In conversation, 70-year-old guitar hero Michael Schenker overflows with excitement like he’s 20, answering questions with effusive run-on sentences, making sure he expels every uncensored, elliptical thought that glides past his tongue.

This makes for lengthy yet revealing interviews. Each comment is a puzzle piece that helps reveal the full picture of his unorthodox approach to music and business. In short, the message is fairly straightforward: Enthusiasm, self-belief and impulsiveness are the keys to happiness. And he’s got plenty to be happy about.

Late last year, Schenker released Don’t Sell Your Soul, the 13th studio album of originals by his band, Michael Schenker Group (MSG). It’s a grand return to rip-rockin’ form and the second release in a three-album series. The first part of the package, My Years with UFO, came out in June 2024 and featured re-recorded, star-studded versions of 11 tracks Schenker wrote between 1972 and 1978 during his years with British powerhouse rockers UFO.

Schenker decided to record the album not just to play old favorites with Slash, Dee Snider, Roger Glover, Stephen Pearcy, Axl Rose and others. He created it as a history lesson for fans.

“Many people think I was born musically in the ’80s, because when you click ‘Michael Schenker’ on the internet, all you see is ‘Michael Schenker Group’; there’s nothing there about UFO or Scorpions,” Schenker says.

“With My Years with UFO, I wanted to show the songs I created in my developing years from age 17 to 23, because every year I improved my guitar playing and songwriting in some way. So the record reminds me of that and educates all the people who didn’t know where I came from.”

A refresher: Schenker left UFO in 1978 after growing friction between him and vocalist Phil Mogg ended with the guitarist getting sucker-punched – after telling Mogg he’d leave the band if he was ever hit. Schenker’s first offering with Michael Schenker Band was 1980’s self-titled album, and over the next four years (their most prolific era), MSG released three more studio records and two live albums.

Don’t Sell Your Soul revisits the driving and highly melodic style Schenker last showcased on 2022’s Universal and reflects the guitarist’s songwriting MO – “freedom of expression” – a technique that prioritizes spontaneity over premeditation, authenticity over trend, and instinct over theory.

“I’ve never known about anything technical,” Schenker says. “When I put a musical sketch together for a song, I can’t say if it’s major or minor. People say I switch between the two, but I don’t know. Maybe I play parts of scales, but I don’t know the names of them or the modes or whatever. I just don’t care about that stuff.”

While Schenker was working on Don’t Sell Your Soul, he was writing more experimental and atmospheric songs for Freedom of Expression, the third album of his trilogy.

Originally, that album was going to be instrumental, but when producer and singer Michael Voss impulsively added vocals one night, then played them for Schenker, the guitarist liked the way they complemented the song, and the direction of the album abruptly changed. Suddenly, Voss was singing across the tracks.

“I’ve always believed in doing exactly what I feel like,” Schenker says. “That’s freedom of expression. If I did something just because it was what people expected, or if I stopped what I was doing because I was blinded by fame and money, that would be selling my soul.”

Reflecting over the past 50 years, Schenker admits there were times he easily could have hopped the money wagon for a quick cash grab. When Uli Jon Roth quit Scorpions in 1978, Schenker returned to the band (of which he was a member between 1972 and 1974) to work with them on Lovedrive, but he didn’t stay.

After Randy Rhoads died, Schenker was the first guitarist Ozzy Osbourne approached, but he decided to pursue his own vision instead of following the Prince of Darkness.

“With Scorpions, I helped them out as a gesture to my brother [Rudolf],” Schenker says. “They were lost; they couldn’t do an album, so I worked with them as a jump-starter. And when Ozzy approached me, there was an inner warning light that said, ‘Don’t do that because you have just left UFO and Scorpions.’

“I had time to digest my situation and the message was clear to me. I wanted to carry on doing my thing and purely self-express, and not run after a trend, which Scorpions and UFO had been trying to do since I left.”

As for Don’t Sell Your Soul, the songs are rooted in the propulsive, driving riffs and neo-classical-tinged leads of classic MSG (Schenker used his old black Gibson Flying V for most takes), but with some production twists that make the songs more modern-sounding.

If nothing else, Don’t Sell Your Soul is an affirmation that Schenker continues to follow his instincts, whether that means foot-stomping anthems, heartstring-tugging love songs or rhythmically off-kilter cuts that defy dancing.

Between musings about the power of music and the best ways to achieve peace of mind, Schenker talked about each song on Don’t Sell Your Soul and explained how plugging in for another MSG album is like putting on a favorite pair of shoes.

1. Don’t Sell Your Soul

I wrote that in my head before I even picked up the guitar. I was humming a part and imagined a guitar to it, which is a rare way for me to work. I was on tour and I was driving, and I had time to contemplate things.

When I eventually picked up a guitar, the song kept progressing step by step, and it kept me going. I used a wah in it, and I haven’t used a wah-wah for a long time.

For some reason, I wanted to hear that sound, and I used it in some other songs, too. Michael Voss wanted to put delay and other effects on it, but I said, “Nah, I want to hear that rough sound,” so I kept it dry on purpose. It’s a very personal song about my story, which is why I wrote the lyrics, which I also rarely do.

2. Danger Zone

I collect gold pieces. I bump into them as I play guitar and when I’ve found one, I put it aside. For Danger Zone, I went back to one of these pieces of gold and used it to start the song. That inspired me to write the bridge and chorus parts.

It’s interesting because when I write riffs, I don’t know what songs they’re for. And then I start randomly putting them together. I don’t even look for the best piece of gold, I just start playing something in my collection, and if it works I use it. If it doesn’t, I reach for something else.

3. Eye of the Storm

I put together a sketch for the song, but then after Bodo [Schopf] put down his drums, there was more feel to it. I wasn’t sure if I still wanted to use the guitar parts I had put down. The next time I came into the studio, Michael Voss played the track back for me so I could hear how it sounded and evaluate it.

He had already worked on it, and the way he put it together sounded very unique, so I didn’t feel like I needed to do anything to it anymore. It didn’t stick out as a lead guitar song. It was more atmospheric and interesting. I said, “I think what I did yesterday is perfect.”

4. Janie the Fox

It’s a spooky song right from the beginning because it’s different. I think I was inspired by doing the acoustic instrumentals we started out with for Freedom of Expression. But I mixed together cleaner sounds with a distorted riff I had written, and that’s where the atmosphere comes from.

Michael took advantage of that, and then one night after I left the studio, he had a spiritual experience. He was working on the vocals and when he looked outside of his big glass window, there was a fox looking in. Michael looked at the fox, and the fox looked at Michael – right into his eyes.

He explained later that he felt like he was completely in tune with nature, so he wrote the lyrics and vocals. And that created a contrast because the beginning is more wild and spooky, and in the chorus he sings so melodiously and it’s beautiful.

5. I Can’t Stand Waiting

I put down a riff I had from my pieces of gold. I did verse, bridge, chorus. And then Michael did something with it, and when I came in the next day, he played me what he had. It was great, but it was catchier than what I did because Michael is a trendy guy.

It’s only me who does pure self-expression. When I put my music down, there’s a sketch. And then when all these people join in, they’re coming from a different world.

6. Sign of the Times

That was a fun song. I did this kind of palm-muted arpeggio that’s just part of what I do. I’ve used it for a long time to figure out how to use strings in different ways. And that goes along with the vocals and becomes a big part of the song.

7. The Chosen

When I did it, the fast part in the end came out of nowhere. It’s quite a spooky song. You have all these clean guitars in the background, and there’s off-time parts that just aren’t resolving.

While I was doing it, I had this vision of those Tom and Jerry cartoons where the cat is chasing the mouse. I thought it would be great to create this vision of somebody being chased and running away.

8. It’s You

That’s the only other song I wrote in my head and didn’t have a guitar when I came up with it. I can’t even describe what I did to make the feeling that’s in the song, where it’s maybe sad, but happy. It was just a feeling that comes out in the riffs.

There’s a story in between the riffs, and I’m playing along with it, I guess, and naturally capturing the feeling of it. I think the rock riff I played makes it more upbeat, but I didn’t think about doing that. It happened on its own.

9. Six String Shotgun

I put a musical sketch together that was instrumental. There was nothing particularly special about it. Then, [guest vocalist] Robin McAuley [McAuley Schenker Group] wrote the lyrics.

He told me it was called Six String Shotgun, and I thought maybe it was about someone shooting somebody. But maybe that’s ironic. There’s a reason Robin wrote those lyrics. I don’t have anything to do with that part, and sometimes the music has nothing to do with the music.

10. Flesh and Bone

It has a very hard-rock sound – not to balance a slow song or anything; I was just self-expressing. I wouldn’t express something I don’t want to do. So, obviously, everything I want to do is put on a recording because that’s what I want to work on and hear and let other people hear.

11. Surrender

There’s a gallop in that song. It’s funny because I once read one of the guys in Iron Maiden say they invented the gallop. First of all, the gallop was already there if you look at TV shows like Bonanza.

Also, the gallop was done a long time ago in rock; I played it in [UFO on] Lights Out. It’s just something I’ve always liked to do. It has this adventurous kind of sound that works well sometimes. It’s in my blood, and it’s the beat that never resolves, so you can’t really dance to it.

• Don't Sell Your Soul is out now via earMUSIC.
• Michael Schenker Group’s six-disc box set, Live & Ready: 1980–1984 is out now.
• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Michael Schenker has opened up on why he turned down Ozzy Osbourne, after the Prince of Darkness earmarked him as a potential Randy Rhoads replacement.

After Rhoads’ tragic death in 1982, Ozzy began reaching out to electric guitar players to find a suitable successor. The likes of Richie Ranno and Vito Bratta were asked to audition, and Brad Gillis and Bernie Tormé both briefly held down the role before Jake E. Lee was eventually appointed.

But before Lee was brought aboard The Good Ship Ozzy, Michael Schenker was mooted for the position. However, as the Scorpions legend explains in the new issue of Guitar World, the opportunity wasn’t the right one for him.

At the time, Schenker was coming off the back of stints in UFO and Scorpions, and was a few years into his solo career with the Michael Schenker Group. Joining another high-profile band just wasn’t on the cards for him.

“With Scorpions, I helped them out as a gesture to my brother [Rudolf],” Schenker says. “They were lost; they couldn’t do an album, so I worked with them as a jump-starter.

“And when Ozzy approached me, there was an inner warning light that said, ‘Don’t do that because you have just left UFO and Scorpions.’

“I had time to digest my situation and the message was clear to me. I wanted to carry on doing my thing and purely self-express, and not run after a trend, which Scorpions and UFO had been trying to do since I left.”

“I’ve always believed in doing exactly what I feel like,” Schenker adds. “That’s freedom of expression. If I did something just because it was what people expected, or if I stopped what I was doing because I was blinded by fame and money, that would be selling my soul.”

Schenker isn’t the only high-profile guitar star to have been linked with the coveted Ozzy spot. Over the years, the likes of Marty Friedman and Nuno Bettencourt were also close to joining the band.

Head over to Magazines Direct to pick up the latest issue of Guitar World, which features interviews with Randy Bachman, Jerry Cantrell, Jimmy James and more.

Rudolf Schenker was 17 when he founded the Scorpions 60 years ago. He was and is a guitar player – but his dream extended far beyond that. “I wanted to be one of the top 30 rock bands in the world,” he says.

Classic albums like 1976’s Virgin Killer, 1979’s Lovedrive, 1982’s Blackout, and 1984’s Love at First Sting saw Schenker fulfill that dream, and it’s continuing.

“The chemistry in the band is great,” the 77-year-old says. “That’s the most important thing. We haven’t had to suffer. We have the right people, and everything is good.”

That chemistry goes hand-in-hand with the Scorpions’ longevity. His longtime partners in crime are vocalist Klaus Meine, who joined in ’68, and Matthias Jabs, who joined a decade later. Jabs brought harmony to the band after previous guitarists Michael Schenker (Rudolf’s younger brother) and Uli Jon Roth offered anything but.

“This only worked because we have the right team,” Schenker says. “With that, you can make magic.”

What led you to pick up the guitar?

That’s hard to say! I asked my father when I was 16 if I could get a small motorbike and he said, “No way. I don’t want you to kill yourself!” I said, “If you won’t buy me a motorbike, maybe you can buy me a guitar.”

He came to me with a Framus guitar as a present. I ordered a teaching book from Holland and started playing chords. I had a feeling – “I don’t want to be alone on stage with this instrument. I want to be in a band.”

I started rehearsing pieces that were about three minutes long. Near where I lived, there was a club where, every Saturday and Sunday evening, there were bands playing. There was once called The Mushrooms, and that’s when I saw Klaus Meine.

So by 1968 I’d met Klaus and I was talking to him after he came back from the army. He was the right person – I saw immediately that he was my partner. He’s born under Mercury on the sun side and I’m born under Mercury on the moon side, so the cosmos were already with us.

That helped create a great compositional team. From that point on, I was extremely into the possibility of getting a record deal, which we did with Metronome. And then we recorded Lonesome Crow.

At that point, you also had your younger brother, Michael, in the band. What was your vision?

The goal was to become one of the 30 most important rock bands in the world. And the goal was to put people together who would build the right chemistry. Because if you have success, the people in the band can go high, where you can’t catch them anymore. Egos are very dangerous.

Is that what happened with Michael when he joined UFO?

Yeah; my brother left for England to be in UFO, and we had no guitar player, so I had to find a new one. The guy from our publishing company said, “Without your brother, you’re nothing.” I said, “Yeah? Want to see?” And we got Uli Jon Roth in the band.

With Uli, the Scorpions started to break through. You also started working with producer Dieter Dierks, who helped make the band’s sound more accessible.

My feeling was that we had to have a German producer. Uli Jon Roth wanted someone else, but we got Dieter, and he started working with us to get an international sound. We did one album after another, and in 1982, we had a hit with No One Like You, which was killer in America. It was the most played rock song in 1982.

Why do you think things didn’t work out with Uli?

Uli was very into Hendrix. We were playing in England, and we were in a speakeasy in London. While we were sitting there eating, Uli kicked me and said, “Look, that’s Monika Dannemann!” She was the last girlfriend of Jimi Hendrix.

Uli said, “What can I do?” I said, “Invite her to the concert we’re playing tomorrow.” So she went to the concert and Uli was in heaven, playing amazing because he was in love with Monika!

So he started going to think about this solo thing, and we said, “Do us a favor – let’s finish this part of the tour with a live album.” We thought it would be a great testament for later; but he said, “No, no, no!” Then he said, “Okay; because I had a good time with the Scorpions, let’s do it,” and we did it.

