australia. Ozzy and Van Halen finally toured here in the late nineties, but better late than never. The Scorpions are the only major band that hasn’t toured here. Even the communist block countries saw them during the cold war…
They gotta be bored. I’d just do select dates with the ’84 line-up.