Interview: Scorpions Talk 50 Years of Love From the Fans

New York's classic rock q1o for three scorpions here in New York's classic rock q1o for three Matthias Gooden Morgan welcome back yeah thank you so much guten morgen good morning and Mickey welcome for the first time thank you I think I've been out there with Motorhead but yeah but yeah but but first time as with your new job and I want to congratulate you on your new job you've been behind the drums for a Scorpion's now for how long a year and a half year and a half that's totally that counts as a new job that's a new kid yeah yeah yeah when you join a band that has a 50-year history what's the learning curve for you well you know it's not easy to step into a band that's been running so long you know they have their ways and and I also been playing you know 35 years internationally myself you've been you've been with some big bands yeah yeah but it's no matter what especially you know they have their ways and and they have but it clicked right away really you know you can kind of feel that it takes 30 seconds and and a small tour will Matthias how do you find somebody new when you have a job opening in an established band like scorpions I mean you don't just put a want ad in the newspaper I mean you have to get the word out and and do you have people in mind right from the beginning actually in this case I did due to the sad circumstances that Lemmy died we didn't have to think very far I mentioned it to our tour manager Bill and said could he give Mickey D a call and I didn't want to call myself you know he would have been maybe too shy on the phone to answer and and so I said you know let's see what he's up to and luckily he had the time to come over and we rehearsed while the tour was going on in the afternoon secretly and then at some point we had to make the decision to change drummers mm-hmm and those actually called in to be like stand by James had some health problems and and yeah and and he needed some time actually well you know when when Brian Johnson was called in to audition for ac/dc they wouldn't tell him what he was auditioning for they wouldn't even tell him they called him they called him at the shop he was working at installing in our windows and repairing car windows and asked him to come to London to audition as a vocalist for a band and he said what band and they wouldn't tell him exactly actually reminds me a little bit when I joined in 1978 I was called in for a jam session and for some reason I had the sense they are better like you know listen to some of their songs so when we jammed they they played scorpion songs only and luckily I knew how they were going and that was the trick well you know you the band has had such international acclaim for so long I mean famous all over the world and I learned as recently as this morning that there was a special love for the band that people who lived behind what at the time was the Iron Curtain felt this morning when I was coming into work the car service driver who picked me up this morning is from Poland mhm and so he was telling me about when he came to the United States and so on and so forth he very friendly guy very thick polish accent and and you know he asked me what I did and I told him you know where I'm working everything and I said I said oh and we've got the Scorpions coming in this morning anyone what haha he goes they were our favorite hardrock band he used the term hardrock yeah of course hardrock and he just I mean he he went wild yeah we are very very famous in Poland and many other countries in the Eastern Europe European area too but oh Flair's from Poland he used to live 11 years in New York and what would you say about his accent he's okay actually yeah I'm surprised it says more his ways he's very polish you know I was I was talking with Shelley the other day wind have changed with its hopeful lyrics I mean it really harkens us back to you know 1989 1990 and the way the world was changing for the better and now it seems as if we're back to the old loggerheads again absolutely I mean yeah obviously things keep changing in the world and at the moment we have the feeling not exactly for the better the way we we consider better better was when everything seemed to be united and peaceful and I mean it's the song of hope and we never give up hope but currently yeah more no I mean it was it was conflicting you know was it at least the conflict had some sort of simplicity to it that made it easy to understand you had the Communist world yes and you had what we called the free world and the result was the Cold War and that ended now there isn't a communist bloc but Russia and the United States are at each other's throats again it's more invisible you know it's kind of the Comets you're absolutely right it was easy to understand black and white yeah this is no it's very colorful always changing shades of grey yes yeah seems like today the really bad stuff you can't really touch it it's invisible somehow it's you can up on you you know no you don't know this Syria thing