What led to Matthias Jabs joining?

I saw him at a concert in England but I didn’t talk to him then because it was too loud. I called him later and asked him to jam a little bit with us. We thought, “It’s great – it’s the perfect person.” Before that we’d checked out around 100 guitar players in London. Matthias was from Hanover, he knew a few of our songs, and he played well.

Since you had Matthias, why did Michael rejoin for the Lovedrive album?

For Matthias it was a very big step. My brother was on his honeymoon, and I called him, saying, “I’m here in Germany now. Can you come over and listen to the music?” We played him the parts that we couldn’t really fill. He played them, and he got a certain percent of the income from the album, and we had three guitar players on the album – which was very good!

Why did Michael leave again?

My brother couldn’t stay. He’s not a band guy. He’s like Jeff Beck; he’s not a team person. But Matthias is, and that’s what we were looking for. We found out we didn’t need a superstar; we needed a piece that fits into a puzzle. So we went on tour in Japan with Matthias and it worked out perfectly.

What was the recipe for your guitar tone on hit songs like No One Like You and Rock You Like a Hurricane?

The tone is the Flying V and a Marshall amplifier. But I found out that when I play on a Fender amp, it still sounds like me with the Flying V. The way you click the strings of the guitar is part of what makes the sound – that’s something that people always forget. We checked out a lot of amplifiers but the Marshall always sounds really good.

What led you to the Flying V?

I saw a picture of one and I said to my brother, “Do you think it would be too much for a rhythm guitar player?” He said, “No!” He had to go to Hamburg to pick up a Les Paul, which he’d ordered from America. He called me from there and said, “There’s a Flying V!”

It was a red one with the metal plate on it. I went up to Hamburg, checked it out, and thought, “This is fantastic!” I told them, “I have no money,” and they said, “It’s no problem – send 100 German marks until you’ve paid everything off.”

I think there’s a video of me playing that guitar with my brother, who’s playing his Les Paul. But he immediately sold it because it was too heavy! He couldn’t move, jump, or stuff like that.

Is it true that Michael ended up taking your guitar and making it his first Flying V?

We had a gig and he had no guitar. The only guitar I could find for him was a Gibson Melody Maker, but he said, “It’s not good enough.” I said, “Okay, take my guitar, the Flying V.”

Then, I said, “Maybe try a 50-watt Marshall.” So the end result was that I played rhythm guitar with the Melody Maker, and my brother played the Flying V. And when he came off the stage, he said, “I can’t give it back. It’s too good.” For my brother, I did everything I could… and still failed anyway!

But as the rhythm player, the Flying V was, at the time, making me look like a big deal. That wasn’t my thinking of what music was about, you know? So my brother took the guitar and left. And the first thing I did was buy a Flying V! It was just clear that it’s my guitar – like it was made for me. I started playing, and I thought, “You know, we have something special here.”

That story is a reminder of the relationship that you and Michael had. The perception is that you two don’t get along, but it’s probably more complex than that. Do you wish things were different, and that he’d stayed in the band?

Because I meditated so much, I learned about people. And I learned about my brother, and that he’s not a team player. He shines by himself. You could see it in UFO where he was running away – he was running away from the Scorpions.

And there’s great stuff that comes out of him; great things. But he’s not handleable. He has to make his own vision and his own direction. That’s the way it is with most lead guitar players at this level. For me, the band was about playing and having fun. Having Michael in the band was no fun, and a little bit stressful.

How do you hope to be remembered as a guitarist?

I’ve already won as the creator of the Scorpions! But I want to be remembered as a team player more than for playing. And for composing great, outstanding songs, and playing with the band around the world.

I’ve had people say, “You have to put your money here or there.” I’d say, “No, I don’t want to work with money. I want to work with music.’ If you concentrate on money, you’re losing the connection to the music.

You remember some people for investing money here and there; but I don’t want to make investments and stuff like that. I want to be a musician. I want to have the right people around me and just enjoy life on the planet.

• Catch the Scorpions on tour.

Francis Buchholz, the former Scorpions bassist, has died, aged 71.

A bass guitar stalwart for the Scorpions, spending almost two decades with the German rock institution, Buchholz was there for all the biggest moments in the band's history – headlining Rock in Rio 1985, the 1989 Moscow Music Peace Festival – and played on its greatest recordings.

From 1974’s Fly to the Rainbow to 1990’s Crazy World, Buchholz’s bass anchored them all. Steamrock Fever, The Sails of Charon, Rock You Like a Hurricane, Winds of Change… The list goes on. Buchholz's credits make for quite the playlist.

In a Facebook statement, Buchholz's family said that he had passed away after an unpublicized battle with cancer, and thanked his legions of fans for their support over the years.

“Our hearts are shattered,” it read. “Throughout his fight with cancer, we stayed by his side, facing every challenge as a family – exactly the way he taught us. To his fans around the world – we want to thank you for your unwavering loyalty, your love, and the belief you placed in him throughout his incredible journey.

“You gave him the world, and he gave you his music in return. Though the strings have gone silent, his soul remains in every note he played and in every life he touched.”

Hannover born and bred, Buchholz was gigging by the time he was a teenager, playing in his high-school band. He would get up at 4.30 am and deliver papers before school with the intention of buying an electric guitar. A Framus Star Bass caught his attention instead – a stroke of fortune.

“I fell in love with that Framus Bass and bought it with the money earned from that newspaper job. The bass came in a grey hard shell case with dark red plush interior,” he told Get Ready To Roll.

“From then on I played bass. And because everybody wanted to play guitar those days there was a lack of bass players. So all of a sudden I was a very sought after musician! Even though I was a beginner with no experience at all, I got offers from many bands.”

Rock was his first love. But his musical tastes took in jazz, blues, soul.

“I did not mind about styles,” he said. “Rock, Top 40 songs, jazz, blues. I learned and played all styles and loved it.”

His resumé – musical and otherwise – speaks to a restless drive. He read mechanical engineering at the University of Hannover and studied at the Hannover University of Music, Drama and Media.

Even as the Scorpions were riding high on the back of the superlative Taken by Force, Buchholz somehow had the energy to start a business, Rock Sound, renting PAs and lighting gear.

It was during his studies when Buchholz's musical career took shape. He played in Dawn Road, alongside a flamboyant virtuoso guitarist by the name of Uli Jon Roth. The pair would soon be in the Scorpions together.

And after leaving the Scorpions in 1992, Buchholz would tour with Uli Jon Roth and join Dreamtide, recording 2008 album Dream and Deliver with the German hard-rockers.

In 2012, another former Scorpion came calling as he joined Michael Schenker on tour for his Temple of Rock project. With Herman Rarebell on the drums, it reunited the classic rhythm section that gave the Scorpions sound its engine room. Buchholz played on two live albums and two studio albums with Temple of Rock.

But he will be forever remembered as a Scorpion. For all the HR tumult in Germany’s most-famous rock band, Buchholz went the distance.

It was perhaps fitting then that his last hurrah with the band, Crazy World – which also featured his only Scorpions co-songwriting credit for Kicks After Six – would be their only album to actually go to number one in their homeland, which is remarkable given that Buchholz and the Scorpions were estimated to have sold over 100 million albums worldwide.

He is survived by his wife Hella, and their three children Sebastian, Louisa and Marietta.

At the time of writing, the Scorpions are set to round off a triumphant year with Coming Home Live, recorded at their 60th anniversary show, in their hometown of Hanover, Germany, last July.

This in-concert set is their second double album of 2025, arriving hot on the heels of From The First Sting, a career-spanning compilation showcasing the Scorpions’ unique ability to infuse radio-friendly hard rockers and cheese-free ballads with a standard of lead guitar work that's inspired countless aspiring six-stringers, and dazzled concert audiences.

In 2015, founding guitarist Rudolf Schenker told this writer of his original vision for the band; “When I started the Scorpions, it was very naive, thinking, four or five friends traveling around the world to play music. This philosophy of looking for good musicians, but also people I can build a friendship with, is why we're still standing. [Don’t] push the ego, push the vision.”

Schenker's team-centered vision has seen him devote himself to driving the Scorpions with a propulsive rhythm guitar attack, and to developing their crafted songwriting style, providing the perfect musical backdrop for lead guitarists Michael Schenker (1969-1973, 1978-1979), Uli Jon Roth (1973-1978), and Matthias Jabs (1979 to the present day) to shine.

Crucially, the Scorpions’ song-focused approach has required these players (along with Rudolf himself, on the rare occasions he plays a lead break) to showcase their distinctive styles with a concise blend of taste and technique appropriate to the setting.

Any rock guitarist seeking pointers on how to tailor a solo to serve the song would do well to investigate the Scorpions’ back catalog. With this in mind, let’s look at what each of the band’s six-string stingers has brought to the party through the years.

Michael Schenker – 1969-1973, 1978-1979

Michael's relationship with his elder sibling has been frosty of late. Nevertheless, many fans still associate him with his brother's band, as his two stints in the Scorpions resulted in albums that captured his playing at two pivotal stages.

Today, Michael invariably tells interviewers that he doesn't listen to music, to avoid compromising in his pursuit of “pure self-expression”. However, the Scorpions' 1972 debut album, Lonesome Crow, provides an intriguing insight into Michael's early development, when formative influences like Tony Iommi were discernible in the repeated string bends and use of dorian scale phrases in I’m Going Mad, comparable to Iommi’s playing across Sabbath’s Paranoid album (see Hand of Doom).

During the ensuing tour, Michael famously jumped ship when the Scorpions supported UFO, with Rudolf's encouragement.

By the time he returned in 1978, Michael had become a revered guitar hero, reaching the peak of his powers just as the Scorpions were crystalizing their classic sound, after the departure of Uli Jon Roth. The explosive results were captured on Lovedrive (1979).

Sparks fly, as Michael’s ability to combine feel, melody, and blazing bursts of speed, is buoyed by Rudolf’s slashing rhythms on Another Piece of Meat, and chugging triplets on Lovedrive. And when the dark, atmospheric instrumental Coast to Coast kicks in, it’s game over. Michael turns in a career-high solo, with quicksilver runs and emotive bends, as Rudolf flips dynamically from open chords to a palm-muted crescendo.

Michael soon quit to form MSG, but subsequently played highlights from Lovedrive with the Scorpions on their 2008 tour, and with his Temple of Rock band, which featured former Scorps Francis Buchholz (bass) and Herman Rarebell (drums).

Uli Jon Roth – 1973-1978

In 1973, when an 18-year-old lead guitarist left an obscure German rock band and nominated his 19-year-old pal as his replacement, it wasn’t exactly headline news. Today, the fact that Michael Schenker tapped none other than Uli Jon Roth to fill the spot he’d just vacated in the Scorpions seems incredible, in view of the status they later achieved as two of the most influential guitar heroes of the last fifty years.

It's been heartening to see Roth's resurgence since the 1998 G3 tour (alongside Joe Satriani and Michael Schenker), but his four-album run with the Scorpions contains moments of brilliance upon which his reputation as a unique, innovative player was founded.

Though influenced by Jimi Hendrix in his use of wah pedal, wang bar dive bombs, and long, wailing bends, these elements never overshadowed Roth's identity, evident in his clean, precise technique, and dazzling speed on Speedy’s Coming, which opened his Scorps debut, 1974's Fly to the Rainbow.

Over the next three years, Roth’s progression as a soloist was remarkable, from the stately, harmonized trills of In Trance, through Catch Your Train’s head-spinning Mixolydian fills and lead break, and culminating in the breathtaking Sails of Charon, on which he pretty much invented neo-classical shredding way back in 1977. Seeking to pursue his own singular creative vision, Roth left the Scorpions amicably in 1978, returning to tour with them between 2006 and 2008.

Matthias Jabs – 1978-present

When 22-year-old Jabs joined the Scorpions in June 1978, the daunting prospect of filling the stack-heeled boots of his two predecessors was complicated when one of them returned.

After both Jabs and Michael Schenker played on Lovedrive, Jabs was let go, only to be swiftly reinstated just weeks into the tour. 46 years later, he's still there, having played a vital role as the band achieved success on a global scale with albums like Blackout, Love at First Sting, and Crazy World.

For this writer, Jabs has proven himself to be Rudolf Schenker’s most compatible guitar partner, and the Scorpions' perfect lead player, as his soloing style embodies the team spirit and song-focused approach that defines the band.

His scorching lead breaks are integral, memorable interludes in many of the Scorpions' best known songs, shot through with a dynamic grasp of phrasing that flows according to the mood of each track.

On mid-'80s mega-hit Rock You Like A Hurricane, Jabs deftly combines pick tapping slides and gut-level blues bends, and echoes of the vocal melody. For the mid-paced Bad Boys Running Wild, he builds tension with short, biting licks, before unleashing a ripping sequence of pull-offs across the neck. And on Coming Home, Jabs proves that shredding and feel need not be mutually exclusive.

What’s more, he’s kept his chops up, as recent tracks like Roots In My Boots [from 2022's Rock Believer] illustrate.

Rudolf Schenker – 1965-present

As stated above, Rudolf’s primary contributions have been as a songwriter, and in laying down an unshakeable rhythm guitar bedrock.

In the 1985 World Wide Live concert/documentary film, he explained. “I saw myself as a composer. My dream was to make good songs like the Beatles, the Kinks, and the Rolling Stones, not to be the fastest or best guitar player in the world.”

Accordingly, his rare lead breaks, on songs like Big City Nights, display a songwriter’s ear for a winning melody.

Back in 2015, Rudolf told this writer, “We wanted to show the world after the Second World War, ‘Here is a new generation from Germany. They’re not coming with tanks and guns, making war. They’re coming with guitars, bringing love, peace, and rock and roll.’”

Mission accomplished.

Ricky Byrd has recalled his worst onstage experience, during which a crowd turned against him and Joan Jett after they were wrongly accused of stealing electric guitar gear.

Chances are we’ve all played to less-than-ideal crowds, but it’s probably unlikely that you’ve ever had to face the ire of a room full of people who have taken it upon themselves to exercise some form of misplaced justice following a bizarre backstage incident.

As the Joan Jett guitarist remembers in the new issue of Guitar World, he and Jett were opening up for the Scorpions during a European show. Unfortunately, the act that came before them reportedly had their gear stolen – and they took the blame. Even worse, the crowd took matters into their own hands.

“There was this one time when I was with Joan Jett. We were opening for the Scorpions at an indoor stadium in Spain, and the crowd got a little rowdy,” he says. “Something went down as somebody had stolen some equipment from the opening act that played before us.

