Michael Schenker: ”Scorpions ei ole tehnyt mitään keskustelemisen arvoista 23 vuoteen”
SiriusXM haastetteli hiljattain legendaarista saksalaiskitaristi Michael Schenkeriä (UFO, Scorpions) ”Eddie Trunk Live” -radio-ohjelmassaan. Hän kommentoi Scorpionsin klassikkoalbumien hiljattain ilmestyneitä 50-vuotis uudelleenjulkaisuja seuraavasti:
”It’s not 50 years. It’s actually 50 years in 2020. I would count when the first SCORPIONS album was made, not when the first time somebody had an idea, ’Oh, I’ll make a band called the SCORPIONS,’ They played the hit parade [with] completely different people in the band; [it had] nothing to do with the SCORPIONS who recorded the first album. So it’s rubbish to have a SCORPIONS box 50-year celebration. It’s not 50 years yet. 50 years is in 2020.”
Riidoistaan yhtyeessä yhä soittavan veljensä Rudolf Schenkerin kanssa hän kertoo:
Mainos päättyy
I’m happy that Rudolf enjoyed his success. I always supported Rudolf’s success. I always said to people, ’As long as Rudolf is happy…’ He got what he wanted, I got what I wanted, [and] that’s all fine.
”Look, you put all the pieces together. [SCORPIONS] released a 50-year box; it’s not 50 years. Then they tell the people they’re gonna stop playing [Editor’s note: Referring to SCORPIONS’ 2010 announcement that they would retire at the end of a world tour], and then all of a sudden they make a record [2015’s ’Return To Forever’]. It’s all bullshit. They have become numb and dumb, and old and bald. It has nothing to do with music anymore.
”You know, Rudolf never knew how to write music. [On] ’Lonesome Crow’, I was the only songwriter; I wrote basically all the music. And Rudolf learned everything from me that I did. I’m seven years younger than him. When I was 23, Rudolf was 30 and they hadn’t even started in America. When he was 33 years old, ’Blackout’ became a hit.
Artikkeli jatkuu mainoksen jälkeen”When I left the SCORPIONS, I went to UFO, and basically the SCORPIONS copied everything UFO did. If you listen back to the records, you can hear very clearly that always every time we did a record…. They even hired the same art designer. Rudolf completely adopted my image and he is going overboard with it. He wants to distort reality and wants people to think he is the one who was… He wants to distort. He’s playing a game — a really stupid game. If you study this whole thing, you will clearly understand what happened.
”Why would Rudolf ask me if he can play the black-and-white guitar? And why would he ask me if I would give my songwriting credit of ’Coast To Coast’ to him? And then he plays those two songs on every concert for the next 35 years. Figure it out. I was generous enough to give him that, because he’s my brother. But I’m finding out that they fabricated a story on what happened [during] the ’Lovedrive’ period, which is a lie.”
Kun mieheltä kysyttiin onko hän ollut Rudolfiin yhteydessä tämän julkisen tylyttämisen jälkeen, hän vastasi:
”He’s a wannabe and a trick master. I am not going to talk to anybody about this. Rudolf knows exactly what he did wrong, and only Rudolf himself can fix it for himself. My side of the street is clean; I don’t have to talk to anybody. But if you are so addicted to success and if you have screwed up in such complicated ways to become a success — if you have to cheat and stuff like that, or fabricate in order to get to where you wanna get — it’s nothing to do with me. I play music; I’m an artist. For me, it’s all about music. SCORPIONS don’t write their own songs. They have lost it completely. For the last 23 years, they’re cutting out [former SCORPIONS drummer] Herman [Rarebell]. Herman and Francis [Buchholz, former SCORPIONS bassist], they are responsible with them for the ’80s commercial success that they had, the political success that they had with ’Wind Of Change’; Herman and Francis were part of it. They’re cutting them out wherever they can. They don’t make them part of awards — nothing. They are just three greedy people. For the last 23 years, they haven’t done anything that is worth talking about. All they have done is they’ve been milking the past, they’ve been milking — in the last 23 years — what they have achieved with Herman and Francis in the band. There’s nothing else they have done. And maybe people are afraid talking about it. But the fact is they are fooling the people.”
Artikkeli jatkuu mainoksen jälkeen Mainos päättyy”I’m very disappointed in Rudolf. I’m not bitter about it. I’m not gonna poison myself. My side of the street is clear. I’m just very disappointed. And Rudolf has to figure out what to do with his life. It’s on his shoulders. He knows exactly what he did. And so I stay away from him as far as I can, because I don’t know what else he’s got up his sleeve to justify things. He’s a trick master, and he’s a wannabe. And that’s it. He can do whatever he wants. He can enjoy his life on every level that he wants. But I stay away from him. I’m his younger brother. He’s basically bullying me and he’s doing with me whatever he wants.”