somebody get all the refugees into Europe and you know you wonder why mm-hmm you know nobody understands they're like fighter jets flying through the air who's against whom yeah I have no idea meanwhile well yeah and meanwhile that particular song continues to inspire people all over the world when they hear it it's it's such a beautiful sentiment mm-hmm it's time to write another one maybe it is together I actually have a pretty cool picture I got to show you when we played Poland when we did window change remember summer we're in Poland we did we played in Auschwitz I was just there oh I was just there well that's outside of Krakow that's where we go yeah the whole audience we had a clown who was mute I was going to show you guys and you listeners look at this now about the crowd holding up red and white remember yeah that's the whole crowd as soon as you start but I didn't know about that the biggest crowd we ever played was also in that area same promoters back in I don't know like early 2000s 800,000 people Wow festival in Poland believe and then what about South America also very big Brazil it's like fantastic Mexico's doing extremely well for us Brazil put you on a postage stamp yes postage stamp we have like at least 50 beer brand scorpion beer brands from all over the world they especially make this when we are coming to town I guess but it always amazes me when I see the photographs of the gigantic crowds at rock concerts in South America and I mean they're just massive massive massive crowds you know it's like a Woodstock every weekend I mean it's just crazy it's huge and the audience is very young to know very young people which is great for us and of course you're at Madison Square Garden this weekend on Saturday Madison Square Garden refers to itself as the world's greatest arena how do you feel when you play there what's the feeling you get it's it's obviously the most known arena in the world we played there a few times in the 80s I think three times in the role in 84 you played the 82 late 80s early 90s but then we haven't played it in a long time so it's great for us to come back to play the garden on Saturday being sandwiched by Paul McCartney he plays Friday and Sunday mm-hmm that's something for the production people yeah great did you where you were able sense since you're gonna be headlining the garden I would imagine you have some pole were you able to score some McCartney tickets while you're in town I think so I think Friday nights we shall pay him a visit okay because we saw the show on Monday night at Prudential Center and it's just outstanding seen a couple years ago whenever they play the old Beatles tunes then this this hysteria and then you comes up you know everybody he mentioned that on the stage he mentioned that on the stage he said we know what songs you want to hear and we know what songs you don't care about he said it's very very simple you know we do some of the old Beatles songs and the whole place goes wild and we can see that and then we do some of the new songs and it's like a black hole yeah that's what he said and and you are supported with Megadeth yes yeah great band yeah good we played with them a few times in Europe and now it's the first time that we actually go together on the road in the States and they're referred to it it always labels always crack me up your hardrock their thrash metal I ask Eddie trunk all the time to define these things for me you know I mean because there's also speed skate metal you know I mean there's all sorts of which is different which is different from thrash skate metal of this many it's a little bit like yeah thousand variations of coffee which you can get at some of these coffee janes you know how I would refer to you get it for me you know how I would refer to you guys great rock bands yeah oh good music and bad music about what what I we used to say with Motorhead and and that goes so well with scorpions to it scorpion music after 52 years you deserve your own cavalry if you into labels of course we played Motorhead music you know he was thrash punk hard rock speed metals punk metal whatever trash punk and spunk you see clown metal you see well there well that's insane clown posse well some people would argue that kiss might fall into that category but it's hard to say Matias and Mickey with us here at cue 104 three scorpions I want Matthias to tell you Jim how he stopped smoking because this is the most amazing story I have ever heard about stopping smoking and I'm going to drag you to Germany to do this okay okay I am from Hannover Germany I still live there and like close by and the drive up to this tiny little village in North West Germany close to the Dutch border there was the most painful part once I got there this guy you know he's very very known for being like successful helping people to stop smoking like his rate is like 97% some just don't want to do it sorry even he can't help so I'm there he's talking to me and then like five minutes later I'm in his office I said you know across from him at his desk and