“Somehow we got blamed for it, so the crowd went crazy and somebody threw a 9-volt battery, and it hit me right above my eye.

“We stopped the show, and Joan and I just stood in the shadows. I remember me and her looking at each other going, ‘I’m not going back out there.’”

Jett herself has spoken about the disaster gig in the past, although Byrd’s mention of false accusations and stolen gear adds a new layer to the tale. As Jett told it, the crowd’s fury was largely a result of the local opening act dropping out – which Jett was wrongly blamed for.

“There was another band on the bill," she once told SiriusXM (via Loudwire). "Rosa Negro was the name of the act. So we had two nights in this city in Spain. Rosa Negro was on first, they were a Spanish band, and then we played and then the Scorpions played.

“The next day, it’s supposed to be the same thing and there was a car show in town and the Scorpions wanted to see the car show, but in order to do that they had to blow out one of the bands. So, they blew out Rosa Negro, who had a girl lead singer and they blamed me, saying I didn’t want another girl on the bill.

“So that night, I was bombarded with spit, loogies... cause this was a local band. You had guys drunk, working up loogies… spitting on me… and there are pictures of me drenched in spit and stuff hanging off of my guitar. They wanted me to leave, and I would not leave, because I didn’t do anything [wrong], I didn’t understand it.”

Visit Magazines Direct to pick up the latest issue of Guitar World, which features interviews with Zakk Wylde, Billy Corgan, Kiki Wong and Khruangbin.

In the 1970s Uli Jon Roth was a Strat-slinger with the Scorpions who loved to modify his guitar to sound like a violin. By the early 1980s he wanted more.

“Coming from the violin, a lot of the techniques in my head had the logic of that,” he tells Guitar World. “The leads were very demanding, coming up into cyberspace – traditional guitars could not do that.”

That’s how his brainchild the Sky guitar became a reality in 1983, with the help of luthier Andy Demetriou. “It was the highest-playing guitar on the planet at the time,” Roth says. He tweaked it throughout the decade. “I don’t turn the amp up; I don’t need to.

“With the Sky guitar I can drive the amp. If it’s set to three to five, not 10, I can make the amp sing like there’s no tomorrow, straight from the guitar. The guitar is like a spaceship; like a Formula 1 car.”

That’s not the only magical guitar he’s associated with. Through ex-wife Monika Dannemann, who’d been Jimi Hendrix’s last girlfriend, Roth has held – and possibly played – Hendrix’s famous black Strat.

“I was awestruck when I first was in the room with it, with all the history,” he admits. “How can you describe these things? Of course, the Jimi vibe is there, fully.”

It’s tucked away in a vault, he reports, because “too many people were after it.”

“If it got in the wrong hands, people would rip the strings up and play it themselves. That should never happen. Who could make it sound like Jimi? I think it should be seen by the public, but absolutely in a protected environment.”

Your journey with the Sky guitar started long ago. You were modifying guitars in the ‘70s before it became commonplace in the following decade.

“The first thing I came up with was putting extra frets on the Strat because I was always running out of frets at the top end. Eventually I had the idea to put two extra frets onto my main Strat, and that worked beautifully.

“I was mainly modifying the tremolo bars. We did that in the early Scorpions because I kept breaking them! You can see the first one I modified on the cover of In Trance, on that white Strat.”

How did you go from there to developing the Sky guitar?

“I wanted to have the register like a violin, which is completely impossible on a normal guitar. With a Strat, because of the layout of the cutaway, there’s a limit to how high you can place frets. You don’t want to jeopardize the position of the first pickup, which is vital.

“The idea came after the luthier, Andy Demetriou, had done such a great job of adding the extra frets to my Strat. He said, ‘I can build you any guitar you like.’ It was like a lightbulb moment for me.

“As I drove home I kept thinking. I’d never really questioned the Strat – it was perfect as it was. But I had a secret penchant for the sound of a Les Paul, which you can’t get on the Strat. I kind of wanted it all!”

When did you start to develop the first Sky guitar?

“It was just after Christmas 1982. I was meditating a lot at the time, so I went into a dark room and I just sat and tried to envision the guitar. I wanted at least an octave more – but it also had to be aesthetically beautiful; pleasing in terms of symmetry. After a while of sitting there I started seeing shapes.

“The first thing was kind of like a teardrop shape. After a little while, the guitar was really clear in my mind, so I opened my eyes and drew it. And that’s exactly as the Sky guitar looks now, except for the headstock.”

One of the innovations of the Sky guitar was that the pickups were under the fretboard.

“The pickups were a problem. I think it was Andy’s idea to put them there. He said, ‘It’ll be possible because it’s just wood, and it won’t take away from the sound.’ Sure enough, he built the first one in the spring of 1983, which, I think, had 38 frets. It looked exactly as they do now, but the paint job was different.”

Early Sky guitar had different pickups. Why did you change to the Oram Mega-Wing?

“It sounded beautiful when I was playing it unplugged; it was alder, just like the Strat. But as soon as I plugged it in, it was less than convincing. It just wasn’t good.

“Then I met an engineer, John Oram, in England, who asked, ‘What would the ultimate pickup look like for you?’ I told him, and his first response was, ‘That’s pretty much impossible!’ But he made it possible. I think it took about three years to develop the entire system.”

What were you looking for?

“I had a dream of an active system which we called ‘Mega-Wing.’ It had four coils, and originally it was able to switch from power humbucking to perfectly clean. It had a gain stage of 80dB; you could blow up any amp with that – and I did!”

Did you have trouble finding an amp that could handle the pickups?

“Certain amps didn’t look kindly on them. I blew up Vox AC30s, which lasted about half an hour, and Fender Twins lasted an hour. I jammed with Steve Morse once, and liked his 5150 amp, so they sent me two. They sounded great for about 10 seconds, then they were fried!

“I thought, ‘Maybe it’s not a good idea to use that gain stage to the maximum!’ I learned which amps were indestructible – old Marshalls Super Leads and the Blackstar Artist. When I play AC30s I don’t turn the gain up, and I make sure there’s enough headroom.”

You worked with Dean for a while but you’re building the Sky guitars yourself now.

“I think I met Elliot Rubinson, the owner of Dean, at the NAMM show. He managed to convince me after quite a while – he was very persistent – that it would be a good idea to put the guitar on the market. I was very reluctant, but he said I’d have complete freedom to experiment.

“That was a very tempting offer. Most companies would have commercial considerations, but he knew I was way out there, and didn’t think in terms of commercial and non-commercial.

“So we made a limited edition of 50. After Elliot passed away, I thought, ‘There will never be another Elliot Rubinson,’ so I moved away from Dean and opened my own small operation. We building the guitars to order, and there’s like a two-year waitlist right now.”

For a time, you were essentially the caretaker of Hendrix’s black Strat. What’s the story there?

“Well, that guitar is not mine. It belongs to the Dannemann family. When Monika was alive, it was always just sitting there, but I never played it.”

Never?

“Maybe I played a few notes on it, but I didn’t want to break a string. It’s the only Hendrix guitar that’s in exactly the condition he left it. And it’s the one he played through his last year on a lot of shows. He played Machine Gun with it at the Band of Gypsys concerts. He also played it on his last gig in Germany, when I was backstage.”

Where is the guitar now?

“It’s in a vault at the moment. We hope to exhibit it alongside Monika’s painting one day. I know somebody tried to buy it for a crazy amount of money when Monika was alive.”

What were they offering?

“I mean, 30 years ago, a million dollars was a lot of money. I guess it’s still a lot of money – but not for some people! The number two guy at Microsoft, Paul Allen, who made the Hendrix museum in Seattle, offered a million dollars at the time. But Monika said, ‘This guitar is not for sale.’”

Is there any truth to the story that an art dealer from the Middle East offered nine million dollars for the black Hendrix Strat?

“Yeah, that’s true – I had that guy on the phone and I said, ‘Give me one good reason we should sell you the guitar.’ He said, ‘Well, the money.’ I said, ‘That’s not a good reason.’ It was a short conversation!”

• Roth is currently adding tour dates to his 2025 schedule.

From Gary Moore’s broodingly romantic Parisienne Walkways to Rush's Xanadu and Jimmy Page ditching guitar picks for bows, guitarists have often tried to emulate the sounds of a violin. Uli Jon Roth, however, went to the extreme with his Sky Guitar.

For years, he’d been modifying his Fender Stratocasters to expand their scope. By the end of the ’70s, long before it became a cool thing to do, Roth was putting his electrics under the knife to fix issues he faced with them.

“The first thing I came up with was putting extra frets on the Strat because I was always running out of frets at the top end,” the former Scorpions shredder tells Guitar World in a soon-to-be-published interview. “Eventually, I had the idea to put two extra frets onto my main Strat, and that worked beautifully.”

His earliest modifications centered, mainly, around the Strat’s tremolo – “I kept breaking the tremolo bars,” he says. One early example can be seen on the album cover for the band’s 1975 LP, In Trance. That’s his white Strat the model is, err, straddling, and that’s no ordinary whammy bar.

But, as was the case with Eddie Van Halen and his love for modding, the bug left him wanting more. He’d soon go all out and have a guitar built from scratch. And the result, the Sky Guitar, laughs in the face of those measly guitars with just 22 frets.

“I wanted to have the register like a violin, basically, which is completely impossible on a normal guitar,” he explains. “With a Strat, because of the layout of the cutaway, there is a limit to how high you can place frets. You don’t want to jeopardize the position of the first pickup, which is vital.

“The idea came after the luthier, Andy Demetriou, [who did] such a great job of adding the extra frets to my Strat, said to me, ‘Look, I can build you any guitar you like.’ I said, ‘Really?’ It was like a lightbulb moment for me.”

He continues, “When I drove home afterward, I kept thinking, ‘Any guitar you like…’ and before that, I had never really questioned the Strat because it was perfect as it was. However, I had a secret penchant for the sound of a Les Paul, which you cannot get on the Strat. I kind of wanted it all.”

The Sky Guitar looks like something from a fever dream, but the oddball electric guitar is very much real. It features a whopping 38 frets and a dramatic cutaway to ensure access to its extended tonal range isn’t impeded, with Roth likening its silhouette to a teardrop. It shunned single coil pickups for humbuckers as he vied for a Les Paul tonality. But its creation was far from straightforward.

“The problem was the pickups,” he explains. “I think it was Andy’s idea to put the pickups under the fretboard. I said, ‘How is that possible?’ He said, ‘It’ll be possible because it’s just wood, and it won’t take away from the sound.’ Sure enough, he built the first one in the spring of 1983. It looked exactly as they do now, but the paint job was different.”

It's a genius solution. Looking at the guitar, one would assume it only had a humbucker in the bridge. But there was much more hiding beneath the surface.

As he told Guitar World in 2023, the guitar shaped the sound of his post-Scorpions career. He formed Electric Sun in 1978, and their back catalog is illuminated by what the guitar could do.

“I used that first one on Beyond the Astral Skies,” he says. “The versions after that were either fretless after the 30th fret or had whole-step spacing above the 27th fret. These guitars were designed to combine all the elements I wanted to connect, so I had Andreas add scalloped fretboards and humbuckers to give that hot sound.

“They've been a big part of me merging the world of rock music I was in with the classical sounds I wanted to create. I'm very proud of those guitars.”

His Stratocaster collection was dutifully left behind, and Roth became immersed in the boundless capabilities of the guitar. There were other teething problems along the way, which Roth’s imagination and Demetriou’s more scientific mind combined to solve, and the guitar stacks innovation upon innovation. It shows that even the craziest ideas shouldn't be dismissed.

Roth’s full interview, charting every detail of the guitar’s birth and evolution, will be published online in the near future.

German guitar hero Michael Schenker has had his fair share of projects. After debuting with the Scorpions, he joined the English classic rock group UFO, making a name for himself as a hard rock and heavy metal player before breaking out on his own with the Michael Schenker Group.

One constant throughout his illustrious career, however, has been his penchant for Flying Vs. Turns out, his love affair with this distinctive model began early – as far back as his school days in Germany.

“I had never seen a Flying V, but when I was at school, doing this project, building something out of wood, I wanted to make a guitar and ended up building a triangle guitar, which is similar to a Flying V,” he tells Total Guitar.

While his preference for Flying Vs is, by now, well-known, Schenker admits that what makes any guitar special is the player's skill and attitude.

“You put a Flying V next to a Les Paul, next to a Strat, on the floor, it won’t do anything. It becomes something with the person who picks up the guitar,” he imparts.

“That’s what that guitar becomes. I found the Flying V by coincidence. Like many things in my life, it happened by itself. So maybe I was meant to have that guitar. I discovered that guitar by accident.

“I liked the combination of my amplifier with that guitar. It was closer to the sound I imagined, and I found that I was able to do a really good vibrato by putting the V between my legs, so that the neck would not wobble around. I was able to lock it in and so that was one of the main reasons why I felt good about that guitar.”

As befitting a Flying V aficionado, the electric guitar virtuoso recently signed with Gibson, and revealed a new signature guitar (we can safely assume it's a Flying V) is in the works.

For more from Michael Schenker, plus new interviews with King Gizzard and Yungblud, pick up issue 389 of Total Guitar at Magazines Direct.

As an anti-hero shredder in the proto-metal age, German-born guitarist Uli Jon Roth set the world alight in the '70s with Scorpions. By combining classical elements with hard rock undertones, Roth unintentionally created a neoclassical style that would go on to be mimicked ad nauseam just a decade later.

“A ‘trendsetter’. That's what I've heard people call me, but I have no interest in these sorts of labels,” Roth balks. “The idea of people obsessing about the latest display of physical dexterity on a guitar, I find that quite boring. I'm really interested in saying something meaningful that can touch people in ways that go straight to the heart. 

“And the orchestral thing still has so much untapped potential in terms of the sheer sonic beauty of what's possible. I couldn't achieve that in the rock field alone because, to me, there's nothing more beautiful than the sound of these unamplified instruments combined with electric ones.”

Throughout four albums with the Scorpions – Fly to the Rainbow (1974), In Trance (1975), Virgin Killer (1976), and Taken by Force (1977) – Roth upended the guitar scene by injecting Mozart and Bach where others might substitute B.B. King or Muddy Waters. With each successive record, Roth pushed the boundaries of exploration to regions unknown, deconstructing all that his peers thought they once knew.

“I remember my mindset in the '70s; I did very much identify with my guitar,” admits Roth. “But now, I don't think of myself as a guitarist; I'm a musician, and I'm an artist. I'm interested in producing art. I want to make things that have meaning. Am I a guitar player? Sure, I'm a guitar player. Of course, I've always been a guitar player. I always will be.”

“But before the Scorpions, I walked away from it. I didn't actively decide to do that; I just did it,” Roth continues. “And during Covid, I didn't touch the guitar for over two years. I didn't play the guitar and did not desire to do so. But when I picked it up again, everything was fine. I didn't lose anything. And I was never worried because I knew that was gonna happen. I'm not one of these people who needs to play constantly because I think it's all pretty much all in the mind.”

In the late '70s, when Roth made the bold decision to walk away from the Scorpions as they were on the precipice of success, many around the guitarist felt him absurd, but not Roth. No, the off-the-beaten-path six-stringer had a road to follow, driven by artistic desire and a visceral need to follow his ambition of chasing the sounds swirling in his head.

Some felt he was crazy, and in some ways, perhaps Roth was. But the truth is that wild decisions, blind ambition, and a touch of magic drive music's greatest success stories. 

Whether through his iconic early work with the Scorpions – which would eventually shape the band's continued direction – or his creation of the hyper-innovative Sky Guitar, Roth's creative approach has been intrinsically guided by his heart's desire as opposed to potential commercial gains.

“My favorite thing to do is to work on orchestral projects,” Roth says. “I still desire to somehow find a new way to move forward and explore what can be done with orchestras in combination with elements of rock. I think there's still a lot of mileage there and a lot of new ground that can be covered.”

“I can hear that in my mind's eye, and that's what I want to do,” continues Roth. “I will never stop chasing these sounds that I hear in my head. I will never relinquish my need to create. It's not easy to make what I want to do a reality; it takes a lot of work and a trained ear. But I feel it's there, and a lot of ground is left to cover. And I plan to cover that ground and more.”

With big dreams, a clear vision, and electricity flowing through his fingertips, Uli Jon Roth clocks in with Guitar World to dial back to his earliest origins with the guitar, his time with Scorpions, his love for classical music, and the creation and intention behind the infamous Sky Guitar.

Your love for classical music is well-known, but the blues influenced you most early on, right?

“Yes, I was very much into the blues at the beginning when I first started learning the guitar. I aspired to make music like Eric Clapton while he was with John Mayall before Cream. Those were the songs that I learned and where I started to find my way as a lead guitar player. And then maybe later, Jimi Hendrix and Johnny Winter came into my life, and they had a huge influence on me, too.

“But most of that started to fade away when I was around 15 when I began to get more into classical guitar, fingerstyle, Bach, and various composers. Once that happened, I veered away from the electric guitar and put more emphasis on classical piano. 

“The blues thing was just an initial way of getting to know the guitar, and then I started moving beyond the pentatonic scales and became fascinated by classical music.”

How did you first meet Rudolf Schenker before joining the Scorpions?

“I think I met him around 1970, maybe two or three years before we joined forces. We were both a part of the scene in Hanover, Germany, and we'd run into each other and talk music and guitar. I remember that I had spoken to Rudolf maybe a couple of times in those days, but it never got to a point where we were talking about putting together a band or anything like that. 

“But then there came a point in 1973 when the early version of the Scorpions broke up because Michael Schenker had decided to leave, go to England, and join UFO. 

“So, that really blew the Scorpions apart, and that's when Rudolf and I started to join forces. I remember he asked me to play a show he still had on the books as the Scorpions, which I did.

“And we both enjoyed the collaboration so much that he started to sit in with my band Dawn Road, which was a four-piece. And soon after that, Klaus Meine decided to come on board, and before we knew it, we changed the name to the Scorpions, and there was a new beginning.”

The Scorpions' first record, Lonesome Crow, is more in line with prog-rock. What was your vision for Fly to the Rainbow?

“I honestly tried not to think about what Michael Schenker did before me. I didn't think about any of that. At that time, my plan was to play what I felt was right for the music on the table. Our version of the Scorpions felt like a new beginning, so I threw out what Michael did and looked forward from day one. 

“But honestly, there wasn't much of a longterm vision, it was very instinctual, and the things I played on Fly to the Rainbow came to me in the moment. An inner voice guided me through the music, and I just played what I felt.

“I suppose that I might have looked toward the future at some point, and eventually, I had certain aspirations of what I wanted to do on the guitar, but not at that point. You have to remember, those were very early days, and I had only just picked up the guitar again after not seriously playing it for a long time. So, for me, it was a new beginning in several ways. 

“Looking back on it, that album did send me down an exploratory road, but maybe that is not very evident on Fly to the Rainbow. But I will say that once I got my feet wet, I was consciously pushing the envelope of the electric guitar in various directions.”

In Trance feels a bit less instinctual and more planned out. Was that the case?

“People often call it a decision, but it wasn't a decision. These things just emerged naturally. We wrote a bunch of songs, and this is what emerged. A lot of people theorize that we hated the prog sound or that I was dead set on deviating from what Michael did, but it's not the case. 

“There was no big strategy that was being planned; we did what we were inspired to do at that time. I would say that on the In Trance album, that is when we began to plan what we were doing, but this was after we naturally found the direction that we wanted to go in.

“But before that, what we did was spur of the moment, with the only intention being to deliver the finest quality possible. The studio we were in for Fly to the Rainbow, Musicland Studios, wasn't so great, but we gave it our best shot, and I think we delivered.

“But the biggest thing with In Trance was that it was the Scorpions' first record with Dieter Dierks, and we recorded it at Dierks Studios. Dirk was huge, and being in the studio was amazing and a huge step up. So, with In Trance, you can begin to hear his influence over the band.”

How would you measure the progression from In Trance to Virgin Killer?

“It was quite a big step. By that point, we had come together as a band and were in quite a good flow. Our songwriting started to get stronger and stronger, and with that, we began to sound better and better. If you listen to Virgin Killer, you can hear progress on all fronts, especially with the guitars. 

“If you look at the guitar playing on In Trance and Virgin Killer, I will say what I was doing on Virgin Killer was a hyper-jump. Thinking about it, there were quite a few things on that album that had not been done on electric guitar before. 

“I was consciously pushing the envelope with that one, and I think that one was highly influential on a lot of music going forward. I guess, in some ways, that record was a coming-out part of what I wanted to do with the guitar.”

What were the things that had not been done before?

“Well, for instance, look at a song like Catch Your Train; that was something new. That kind of guitar playing was an entirely new style, not one that had been done before. And if you look at my guitar leads on Yellow Raven, that's some seriously inventive stuff there, and it was way ahead of the typical style of rock guitar you would have seen in the '70s. 

“If you turned on your radio back in 1975, '76, or whenever, you would not have heard guitars like that from other rock bands back then. It was all new. And then you pair that with the phenomenal vocals from Klaus, who was incredible throughout the whole album. 

“Honestly, he was in top form, and it showed to the point that I thought it was pretty inspiring. That inspiration inspired my guitar playing; it was extremely intense and over the top in quite a few ways.”

As I understand it, In Trance and Virgin Killer are your two favorite Scorpions records. Why do you prefer them over Fly to the Rainbow or Taken by Force?

“That is true, but it's hard for me to pin it down. I guess I like the songs on those albums. I feel that the performances are strong, but there are some good songs on Taken by Force, like We'll Burn the Sky, for instance. 

“I think Fly to the Rainbow was an example of us searching, so I don't think it was as good for that reason. But with Taken by Force, it was a good record, so maybe it's more of a personal thing. Because by that time, I had all but disconnected from the Scorpions in my mind. And that happened because I had made up my mind that I was going to leave before we started recording the album in the studio.

“So, I'd already decided to leave the Scorpions, which affected my outlook on Taken by Force. I don't want to make it seem that I was half-assed about it, but I was more into the previous recordings. I really did pour my heart and soul into In Trance and Virgin Killer, which is why I have such a fondness for those records. 

“Whereas, with Taken by Force, mentally, I was gone. I felt a genuine sense of disconnection, you know? And that's why I only contributed three songs, whereas, on the previous ones, I had written, like, half the material.”

What led to your decision to leave the Scorpions?

“My mind was full of music that was very unsuitable for the Scorpions. I wanted to do new things, and I didn't believe the other band members would be into it, so I didn't even bring it to the table. We had established a direction that was very early hard rock and heavy metal, and even though I had helped create that, I no longer felt close to it. 

“I was in a musical no man's land, where I was helping the Scorpions make this heavy rock music, but in my mind, I heard new sounds that I wanted and needed to explore. So, I decided to leave the Scorpions to pursue what I heard in my head. And when I did that, I left the construct of music as I knew it behind forever, and I never looked back.”

Given the success the Scorpions found in the late '70s and the '80s, do you ever regret your decision?

“You know, maybe I should have stayed for the first American tour; that was maybe a strategic mistake on my part. But other than that, I didn't have a choice because I felt pretty unhappy toward the end. I wanted to do a different kind of music, and I would have gone mad had I stayed doing something my heart wasn't in with the Scorpions. 

“So, I didn't have a choice; it was a purely artistic decision. I cannot stress enough that my artistic integrity drove that decision. Because we were all good friends at the time, so there was never a personal issue; it was always about my need to pursue a different sort of music that I couldn't make with the Scorpions.”

What were your musings as the style you aided in creating became so prominent in the '80s?

“I've had a lot of people tell me they feel I created this style, and I guess there is probably some truth in that. But I never analyzed that to any great extent because, in the '80s, I stopped listening to what was happening. I didn't pay attention to any of it because I found all of it uninteresting. 

“For me, the heavy metal direction was boring. I wasn't keen on it. I wasn't interested in it. I wanted to go in almost the opposite direction. But that wasn't fashionable then because the spirit of the time was metal, driven by the mindset of the audience, big record companies, MTV, and the general public.

“So, the '80s was very much the mindset of American corporate stadium rock, and I found that entirely boring and unimaginative. I mean, is it great to play in the stadium? Yeah, okay, sure, I've always enjoyed that, although it is kind of bizarre because the actual sound quality is usually atrocious. 

“But it is what it is, and it's an exciting event. Things like that will always be exciting simply because there are so many people dancing to the same tune at the same time. And while I find that fascinating, at the same time, the music that's necessary to fill a stadium is not remotely the kind of music I like to listen to in my spare time.”

Is that what prompted your shift toward symphonic work?

“Yes, but that shift was gradual. Ever since I started listening to classical music and started studying it actively, in the back of my mind, I had always been inspired to one day be able to write music of that kind on that level. But since I was in the rock genre, it felt natural to try and find a way to somehow bring my love of this other world into what I was doing in the rock world, you know? 

“Now, I wasn't the first to do that because Emerson, Lake & Palmer did it, Rick Wakeman did it, and Jon Lord did it. But when it comes to guitar players, there weren't many doing that before me. Again, I don't think any were doing it before me. It was usually keyboard-related people doing it, not guitar players.”

Considering you didn't pay much attention to popular music, were you aware that Metallica borrowed some of your stylings for their track Battery?

“No, I was not. You might not believe me, but I had absolutely no idea that they used some things from The Sails of Charon. I never listened to those things and wasn't remotely tapped into the rock and metal scene by that time. I mean, people may have played me the occasional song or something like that, but I wasn't familiar.

“The way I found out was that I have a good friend in Los Angeles who used to hang out with Metallica, and he used to be friends with them. So, they told me some of those things about what Kirk Hammett had played on Battery, but it wasn't on my radar at all because I was never into heavy metal. 

“I guess it was flattering in some ways, and it proves what a lot of people say about my influence, but when it happened, I had no idea until my friend told me.”

How did your Sky Guitars play into what you were trying to do post-Scorpions?

“Those were guitars that I had a friend, Andreas Demetriou, make for me back in the '80s. Like I said before, I had this idea of merging the rock world I was in with the classical world I had wanted to travel to, so I had Andreas make a guitar that could sound like a violin. We did this by adding more frets to the guitar. So, instead of 20-something, the first Sky Guitar had 30 frets, and I used that one on Beyond the Astral Skies. 

“And then the versions after that first one were either fretless after that 30th fret or had whole step spacing above the 27th fret. These guitars were designed to combine all the elements I wanted to connect, so I had Andreas add scalloped fretboards and humbuckers to give that hot sound. 

“They've been a big part of me merging the world of rock music I was in with the classical sounds I wanted to create. I'm very proud of those guitars. I still have a few of them, and I still use them.”

How would you best describe your compositional style?

“You know, I've absolutely never thought about that. I don't know; I guess I don't think about compositional style. I mean, as you said, many guitar players began to do what I had been doing since the '70s, but as I said, I didn't follow any of that at the time. This will sound strange, but I stopped listening to new music many years ago. I think that began during my last days with the Scorpions.

“Instead, I'd play a lot of pianos and draw inspiration from that rather than what might have been happening around me. I'd study old Mozart and Bach scores to understand how they worked. 

“Even when I was playing rock music, I wasn't drawing inspiration from other rock music; it was always from classical music. I never got inspiration from rock music, and I still don't. I couldn't name you one new rock song even if I wanted to.”

Where do you draw inspiration from in the present day?

“I have found my way of expressing music in my own way, which brings me a great deal of happiness. To this day, I don't need to check out the latest music; things like hip-hop and pop music don't do anything for me. When it comes to new music, honestly, I rarely hear something that touches me. 

“I still get bored very quickly with music, and I have to say, I'm very finicky. So, I would say I'm really not a music consumer. I'm not the guy who has music constantly playing in the background or feels like he can't live without it.

“I have to say that as much as I love music – and I do love music with all my heart – I don't need to physically listen to it to be inspired to create it. I see music everywhere. I see it in a tree. I see it in plants. I see it in people, dogs, cats, or even – and this will sound ridiculous – I see it in a fence or whatever. 

“I see the world with my musical eyes in terms of harmony, rhythm, and musical energy. And that is the same energy we use to live; it's the life force. So, I love music, but I also love silence. I love to sit and think. I've been in this headspace since I left the Scorpions, and it's never changed. I don't think it ever will.”

German rock guitarist Michael Schenker has had a career that has so far lasted for more than 50 years, and he has been an integral member of UFO, The Scorpions alongside brother Rudolph, and MSG. 

He has also been linked with many bands that he didn’t join, including Deep Purple and Ozzy Osbourne. Schenker has also been the recipient of many awards over the years, and his contribution to the rock scene cannot be overstated. 

Michael Schenker began playing guitar at a young age when brother Rudy was given a Flying V. He was influenced early in his playing career by the likes of Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck. This is where he learnt to play many of his easily recognisable pentatonic and blues scale phrases. 