then he comes behind me I could only see his hands above my head and then the soummo like going down the shoulders and arms and then he said that's it 30 seconds you said 30 seconds 30 bucks and drink lots of water and drink lots of water I drove home and I haven't smoked since no I remember we have like cigarette machines how many years has this been the end it's been fifth of January 2005 alright and I'm exactly and how many packs did you smoke a day I smoked like two packs on a long night it could have been two and a half to three you know especially when being in the studio you know there was always a cigarette like you know I didn't really know he did something with his energy and I think he loosened up the poison in my cells and system and with all the water I had to drink this all came out and then flushed it out and then I have never smoked again I've never I've never heard anything like this it's a long way for you guys to go there even for me like driving up there I think it's his daughter doing it he's still alive he might have smoked too much but anyway he was like in the late 70s 80s like 12 13 years ago so he's not practicing anymore but his daughter he's still alive I don't know I'm gonna have to ask dr. oz about I can give you the information I don't I don't know you can look at his website and that's the trip and Germany is gorgeous when I came back I was in six countries and Germany is one of the most beautiful countries I have ever seen in my life we took a cruise on the Danube which is green not blue I don't know where they get the blue from but I mean it's the cleanest river but Germany is just gorgeous there's a greenery in the flowers and I loved it there yeah where else did you go went to Austria the Czech Republic Poland Poland I didn't I'm so he's asking because he's from Sweden strap my my friend Ronnie says the Czech Republic is the most friendly place on earth they were all friendly well he said he went to Prague he'd never been there before and he was only there for a few days and he went back again about 89 months later and every bar he walked into the bartender remembered his name and put his drink down on the bar oh really some of the best food of course Ronny of course Ronny tips well okay the best bread I ever had was in the Czech Republic really yes it has nuts in it and sprouts I mean it was amazing and after one piece or a half piece you're full well Mickey you live in a monarchy have you ever met the king yes I have yeah is the king of fan yeah he's a great guy actually he's he's a rock and roller yeah I'm just I'm just I'm just wondering you look at that you look at the age group and it all fits really yes and and his best friend actually passed away not passed away very recently and he was a total rock'n roller and and then I do a lot of charity stuff with with the princess for handicapped kids system the Queen Sylvia's Foundation and all that so she's from Bavaria she's yeah Brazilian lady from beginning really yeah she's born in Brazil yeah no she's part German she's born in but actually you're sweeter so are you Lutheran sorry are you Lutheran Lutheran Lutheran because the Swedes are Lutheran's something the Swedish royal family has to marry Lutheran's no no nobody it's it's a good family it's it's not as stiff as the British royals you know these guys are king he's a he's a rock and roller he drives sports cars and and hangs out is it not he's a fun guy cool yeah I was curious about that because you know I mean monarchs aside of leaders of nations grew up on rock and roll and and and they probably have their favorite bands and their favorite songs just like everybody else the fact that they lead nations just means they have a different kind of job but but I was curious because rock-and-roll is good for everyone you know what I mean that it's it's the the best thing you can get into absolutely and next for you I mean there's the tour that's going on right now Madison Square Garden Saturday but any other plans for you guys yeah we kick off the tour in Redding Pennsylvania on Thursday we go that tomorrow a little production rehearsal it's the beginning of the tour then the garden then up to Canada Montreal and Toronto and then we come back to Chicago and go Salt Lake Seattle and then down San Francisco LA and Phoenix and yeah ten was in between and then then we end up in Florida and we hope it has dried out a little bit all right well it's all the way reading is mushroom capital ah they're known for mush not magic just mushrooms otherwise you have to go to that guy again and Mickey thank you so much for joining us this morning here tu-104 three and everybody remember Saturday Madison Square Garden the meat and the Paul McCartney sandwich yes Peace Corps mines and Megadeth thanks a lot guys thank you thank you New York's classic rock q1o 43

Channel: Q1043 New York

Views: 48,508

Keywords: q1043, rock, music, video, radio, interview, performance, live, scorpions

Id: hMD_mPETlyM

Length: 19min 11sec (1151 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 15 2017