He actually left The Scorpions to join UFO while UFO were supporting the band on tour, although this was done with the rest of the band’s blessing.

Schenker’s style is about as ‘classic’ as it is possible to get, and he was one of the pioneers of this style of early heavy metal era playing, going on to influence well-known players like Paul Gilbert, Slash, Kirk Hammett and Randy Rhoads. Schenker has joined and left bands like UFO a number of times, and also had stints as the lynchpin of the Michael Schenker Group and McAuley Schenker Group, with singer Robin McAuley, and he continues to record and tour to this day.

The track below is in the key of A Minor A-B-C-D-E-F-G and doesn’t include any notes outside of that key. The time signature is 4/4 but the track has a shuffle feel, which means that the rhythm is played more as ‘1 & a, 2 & a, 3 & a, 4 & a’ part. The reason that the chart isn’t written in 12/8 is that the actual played rhythm of this track is ‘1 a, 2 a, 3 a, 4 a’. Basically the front of each beat is heavily accented.

With all powerchords and no 3rd to make them Major or Minor, the implied harmony is still from that key, so the corresponding chords are A Minor, C Major, F Major, G Major and E Minor.

The solo uses A Minor Pentatonic (A-C-D-E-G) and A Natural Minor scale (A-B-C-D-E-F-G) throughout. But it’s Schenker’s personal inflections that make it so much more interesting to play. 

Get the tone

Amp settings: Gain 7, Bass 5, Middle 6, Treble 6, Reverb 2

Michael Schenker is best known for playing his Gibson Flying V, but he also had a V-style signature guitar from Dean. Guitar amps are Marshall Plexi-style, so it’s a classic Brit-type rock tone with plenty of power amp gain to aim for. Effects are minimal, but Schenker often uses a wah pedal set ‘half cocked’ as an EQ, rather than for a traditional wah-wah effect.

Rhythm example

Make sure the triplet-style shuffle rhythm is played accurately throughout and don’t rush ahead of the beat. There is more of a classic rock feel to the parts than traditional heavy metal feel, so don’t allow the rhythm to become too ‘metal’.

Solo example

Near the beginning of the solo there are a number of typical Schenker-style bends around the 8th fret. It’s most important that these are bent as accurately as possible (Schenker is a stickler for this), and then don’t overbend when playing the higher frets later on in the solo. Make sure you follow the other inflections, too.

Had Scorpions not become one of hard rock’s most enduring global forces, guitarist Rudolf Schenker would have taken himself down a much different, yet nevertheless high-voltage career path. 

“My mother wanted me to have a real job, as a power electrician,” the Hanover, Germany-born rhythm guitarist recalls with a laugh. Schenker adds that his mom just wanted him to have a more grounded backup plan in case Scorpions, the group he began in 1965 when he was still a teenager, didn’t pan out. 

Though Schenker did manage to find work as a tradesman for a few years, a heart-to-heart with his dad ultimately convinced the guitarist to follow his dreams and focus on music full time. 

 Nearly 60 years later – racking up countless world tours and millions of album sales along the way – there’s no question Schenker made the right choice. In an abstract sense, though, you could argue the famously Flying V-toting guitarist has been working as an electrician all this time.

Fittingly enough, Schenker’s affably getting into all things Scorpions over Zoom while sitting beneath a coterie of V’s hanging in his living room – from see-through, cherry red acrylic beauties, to his iconic, black-and-white signature Gibson. 

He reveals that he spent the early months of the pandemic at home adding anecdotes to the recent, German-language reprint of his 2009 autobiography, Rock Your Life. 

The past couple of years also found him and the rest of Scorpions – longtime lead guitarist Matthias Jabs, vocalist Klaus Meine, bassist Pawel Mąciwoda and drummer Mikkey Dee – hunkering down in Hannover’s Peppermint Park studio to record their 19th full-length, Rock Believer, adding 11 Marshall-cranking anthems to the group’s crunchy canon. 

Both projects act as testaments to Scorpions’ impressive multi-decade run. While the book finds Schenker waxing nostalgic on band history and mega-hits like Rock You Like a Hurricane and Winds of Change, Meine’s lyrics throughout Rock Believer coyly hint at the massive, stinger-sized imprint they’ve all left on each other. 

It’s been seven years since the act delivered their Return to Forever, making this the longest wait between Scorpions albums yet. More often than not, it’s been rhythm riffer Schenker that got the ball rolling on new material, but this time around Meine kick-started the creative process after sending Schenker the lyrics to Rock Believer’s celebratory opening track, Gas in the Tank. 

A palpable charge of excitement took hold of Schenker as he read over the lyrics, which have Meine gassing up his friend in the first verse by dubbing him a “king of riffs” with a particularly rowdy flair (“Move your fingers up and down the fret / The V is flyin’ without a net”). 

The vocalist then playfully challenges his bandmate to give him “a dirty riff” that proves they’re still in it for the long haul (“There’s gotta be more gas in the tank”). 

Meine’s gambit worked – contrary to the old saying, flattery will get you somewhere. Schenker confirms that Meine’s words jolted him toward laying down the tune’s core melody of power chords and a certifiably fist-pumping chorus hook. 

“This time around it was fantastic for me – I could give the words a lift,” Schenker says. “especially when you have lyrics where you’re remembering [good] times – festivals in America, and knockin’ them dead. We’re saying ‘This is our history; that was our way of living [and it was] unbelievable!’ I put that energy into the music.”

While it’s notable that Rock Believer arrives 50 years to the month of the band’s hard-boogied 1972 debut, Lonesome Crow, stylistically Scorpions’ latest appropriately hews closer to the chunkier, if hook-laden metal they’ve honed since Jabs joined up for 1979’s Lovedrive. 

Even beyond Meine giving his bandmates a knowing wink through his lyrics, Rock Believer is a determinedly self-referential album for the quintet. There are implicit shades of China White to the grimy and gain-singed, slow-stomp approach of Rock Believer’s “Seventh Sun.” 

The up-stroke plinking of Shining of Your Soul flirts with the reggae/rock hybridization Scorpions had delivered on Lovedrive’s Is There Anybody There, though this latest rocksteady groove takes on an eerie flavor due to Jabs’ minor key waggling. 

Even Rock Believer’s Klaus Voormann-designed album cover, a close-up shot of someone screaming through a crimson veil, references the same kind of visceral, fever-pitch yell a figure gives on the cover to 1982’s landmark Blackout. As they enter their seventh decade of activity, Scorpions fully embrace their hard rock heritage.

Schenker admits, however, that there was a period in the mid Nineties where Scorpions had contemplated their direction as they were playing Eighties-styled metal in the post-grunge era. 

A turning point came at the dawn of the 21st century as they worked on their Moment of Glory album with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Revamping old pieces with seasoned classical musicians revealed that Scorpions’ bedrock was likewise “timeless.” 

Since then, they’ve gracefully leaned into their legacy status, with Rock Believer continuing to both honor and tweak the band’s DNA. “After a while, everything comes back with a twist,” Schenker suggests of the balance.

Naturally, one of the bigger plot twists to the making of Rock Believer was the Covid pandemic. Initially, Scorpions had planned to record in Los Angeles with producer Greg Fidelman (Slipknot, Metallica), but cross-continental travel plans were canceled as the pandemic worsened. 

Though the band and Fidelman had attempted to work remotely via Zoom, Scorpions quickly realized that having Fidelman on the other side of an iPad screen rather than the control room was less than ideal.  

Ultimately, they opted to track at Hanover’s Peppermint Park to co-produce the collection with engineer Hans-Martin Buff. Scorpions had previously been to the studio for 2004’s Unbreakable, which happened to be bassist Mąciwoda’s first album with the group. 

Understandably, Schenker explains that the sessions provided some relief for the group as they contended with the pandemic (“Outside was craziness; inside it was ‘music, music, music.’”). 

Jabs added in a press release that being in a close-knit studio bubble juiced the energy of the sessions, and strengthened the brotherhood of Scorpions. “Everything felt like it had in the 1980s, when the five of us rocked together, [hung] out at the corner pub in the evenings and [talked] about our music.” 

It all made for a prolific stretch of music-making, with the band tracking upwards of 20 new songs. Though they’d considered releasing a double album, Rock Believer was trimmed to 11 songs – five bonus cuts were added to the deluxe edition.

Despite Schenker’s hefty arsenal of Flying V’s, he notes that he’d cut most of Rock Believer with an old ’58 V he’d got off German guitarist Alex Conti – Eric Clapton had apparently also been interested in buying the electric guitar before Schenker secured it for his collection years ago. 

Jabs, for his part, played it looser, bouncing between a Bigsby-mounted ’59 Les Paul, a ’58 Les Paul, a ’55 Les Paul Junior, an old Strat, a few Explorers and the Telecaster he’d played on Winds of Change. 

For guitar amps, Scorpions laid down a good chunk of work using a collection of vintage Marshall heads maintained by Jabs’ guitar tech, Ingo Powitzer. “We tried all our equipment from the Eighties – the Marshall stacks, all this equipment – to find that original, old Eighties sound,” Schenker confirms.

Though he was dialing into old-school tones, Schenker was locking into a newfound groove alongside Mąciwoda and Dee. While Dee has been hitting the skins for Scorpions since 2016, Rock Believer marks the first time the band have put the former Motörhead drummer’s determined thud to use in the studio. 

This inspired Schenker to really dig into his rhythm playing, delivering dirt nasty downstrokes and palm-muted chugs at a furious clip on tempo-pushers like Roots in My Boots.

“We were working close together, pushing the beat further rather than playing laid back. That gave the songs another kind of spirit,” Schenker explains, adding of the organic drive of Scorpions’ current rhythm section, “The latest albums in the world, they’re mostly based on sound design. Because of Pro Tools, you bring in a riff, you [play to] a drum machine, and later on you put [real] drums on it. That’s not the way you create great songs – you have to feel it! It’s like a body. You have to get the body in the right position, so that’s what we did when we were playing [at Peppermint Park].”

Since Schenker was tightening up his muscular rhythms, Jabs lets loose with a series of brawny leads. The two guitarists go for a tandem approach on bonus cut When You Know, but it’s Jabs alone that delivers the roadhouse slash-and-burn on Knock ’em Dead, or the furiously ripping scale-climb on Roots in My Boots. 

While Schenker has dropped some important solos throughout Scorpions’ career – that’s him wailing on iconic power ballad Winds of Change – the band’s principal songwriter lovingly ceded the bulk of Rock Believer’s lead duties to his bandmate. 

“It’s important for me that everybody’s happy,” Schenker says, adding of his trust in longtime riff partner Jabs’ personal touch, “When I see that Matthias is already playing the right lines, I don’t want to interfere.”

Fifty years have passed since the release of Lonesome Crow, more than 40 since Scorpions locked into their signature sting. It’s clear at this point that the group are metal lifers – rock believers, if you will. 

It’s been a minute since Schenker was a Hanover electrician dreaming of blasting the masses with a high-voltage dose of heavy metal, but some things never change.

“I see myself in the way that I [was playing] the Flying V already, and I see myself in the way that I had a goal and went for it. The result is what we have now.” 

• Rock Believer is out now via Spinefarm.

Earlier this month, German rock giants Scorpions announced they'd be postponing three European shows due to an unspecified injury suffered by guitarist Matthias Jabs.

And thanks to new photos and footage from the band's set at the Golden Jubilee Bangladesh Concert at Madison Square Garden on May 6, the extent and nature of Jabs' injury have been made clearer.

During the set, the guitarist is seen sporting multi-colored Band-Aids on the index, middle and ring fingers of his fretting hand, while blood is visible on the fretboard of his Boris Dommenget Explorer-style signature guitar.

As a result, it's pretty safe to say his finger injuries are to blame for the postponement of the band's shows in Lisbon, Toulouse and Lille. The dates – originally scheduled for May 10, 13 and 15, respectively – will now take place later this year.

It's unclear whether Jabs' finger wounds were sustained at Madison Square Garden, or prior and were subsequently exacerbated by playing the show. 

Either way, it's pure dedication to rock 'n' roll that the guitarist stuck the show out to the end, tackling classics like Winds of Change, Send Me An Angel and Rock You Like a Hurricane in the face of such adversity.

Fortunately, Jabs' injury appears to be relatively minor, as Scorpions are set to resume their European tour in support of their latest record, Rock Believer, at the Accor Arena in Paris tomorrow (May 17).

The band will make stops in Italy, Poland, Finland, Cyprus and more until July 18, before heading to North America for a string of Canada and US shows from August 21. Whitesnake join the group for the North America leg, marking the David Coverdale-fronted outfit's last-ever shows.

Earlier this year, Scorpions rhythm guitarist Rudolf Schenker offered an update on the status of his relationship with his brother and the band's former lead guitarist, Michael Schenker.

In recent years, Michael has taken various potshots at his older brother, including in 2020 when he said Rudolf “doesn't have much talent as a guitarist”, adding that he needed to “pave the path for him”.

In an interview with Guitar Player in April, Rudolf disregarded his younger brother's jabs, saying that he hopes the pair could one day perform together again.

“I tell you one thing: I love my brother,” he said. “He can say whatever he wants to say. He's an amazing guitar player, an amazing person – whatever he wants to say, why not say it? [laughs] If that is what makes him happy, then okay. I wish him all the best.

“I think, sooner or later, we will all be friends again and we will play together again. My life is too happy to put myself into a dustbin over it. I want to live in the sky. I am so happy for my life.”

For the entirety of their near six-decade existence, German hard rock legends Scorpions have been anchored by electric guitar player Rudolf Schenker.

Before he embarked on a stellar career of his own – first with UFO and later with a number of his own groups – Rudolf's younger brother, Michael, was also a Scorpion. Michael played on the band's very first album, 1972's Lonesome Crow, and made significant contributions to the band's influential 1979 effort, Lovedrive. 

Relations between the brothers in recent years, though, have been... less than stellar, with Michael frequently taking rather public potshots at his older brother for any number of reasons. 

In a new interview with Guitar Player though, Rudolf shrugged off his younger brother's volleys, maintaining his hope that the two could perform together again one day.

"I tell you one thing: I love my brother," Rudolf said. "He can say whatever he wants to say. He’s an amazing guitar player, an amazing person – whatever he wants to say, why not say it? [laughs] If that is what makes him happy, then okay. I wish him all the best. 

"I think, sooner or later, we will all be friends again and we will play together again. My life is too happy to put myself into a dustbin over it. I want to live in the sky. I am so happy for my life."

Though last an official member of the group during the Lovedrive sessions, Michael Schenker has performed with Scorpions a handful of times in recent years. Along with fellow former Scorpion Uli Jon Roth, Michael played with the band during their headlining performance at the 2006 Wacken Open Air festival. 

He also joined the group onstage for a handful of songs at the Hammersmith Apollo in London in October 2008.

For now though, both Schenker brothers have new albums to focus on.

Scorpions recently released their first studio album in seven years and 19th overall, Rock Believer. Michael Schenker, meanwhile, is prepping for the release of Universal, his second album in as many years. 

To read the full interview with Rudolf Schenker and current Scorpions lead guitarist Matthias Jabs – in which the two guitar greats also discuss the making of Rock Believer and the band's remarkable longevity – pick up a copy of the latest issue of Guitar Player at Magazines Direct.

With the release of their upcoming album Rock Believer only four days away, iconic German rock band Scorpions have shared their final pre-release single, Shining Of Your Soul.

Following the release of singles Peacemaker, Seventh Sun and the album’s epic title track, Shining Of Your Soul continues the quartet’s red hot form, pairing swampy electric guitar riffs and rhythmic off-beat six-string snaps with infectious lead melodies and a neat solo.

In terms of its lyrical content, Shining Of Your Soul is said to be about “amour fou” – which is, according to the group, “the significance of this sudden emotion and its intensity being considered to be almost obsessive”. 

It’s also described as “one of the very few love songs on Rock Believer”, and boasts an almost-anthemic feel similar to that of the title track, successfully raising goosebumps through knockout high-gain guitar work and infectious lyrics.

You can check out Shining Of Your Soul in the video below.

When it arrives on February 25, Rock Believer will be the band’s 19th studio album, and their first since 2015’s Return To Forever. It will also be Scorpions’ first studio LP with ex-Motorhead drummer Mikkey Dee, who joined the fray in 2016.

Of the upcoming album, Scorpions vocalist Klaus Meine observed, “The new material sees us return to our roots. We simply wanted to reactivate the original Scorpions DNA – great riffs, strong melodies. 

“We tried to transport that live feel to the studio with all five of us playing in one room again at last,” he continued. “Having Mikkey Dee in the band is like a shot of fresh energy and real fun.”

Not only will 2022 be an album release year for Scorpions, it also marks the 50th anniversary of their debut record Lonesome Crow – a feat that will be commemorated with a nine-date residency at Las Vegas's Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino.

The residency will kick off on March 26 and conclude on April 16, and will precede a 21-date European tour.

For a full list of dates, and to preorder Rock Believer, head over to Scorpions' website.

Welcome to Guitar World’s weekly roundup of the musical highlights from the, erm, world of guitar. Every seven days (or thereabouts), we endeavor to bring you a selection of songs from across the guitar universe, all with one thing in common: our favorite instrument plays a starring role.

Joe Satriani – Sahara

What is it? Why, it’s only a new song from Joe ‘godfather of shred’ Satriani, and the first to be taken from pandemic-tracked – and superbly titled – full-length, The Elephants of Mars. Satch has always embraced exotic-scaled compositions, going right back to Hordes of Locusts on 1986’s Not of This Earth, and this brooding rocker continues that tradition, drawing on the dust and drive of desert blues as much as it does the emotive leads of David Gilmour.

Standout guitar moment: That laid-back, crystalline clean lead at 1:25 feels like a dynamic departure for Satch, who even at the age of 65, still has the capacity to surprise.

For fans of: Steve Vai, Nick Johnston, Mdou Moctar

– Michael Astley-Brown

Ghost – Call Me Little Sunshine

What is it? The new single from Ghost’s just-announced fifth studio album, Impera, which arrives March 11. It’s a typically propulsive cut from the Swedish metal outfit, with a downtempo groove and plenty of six-string work to digest from Tobias Forge’s band of Nameless Ghouls.

Standout guitar moment: Aside from the beautifully haunting cleans that occur throughout, the solo at the 2:45 mark typifies the melodic nature of much of Ghost’s work, incorporating enveloping harmonies and the odd alternate-picking ascent.

For fans of: Metallica, Avenged Sevenfold, Kvelertak 

– Sam Roche 

Emily Wolfe – The Slider 

What is it? Wolfe’s first single of 2022, and her first new material since the release of her 2021 album Outlier. In what will inevitably turn out to be a precursor to a future album, The Slider sees the blues-rock ace do what she does best, dialing up the fuzz for some truly grizzly guitar tones.

Standout guitar moment: You’ll find it at around the two-minute mark. You’ll know it when you hear it: it’s the bit where Wolfe layers a simple-yet-effective solo atop the gnarly fuzzes of her rhythm guitars. Delicious.

For fans of: Joe Bonamassa, Samantha Fish, Jared James Nichols

– Matt Owen 

Khruangbin & Leon Bridges – Chocolate Hills

What is it? The latest single from Texas Moon, the second collaborative EP from the ever-eclectic Texas trio Khruangbin and Atlanta soul singer Leon Bridges. Anyone who balks at the pairing on paper would do well to listen to this eerie but funky moon-lit waltz. 

Standout guitar moment: Chocolate Hills’ video paints the picture of a nighttime drive down a desolate desert highway, a scene Khruangbin guitarist Mark Speer evokes perfectly with spare, single-note leads that dance dreamily in arcs around Bridges’ passionate vocals. 

For fans of: Woody Jackson’s Red Dead Redemption scores, Whitney, Frank Ocean

– Jackson Maxwell

Scorpions – Rock Believer

What is it? The anthemic title track from the German rock legends’ upcoming 19th studio album. With instantly infectious vocal hooks, delicate acoustic guitars and an overall feel-good vibe, the track shows both the band’s experience in songwriting and instrumentation, and desire to keep rock alive and thriving.

Standout guitar moment: It’d be too obvious for us to say Matthias Jabs’ face-melting classic-rock inspired solo, so we’ll say we love the simplicity of that opening dual guitar hook.

For fans of: Whitesnake, Judas Priest, Accept

– Sam Roche 

PLOSIVS – Broken Eyes

What is it? The melding of two of alternative guitar’s most influential voices in Pinback’s Rob Crow and Hot Snakes/Drive Like Jehu/Rocket From the Crypt’s John Reis, who spearhead this new melodic punk supergroup, which also features drummer Atom Willard and bassist Jordan Clark. The result is a blend of acerbic and angular hardcore that feels familiar and fresh in exactly the right measure.

Standout guitar moment: The entirety of Broken Eyes is a breathless display of cutting clean tones and claustrophobic riffs, but it’s the sweet and sour of the jagged verse and jangly chorus that make it such a compelling listen.

For fans of: Pinback, Hot Snakes, Drive Like Jehu

– Michael Astley-Brown

Band of Horses – Lights 

What is it? The third single to be lifted from the indie-rock outfit’s upcoming studio LP, Things Are Great, due March 4. Continuing the band’s consistent track record, Lights leans on a clutch of subtly gain-y electric guitars to conjure up a melting pot of hair-raising moments.

Standout guitar moment: It’s not so much a solo but a repeated lower-string motif, but when it crops up at 2:30 after the heart-swelling chorus atop the feel-good progression, the guitar-only reprieve is one you’ll want to hear back straight away after the first listen.

For fans of: Kings of Leon, My Morning Jacket

– Matt Owen

Jack White – Love Is Selfish

What is it? The aching new single from Entering Heaven Alive, the second of White’s forthcoming 2022 albums. While White’s last single, Taking Me Back, was a cranked-up, fuzzed-out rocker, Love Is Selfish is a lovely display of his tender side.

Standout guitar moment: White's detractors often say he’s a one-trick pony when it comes to his playing, but his fingerpicking here is magnificent – clean, driving and modern, while still deeply rooted in the country, folk and blues traditions that so influenced him. 

For fans of: Loretta Lynn, Bob Dylan, Iron & Wine

– Jackson Maxwell

Saint Raymond – Talk (Alternate Version) 

What is it? A reinvented version of Saint Raymond’s 2020 single Talk, which strips away the flashy production and electronic instrumentation in favor of a heavily layered, guitar-dominant arrangement. There’s enough harmonic and six-string action to warrant multiple listens, with Saint Raymond – aka Callum Burrows – demonstrating he is as adept behind the fretboard of his Fender Jazzmaster as he is behind the microphone. 

Standout guitar moment: The layers build and swell throughout the track, and come to a head in the track’s closing exchange, which is littered with dynamic chords, four-note upper-fret runs, close-to-silent chime-y strums and punctuative double-note rhythmic stabs.

For fans of: Fickle Friends, Sundara Karma, Amber Run

– Matt Owen

Daniel Rossen – Shadow in the Frame

What is it?: The stunning lead single from the Grizzly Bear singer/guitarist’s long-overdue solo debut album. With layer upon layer of strings, woodwinds and guitars, you’ll still be finding new things to love about this immaculately arranged beauty after a dozen listens. 

Standout guitar moment: There’s a lot going on on this tune, but the playful, uptempo fingerpicked progression that leads it off serves as its melodic centerpiece, and the anchor point from which the rest of its many elements branch off. 

For fans of: Department of Eagles, Sufjan Stevens, Dirty Projectors

– Jackson Maxwell

Iconic German rock band Scorpions have returned with the second single and title track of their forthcoming album, Rock Believer (due February 25).

These days, the band have one of those lineup lists that reads like a football team sheet, but the core songwriting team of rhythm guitarist Rudolf Schenker and vocalist Klaus Meine remains in place. 

Indeed, Rock Believer treads that same line between tremulous vulnerability, commercial savvy and gut-punching conviction that so distinguished the group on the likes of Winds Of Change and Rock You Like A Hurricane.

Lyrically, it’s a paean to rock‘s ability to unite fans worldwide and a pledge of faith: “Scream for me, screamer / I’m a rock believer like you. Just like you.” It’s a hook that sticks in your head, but also one that feels particularly poignant, coming as it does from a band of veteran hard-rockers.

“The new material sees us return to our roots,” says Meine. “We simply wanted to reactivate the original Scorpions DNA – great riffs, strong melodies. We tried to transport that live feel to the studio with all five of us playing in one room again at last. Having Mikkey Dee in the band is like a shot of fresh energy and real fun.”

Rock Believer follows the album’s debut single, Peacemaker, which was released back in November and was a self-described “hard and heavy” slab of melodic glam metal, making the most of ex-Motörhead drummer Dee’s talents. 

The band will also celebrate a landmark 50th anniversary of their debut record, Lonesome Crow this year. As part of that they will take up a short nine-date residency at Las Vegas’ Planet Hollywood Hotel & Casino from March 26, before returning to Europe to tour the continent from May. 

Scorpions Rock Believer 2022 tour dates

• Mar 26: Las Vegas Zappos Theater, NV
• Mar 30: Las Vegas Zappos Theater, NV
• Apr 01: Las Vegas Zappos Theater, NV
• Apr 03: Las Vegas Zappos Theater, NV
• Apr 07: Las Vegas Zappos Theater, NV
• Apr 09: Las Vegas Zappos Theater, NV
• Apr 12: Las Vegas Zappos Theater, NV
• Apr 14: Las Vegas Zappos Theater, NV
• Apr 16: Las Vegas Zappos Theater, NV
• May 10: Lisbon Altice Arena, POR
• May 13: Toulouse Zenith Toulouse Metropole, FRA
• May 15: Lille Zenith De Lille, FRA
• May 17: Paris Accorhotels Arena, FRA
• May 21: Zurich Hallenstadion, SWI
• May 23: Verona Arena Di Verona, ITA
• May 26: Prague O2 Arena, CZE
• May 28: Kraków Tauron Arena, POL
• May 30: Budpest Laszlo Papp Sports Arena, HUN
• Jun 03: Helsinki Rockfest, FIN
• Jun 08: Stuttgart Schleyerhalle, GER
• Jun 10: Munich Olympiahalle, GER
• Jun 12: Frankfurt Festhalle, GER
• Jun 16: Berlin Mercedes-Benz Arena, GER
• Jun 17: Hannover Zag Arena, GER
• Jun 19: Dortmund Westfalenhalle, GER
• Jun 23: Clisson Hellfest, FRA
• Jun 25: Cartagena Rock Imperium Festival, SPA
• Jun 28: Nice Palais Nikaia, FRA
• Jun 30: Amneville Le Galaxie, FRA
• Jul 02 Clermont-Ferrand Zenith D'Auvergne, FRA

Just as Eddie Van Halen was the American pioneer of shred guitar in the late 70s, so Michael Schenker was his counterpart in Europe. The German guitarist started out early – he was just 16 when he played alongside his elder brother Rudolf on the Scorpions’ debut album Lonesome Crow, released in 1972, six years before the first Van Halen album. 

It was with British band UFO that Michael made his reputation as a guitar hero. But in his quest for what he calls “pure artistic expression”, he formed The Michael Schenker Group in the 80s, and has remained his own master ever since.

It was Schenker’s sense of timing, vibrato and feel that set him apart early on, and made him an inspiration for metal players such as Metallica’s Kirk Hammett, Judas Priest’s Richie Faulkner and Opeth’s Fredrik Åkesson. And now, at the age 66, Schenker’s chops are as finely tuned as ever, his new album, Immortal, full of hair-raising fretboard pyrotechnics. 

“I’m an inventive person,” he tells TG as he explains how he found the right vocabulary for many a classic recording… 

Develop all aspects of your technique, especially vibrato…

“On the album version of [UFO classic] Doctor Doctor, that was the sound of me developing. You can hear it in the vibrato, particularly. Back then, every day of my life felt like a tone quest!

“I started sounding more and more the way I wanted to in my head. The main thing about Doctor Doctor is that it started off as an instrumental. [UFO singer] Phil Mogg heard it and said, ‘Michael, this is great... Can you get rid of the instrumental part, leave me the rhythm chords and I can do something to it?’ So my instrumental would turn into a lead break or refreshment after each verse of chorus. 

“I was always very fascinated by vibrato, so it’s something I naturally wanted to work on and improve. When we got to [1979 live album] Strangers In The Night and started touring, I was the only guitarist in the band so had to figure out how to play the harmony guitar part at the same time. I made it my mission to play both parts in one go... and I managed! Up to this day, that’s exactly how I play it.”

Remember to play and discover…

“On songs like Captain Nemo, I was using a lot of open-string pull-offs. I broke a string while I was recording it, and that made me jump! I had to discover and develop something on the spot... Maybe without that broken string the song wouldn’t have happened! I like to play around. 

“That’s when unusual things happen out of the blue – like my ‘Howler’ technique using a different kind of pick. I’m an inventive person. I always do things on the spot – that’s why I call guitar practice ‘play and discover’. The two go hand-in-hand. And quite often I’ll be left there thinking, ‘Wow, this is unique and different!’ 

Experiment with how you attack the strings...

“When I wrote Into The Arena [from The Michael Schenker Group’s first album] I was plugged into my Marshall amp trying to find new ideas. As guitar players develop, they start automatically understanding when to mute and when to open up... Because when it sounds ugly, you have to do something! It’s all about what works best in terms of how you strike the strings. 

“I liked the attack from muting and then opening up for more of an ‘Arrrgh’ sound, which is more like a saw [laughs]. It all comes from practice, learning and developing. When you find sounds that you like, you start to use them more and more. It might be a technique or scale or sound, but it’s something that your ear gravitates towards. Eventually, you know exactly what to do and when to do it. Try playing an open string and changing how much you mute it... I find that is a great exercise in itself.” 

Don’t feel forced to accept the sounds you don’t like...

“Originally I got a wah pedal because of Mick Ronson. Listening to what he was doing, I really heard something that I liked. The first time I tried one out, I plugged it in the wrong way and it went off like a siren (laughs). Then after plugging it in the right way, I soon discovered there was a particular frequency that was speaking to me. 

“I tried to figure out a way to get that particular sound by having the wah pedal all the way down so I didn’t have to search for it in between treble and bass. I didn’t want to have to find it and then keep it in position... I’m not a technician. I knew nothing about what the wah pedal looked like inside but tried to see if there was a way of making that sound more accessible. 

“I opened it up and there was a wheel, so I unscrewed it and moved the wheel – which looks like something you’d find inside a clock – and then screwed it back together. And now I had the sound I wanted, by simply clicking the wah on and keeping it always down!” 

If one guitar makes you play better, why not stick with that?

“My favourite guitar is my very first Dean that was built for me. I even recorded my entire new album Immortal with it! Instead of bringing 15 or 20 guitars to the studio in order to choose from, that one was all I needed. I always use that guitar live for Rock Bottom. 

“It plays very well and is more suitable for having an adventure. It has a really warm sound and for some reason I’ve been using it more and more in recent years, especially for that solo. Of course, I can play that solo on any guitar, but I’ve gotten so used to that specific guitar, so why play anything else?” 

Build up legato power almost like you’re exercising at the gym...

“Quick legato is a very valuable thing to have in your arsenal, and learning how to use quick legato lines is one of the things I stumbled on early on. It doesn’t come out of nowhere perfectly, you have to keep developing it step-by-step. The more I played live, the better I got at legato. It’s a bit like exercise! 

“Any time you play the guitar ends up being like exercise, so you need to put in the time to build on fretting hand fluidity. I like to loosen up my fingers before going on stage. The tendons need to be warmed up just like any sports person. You need to get loose. 

“Of course, things like fast picking are also very important to be on peak level when you get out there. Make sure you do a bit of work on picking hand to get in shape. The right hand is as important as the left, after all. Every player is different and will know what they need to work on most.” 

Don’t let yourself get too caught up in scales...

“You have to remember that music is basically a language. Different players have different accents. For example, in a lot of Spanish music, they go from the E major chord to the F major chord. But I don’t work like that. I break out of things before they become a pattern. It’s a personal expression of how I feel and what I want to do right there and then. 

“It’s never based on any structure. Once a person repeats a scale too often, especially one that already exists going all the way back to Mozart and those guys, the more you become that scale. The longer you do it, the deeper the groove and the less chance you have of breaking out of it.” 

Ask yourself how to find the notes that please you...

“If your note choices end up pleasing anyone else, that’s the icing on the cake, but always start with you. When I taught guitar, I used to tell people to sing something from the heart and make that their scale – at least for that moment in time. Then you have a scale that nobody else has played and if you keep repeating it, people will still find it original. 

“My favourite way of creating is finding three simple notes that could create goose pimples. That’s always been my fascination. So if you feel like you have to play scales, make sure they are your own and not someone else’s. Make your own melodies from inside your head, that way it’s not something that someone else has already done a million times. Be yourself, don’t try to be anybody else.” 

You’ll know when you’ve found your signature tone...

“Here’s a weird story for you. My main amp that I used in UFO broke down in 1983 while I was in America, it came back from the repair place and I think they’d stolen everything out of it. What I got back was a completely different amplifier that was unusable. I had to start from scratch and find something. 

“I looked at 20 or 30 different types of amps and ended up with a JCM800. Some guy in New York told me that I actually designed that particular amplifier and I said, ‘You must be joking!’ But then I remembered in 1980, I was invited by Jim Marshall to go to the factory and design a Michael Schenker signature. It was never completed. 

“Those papers had been lying around, stored somewhere. At some point later, someone found it and they must have decided to make that amplifier. The strangest thing is that I chose the amplifier without knowing! It was my sound. Remember that deep down inside you must also have your own sound, too.”'

• Michael Schenker Group's new album, Immortal, is out now via Nuclear Blast.

King Crimson electric guitar icon Robert Fripp and his wife Toyah Wilcox have tackled everything from Black Sabbath’s Paranoid and Jimi Hendrix’s Purple Haze to Metallica’s Enter Sandman and Iron Maiden’s The Number of the Beast in their spectacular “Sunday Lunch” series of YouTube cover songs.

Now, the duo have done their Sunday best to the Scorpions, with a ripping rendition of the German legends’ 1984 classic, Rock You Like a Hurricane.

Similar to the fake tattoos he donned for the Paranoid video, Fripp here sports eye makeup reminiscent of the female heroine in the Scorps’ iconic Hurricane video. Wilcox, meanwhile, adds a “twist of the feline variety”.

As an added treat, the new clip also sees the return of masked co-guitarist “Sidney Jake.”

You can check out the Sunday Scorpions madness in full above.

Michael Schenker Fest have announced a new album, Resurrection.

The new album—which is set for a March 2 release via Nuclear Blast—features guest appearances from Kirk Hammett, Wayne Findlay and Michael Voss-Schoen.

Along with the announcement of Resurrection, the group also premiered the album's first single, "Warrior."

"Warrior," which you can listen to below, is unique in that it features Voss-Schoen and all three of the group's vocalists, Gary Barden, Graham Bonnet and Robin McAuley.

"When Michael Voss-Schoen showed me his lyrical and vocals ideas, it instantly came to my mind that all four singers should be involved," Schenker said in a press release. "I'm really fascinated by the result. It's really interesting how the different voices complement each other. 'Warrior' is really heavy but at the same time ear-friendly and catchy!"

For more on Schenker and the new album, stop by michaelschenkerfest.com.

German hard rock lifers Scorpions have announced Born To Touch Your Feelings—Best Of Rock Ballads, a compilation that collects 14 of the band's most well-known ballads, in addition to three brand-new tracks the band recorded this summer.

"We have put our most beautiful and legendary ballads on a brand new album and are topping it off with three brand new songs: 'Follow Your Heart', 'Always Be With You' and 'Melrose Avenue'," the band said of the compilation—which is set for a November 24 release—in a statement.

"The album also includes a new acoustic recording of 'Send Me An Angel'. Additionally, we're going back to our roots with a brilliant cover photo by the legendary photographer Ellen von Unwerth," they continued. "After the super-realistic art of Gottfried Helnwein (Blackout) or Helmut Newton's legendary photo on the cover of Love At First Sting, this outstanding photo by Ellen will be worth its weight in gold."

You can check out the full tracklisting for Born To Touch Your Feelings—Best Of Rock Balladsbelow, and preorder it here.

Born To Touch Your Feelings—Best Of Rock Balladstracklist

• 01. Born To Touch Your Feelings ("MTV Unplugged" Studio Edit)
• 02. Still Loving You ("Comeblack" Version)
• 03. Wind Of Change ("Comeblack" Version)
• 04. Always Somewhere (2015 Remaster)
• 05. Send Me An Angel (New Acoustic Version 2017)
• 06. Holiday (2015 Remaster)
• 07. Eye Of The Storm (Radio Edit)
• 08. When The Smoke Is Going Down (2015 Remaster)
• 09. Lonely Nights
• 10. Gypsy Life
• 11. House Of Cards (Single Edit)
• 12. The Best Is Yet To Come
• 13. When You Came Into My Life ("MTV Unplugged" Studio Edit)
• 14. Lady Starlight (2015 Remaster)
• 15. Follow Your Heart (New Full-Band Version 2017)
• 16. Melrose Avenue (New Song)
• 17. Always Be With You (New Song)

Thirty-five years have passed since the Michael Schenker Group released their legendary 1982 live album, One Night at Budokan.

However, last summer, Schenker—one of rock’s most respected guitarists—returned to Japan with three of the vocalists who helped him achieve worldwide success in the Eighties to record a new live disc.The show, which was shot and recorded in front of 5,000 fans at Tokyo’s International Forum, will be released March 24 as Michael Schenker Fest Tokyo on CD, DVD, Blu-ray and digitally. The album reunites Schenker with MSG vocalists Gary Barden and Graham Bonnet, plus Robin McAuley of the McAuley Schenker Group. Also performing were MSG alumni Chris Glen (bass), Steve Mann (guitar) and Ted McKenna (drums).

The album celebrates the music and guitar wizardry of Schenker—and gives longtime fans a chance to re-live some incredible rock and roll moments.

I recently spoke to Schenker about Michael Schenker Fest Tokyo and more in this new interview.

How did the Michael Schenker Fest come together, and when did the idea for this live album begin?
It started about two years ago. A promoter had the idea of having Graham Bonnet and his band support Temple of Rock and sing a couple of songs with us. When we did that, I was like, wait a minute. There are so many songs from different eras and I’m playing all of this past material with different singers. I thought that if I could put Robin and Gary and Graham together I could do all of the Eighties material and perform those songs with the original singers—and it would be fantastic!

So I started thinking about a group of musicians: Steve Mann, who is a fantastic guy and player and was connected to McAuley and myself from the McAuley Schenker days, and Chris Glen and Ted McKenna, who had both worked with Graham and were also the original rhythm section [after Cozy Powell] for the Michael Schenker Group with Gary. It couldn’t be better than that.

A promoter in Japan eventually found out about it and set us up on tour. One of the shows was Tokyo, a beautiful place that sold out immediately. I decided to record it and make sure it would be captured forever. In a way, it’s like a déjà vu of Budokan.

What was it like performing with Graham, Gary and Robin again?
It was fantastic. It was a celebration of music and about enjoying it with fans and just having a blast. The first part of my life in the Seventies was the development; making a blueprint and focusing on the art of lead guitar playing with self-expression. I had finished both Lights Out and Strangers in the Night [UFO] and Lovedrive [Scorpions] by the time I was 23, so I already had a taste of the peak and the fame. But I also was able to decide between continuing to do that or having the freedom to experiment with music.

Although I decided to experiment and have fun doing instrumentals, I’d always get phone calls from people asking me to join them for various projects. When I look back to the past, the things that went down were just incredible. Then in 2008, I got the urge to step on stage again. I took it as a sign that I needed to be back in the scene and carry on the things I started in the first part of my life. Only this time, I was ready to enjoy everything consciously, and things developed very quickly. It started off with Gary and the reunion album and has snowballed from there.

Can you tell me how you came up with the track “Into the Arena”?
I was in the middle of writing and had booked a rehearsal studio with a drummer and bass player and was just jamming around. I sat down and played to discover and just started working it all out. By that point, we had already written a lot of material, but that particular song came about in the studio all by myself.

Has your gear changed much over the years?
I’m still using Dean guitars and my usual stuff: the Marshall amp along with a simple delay, chorus and wah-wah pedal. That’s it.

Do you ever see yourself writing a book about your life and career?
I’m a musician. I let the music do the talking [laughs].

Of all the highlights of your career, are there any that stand out to you as particularly memorable?
My life has been a journey, and I remember every step of it. Every step was an important one that led to the next one. Life is designed to bring new challenges in order for you to learn, create and make choices. I look at it the same way with my music. So if you ask me if there’s anything in particular, I’d say no.

The journey is the highlight and it fits together just like the book you were talking about. It’s step by step recognizing the development of my guitar playing and where I’m going. It’s about moving forward all the time and never looking back.

James Wood is a writer, musician and self-proclaimed metalhead who maintains his own website, GoJimmyGo.net. His articles and interviews are written on a variety of topics with passion and humor. You can follow him on Twitter @JimEWood.

Today, GuitarWorld.com presents a rare Uli Jon Roth exclusive—a live performance video of “Virgin Killer” from the legendary guitarist's new four-format live music set, Tokyo Tapes Revisited: Live in Japan, which will be released December 16 via UDR Music.

The performance—a celebration of Roth’s classic work with the Scorpions—was recorded February 20, 2015, at Nakano Sun Plaza Hall in Tokyo, the same venue where the Scorpions recorded their classic 1978 live album, Tokyo Tapes.

Roth was a founding member of the Scorpions before leaving the band to pursue a solo career in 1978. As the creative heartbeat of the band, Roth achieved fame for his unique fretwork and song-writing skills, and he was—and is—a huge influence on scores of modern guitarists, including Kirk Hammett, Billy Corgan and Steve Vai.

Tokyo Tapes Revisited: Live in Japan will be released in four formats:

1. Video and audio recording of Roth’s Tokyo concert in a BluRay digipak containing one BluRay video disc and two audio CDs

2. The same as 1 (above), only in a DVD digipak

3. A digital audio copy of the Tokyo concert

4. A super-deluxe box set, limited to 800 copies. It will be a proper, lid-off shell box containing four heavyweight vinyl LPs of Roth’s 2015 Scorpions Revisited album, which has never been released on vinyl. There also will be an 80-page, gatefold, hardcover 12-inch book that will house eight discs: 1 BluRay concert main-feature, 1 bonus BluRay disc (which will contain the original footage from the first Japanese Scorpions Tour 1978, shot personally by Roth on his Super 8 camera), 2 audio CDs of the main Tokyo concert and 4 bonus audio CDs of Roth’s Osaka and Nagoya dates on the same Japanese tour. The set will also include a T-shirt, an Uli Jon Roth repica guitar key-ring and a signed certificate of authenticity, numbered and signed by Roth.

You can pre-order Tokyo Tapes Revisited: Live in Japan on CD/DVD here and CD/BluRay here. For more information about (and to order) the deluxe box set, head here.

For more about Roth, visit ulijonroth.com.

Few rock bands were as successful as the Scorpions by the mid-Eighties—headlining arenas/stadiums worldwide, scoring two mega-selling albums (the Platinum-certified Blackout and the triple-Platinum-certified Love at First Sting) and two hit singles/videos (“No One Like You” and ‘Rock You Like a Hurricane”).

But what quite a few newcomers to the band didn't realize was that the Scorpions had been regularly recording music since 1972, and that throughout the remainder of the decade, featured two guitarists (Michael Schenker and Uli Jon Roth) at separate points that are considered legendary among the heavy metal masses.

And while such albums as Lonesome Crow, Fly to the Rainbow, In Trance, Virgin Killer, Taken by Force, Tokyo Tapes and Lovedrive did not come close to obtaining the commercial success of the aforementioned Eighties-era efforts, they inspired and influenced countless renowned musicians.

German Metal Machine: Scorpions in the '70s by Greg Prato is the first book to focus solely on this period of the band. Interviews include such former members as Michael Schenker, Uli Jon Roth, Francis Buchholz and Herman Rarebell, longtime Scorpions producer Dieter Dierks, plus members of other bands that are major admirers, including KK Downing (Judas Priest), Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins), Joe Satriani, Tom Hamilton (Aerosmith), David Ellefson (Megadeth), Alex Skolnick (Testament) and Eddie Trunk (That Metal Show), among many others, while Kirk Hammett (Metallica) provides a foreword.

And while the Scorpions penned their share of classic tunes during the Seventies ("Speedy’s Coming," "Virgin Killer," "We’ll Burn the Sky,"), arguably the greatest composition was penned entirely by Roth, "The Sails of Charon,” off their aforementioned 1977 album, Taken by Force—a tune that has been publicly heralded by Kirk Hammett over the years, and served as a virtual blueprint for the style that Yngwie Malmsteen would eventually adopt as his own. In this exclusive excerpt from the book, you get the inside story behind "Charon” (You can purchase the paperback and Kindle download here and iBook download here.

Chapter 7: The Sails of Charon

The greatest guitar song of the entire "Scorpions/Uli era"?

KARL SANDERS [Nile singer/guitarist]: "The Sails of Charon." Holy fucking shit. Dude, I'm still working on some of those licks…and that's 30 years ago since I first heard that shit.

TOM HUNTING [Exodus drummer]: I can hum every note of every guitar solo in "The Sails of Charon," and I'm a fuckin' drummer! So there's a huge impact.

HERMAN RAREBELL [Scorpions drummer (1977-1995)]: I love that song. I remember this was just about a few months after I joined the Scorpions, Uli invited me over to his apartment in Hanover, and he played me the song—the riff—and I said, "Wow. This is a killer song." One of my all-time favorites. So we rehearsed it, and for me, it felt great, because it had the influence of Led Zeppelin on it, and I am a big Led Zeppelin fan. So for me, this song was made for me. And you can hear it on the drumming. That song is probably one of the best Scorpions songs. In fact, I jammed with Uli two years ago at a festival in France—we jammed on the song. We made a long version—I think a 10-minute version of it.

FRANCIS BUCHHOLZ [Scorpions bassist (1973-1992)]: That is an Uli Roth song. I like playing it, because it's interesting to play on the bass. To me, it's an outstanding composition. I still play it - when I did a tour with Uli Roth in America a couple of years ago. Uli still plays it, and I like playing it. It's good to play, but it's nothing for the radio.

ULI JON ROTH [Scorpions guitarist (1973-1978)]: It didn't happen all in one day. I remember coming up with the intro theme first, but I don't quite remember how that riff came to me. All I know is I had a little flat in Langenhagen at that time, and it was upstairs. And one day, it just happened. I do clearly remember writing the lyrics, and also the guitar solo.

Which, at that time, I thought was a new departure—technically challenging, but also, there was musical meaning in it. But on the whole, that's what I remember. Then we recorded it again as a demo. We did a demo recording prior to the album in a little town in Westphalia, and this is where we recorded the backing track. But the guitar solo was the last thing that I did for that one. And I also played the bass on that one.

KK DOWNING [Judas Priest guitarist (1969-2011)]: From that song alone, you can see all the signs of all the qualities that Uli had, and would go on to do some fantastic stuff. It was a very unique piece. I didn't actually discover it until quite some time after—until later on, for some reason. Now when I go back and listen to it and analyze it, it sticks in my mind that Uli had great capabilities.

He must have had some professional musical schooling. I don't know if he can play the piano or whether he did from an early age, but he certainly got it from somewhere, that's for sure. Because it wasn't really around—not to my knowledge—from other guitar players. And I was listening to everyone that came along. But in the rock world, Uli was certainly the first one that came up with those elements of playing.

CHARLIE BENANTE [Anthrax drummer]: I remember first being on tour and being in the band, I would always bring out my cassettes—my mix tapes. And that song was always played in the dressing room. It's one of those songs that as a guitar player, you want to learn—you want to figure it out. And Uli Jon Roth back then I thought was way ahead of it.

HANK SHERMANN [Mercyful Fate guitarist]: I remember when 'Taken by Force' was released. The solos in "The Sails of Charon" were like, "Whoa! My goodness!" Even to this day, if you think about it, every guitar player in the world has that solo as a really high standout. And the phenomenal thing is it was performed in 1977 - with a lot of classical stuff to it. I had the pleasure of trying to challenge myself and covering that song - it took me about 30 years before I said, "OK, I'll give it a try and see how good I can perform it."

LIPS [Anvil singer/guitarist]: No one had ever heard those notes played on guitar before that point. No one. Certainly on violins and cellos and orchestration, but never on an electric guitar.

PAUL GILBERT [Mr. Big & Racer X guitarist]: That song is intimidating! Every time I hear the solo, I think, "I should really figure out that solo." But I'm scared of it - because Uli plays it so beautifully. It's got such great vibrato and the composition is amazing and his tone is amazing. He half-invented Yngwie with that solo.

And it was really different - I can't think of anybody who had that classical/Phrygian, dominant/Baroque elements to their music. I know that in Emerson, Lake & Palmer, you hear them doing some classical stuff. But it wasn't as "Bach." Their stuff was more like, Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition." So they were sort of in the Romantic era. They did Aaron Copland's "Hoedown." But the part that the Scorpions did, I didn't hear anybody doing that kind of thing.

CHRIS CAFFERY [Savatage & Trans-Siberian Orchestra guitarist]: I'd have to say that everybody's favorite old Scorpions song as a guitar player is "The Sails of Charon." That song is the one that you heard and you were like, "What the heck is this?!" Because it was trippy, it was different. The funny thing is if you ever look at the old interviews that Yngwie Malmsteen did, he never credited Uli - until recently. He used to say, "Oh, I did not know who Uli Roth was." And it's like, "Bullshit you didn't! You stole everything you ever did from him and Blackmore!" [Laughs]

I don't think he wanted to let people know about Uli, because if you took Uli and you studied him and you played it over and over and got faster and faster, then you had Yngwie. Yngwie knew that. And that was the funny thing about that. That's where that came from. And if you read his old interviews, people even asked him, "What about Uli Roth?" "Oh, I'm not very familiar with him." It wasn't until recently that he was like, "Oh yeah, Uli, definitely."

KK DOWNING: If there's one guy that could do what Yngwie could do—before Yngwie could do it—it would have been Uli.

JOE STUMP [Solo guitarist]: It had the "evil riff" in the beginning, and then, it's a very interesting track, because the guitar solo was the first thing you hear in the track. And the first time I heard the guitar solo, I was like, "Holy shit." It reminds me of the first time I heard the early Yngwie stuff or Al Di Meola's Elegant Gypsy when I was a kid. It really grabbed me. Just his tone and his vibrato, and the amount of technique he was playing with. And plus, I was always drawn to players that used those kind of dark-sounding European tonalities.

JAMES BYRD [Solo guitarist]: That was the first time I heard anybody playing diminished arpeggios and harmonic modes in a rock context. I had been listening to Al Di Meola and figuring out his stuff, but it wasn't rock or metal. It had a powerful sound to it that was different from anything that was around. It immediately caught my ear. "The Sails of Charon" was the guitar solo that everybody had to try to learn how to play back in the day.

ALEX SKOLNICK [Testament guitarist]: There were a few songs at that time that really captured a Middle Eastern sound. The technical name of that scale is the harmonic minor scale. It was pretty new to rock, as far as I know. It snuck in a few times. Like, the Beatles song, "Girl," they snuck that in there. Then there was surf music—"Miserlou" had it. But just to hear hard rock with virtuosic guitar playing with that mode, it was a very cool thing. So, to me, "The Sails of Charon" really captured that. Ritchie Blackmore's "The Gates of Babylon" is another one.

CHRIS CAFFERY: That Middle Eastern metal—it was heavy. A soundtrack for a metal monster movie about pyramids would be that song! It had that sound. I don't think anybody had really done that. Blackmore had gotten into the stuff with "The Gates of Babylon"—he was on that edge of that. But "The Sails of Charon," that was that type of song, nobody had really done that - that "Middle Eastern metal sort of vibe" yet—until that song.

JIM MATHEOS [Fates Warning guitarist]: That's one of the ones when I listened to it, I was like, "What the hell is this guy doing?" And I remember spending hours…days trying to learn that song. I still think even right now I couldn't cop it very well.

STEVE "ZETRO" SOUZA [Exodus singer]: I started out as a guitar player before I became a vocalist, and I remember we are all at guitar class, and I was like [sings melody of the opening guitar riff of "Charon"], and we were all trying to figure it out. The whole song, the riff definitely stands out. The guitar work was up and above what usually a band is about. At that period of time, the guitar work wasn't all that in the forefront. Priest was very good at guitar work in the Seventies. I think AC/DC had great riffs, but not guitar work. Who's going to come up with a song like [again sings "Charon" riff]? Just that whole progression there, to write that and create a song that is genius and ballsy.

You're setting the bar completely on another level…again, we're not in 2015. We're in 1977, and everybody's used to "verse, chorus, verse, chorus." And here, you've got guys that are writing and arranging music that's not going with the way songs are written - the way rock songs have been written. That's why, to me, heavy metal takes everything to another level, because the changes are unlike any other type of music, whatsoever. And I think especially in "The Sails of Charon," Klaus comes in and sings [sings vocal melody], and you've created a song out of the greatest riff, and it worked. You pulled it off. That's what caught me. What was heavier than that? Who played a rhythm heavier than that at that time? Nobody. They were the heaviest band in the world.

LIPS: It's one of those songs that you listen to for the rest of your life. And you can tell right away, it was so "thick in detail guitar." You're going, "This is going to take me the rest of my life to figure out what he played here, because it's so beyond my scope of playing"—at the time. It's like, "Holy shit. It's going to take many years to decipher this."

And it has, and it still bewilders me how he found that, and how deep his inspiration was to hear those notes, to look for them, to play them. I think it's environment, early influence - those kind of things, how do you quantify that? To me, it was like a golden grail. The first time hearing that, you're going, "My God. What is that?" It's something beyond your scope and it sounds so good to your ears, you're going, "Wow!"

But I think it's more appreciated by somebody who plays, rather than somebody who is just listening to music. Somebody listening to music goes, "Oh. That's very nice." They're not realizing, "Oh my God. How did he figure that out? Where the hell did you get that order of notes from? How do you do that? And what are the spaces and the structure of those scales?" It's so beyond the blues scale. That's how it stuck me—I'd never heard those modes and notes in rock history.

BILLY CORGAN [Smashing Pumpkins singer/guitarist]: It does sort of usher in the Satriani's and the Vai's. It really is this other level of guitar playing, in a way that almost dominates the track, but doesn't kill it. And when you look at when Uli did it, he's so ahead of the curve on where guitar is going. I mean, yeah, there are great guitar players, but it's this other level of virtuosity that sort of works within the song—in a way that doesn't kill it.

Which is pretty strange, because usually up to that point, it's like guys would do "guitar showpieces," like Alvin Lee or something—"I'm Going Home." It's like a bullshit piece so the guy can take off on the guitar. Somehow, Uli elevates the song with his playing, but in a way that makes the song distinctive and still pop, which is very, very strange. And then, all those crazy modes that he's playing…that's pure Uli right there. It makes sense to him.

EDDIE TRUNK ['That Metal Show' co-host & 'Eddie Trunk Live' host]: Uli Jon Roth's guitar playing is unbelievable, and it's got that great riff. But then it's got this super melodic, incredible guitar playing through it. It's a little of everything—it's heavy, it's melodic. His solo right over that opening riff is just so great. It's not a particularly long song—it's not like it's a twelve-minute epic or whatever—but it feels that way, because it's got so many different styles to it and directions within it.

TRAVIS STEVER [Coheed and Cambria guitarist]: It's pretty fucking amazing—doing that so ahead of its time. That's the part that sticks out—they were doing things ahead of their time. They always were. Guitar-wise, especially.

Ordering Information:

You can purchase the paperback and Kindle download here, a Nook download here and iBook download here.

Scorpions, Disturbed and Five Finger Death Punch are slated to headline the Rocklahoma Festival when it takes place May 27 through 29. The music fest will celebrate its 10th anniversary this year when it returns to Catch the Fever Festival Grounds in Pryor, Oklahoma.

The bill for this year’s event also includes Rob Zombie, Chevelle, 3 Doors Down, Collective Soul, Sixx: AM, Sebastian Bach, Bullet for My Valentine, Hellyeah, Steel Panther and Sevendust, among other acts. The complete lineup can be seen below and at the festival’s website.

Specially priced weekend presale general admission and reserved tickets are available now. Visit the Rocklahoma website ticket page for the password to purchase presale tickets. Ticket prices will increase once they go on sale to the public on January 18 at 12 noon CT. A limited number of discounted tickets will also be available to active military personnel through Gov X.

Speaking of anniversaries, the Scorpions are on a world tour in commemoration of their 50th anniversary. For complete tour information, visit the-scorpions.com. Below, you can watch the video for their song "Going Out with a Bang," from their latest album, Return to Forever.

On October 14, Scorpions will continue to celebrate their 50th year in rock with a special one-night national screening event of their first-ever theatrical release, a new documentary called Forever and a Day.

The film, which is presented by SpectiCast and Tempest Films, tells the story of one of metal's most influential bands.

Today, GuitarWorld.com presents an exclusive trailer for the film. You can see it below.

Filmmaker Katja von Garnier accompanied the band on their "Final Sting" dates—originally the band’s farewell tour around the globe, from Bangkok via Los Angeles to Moscow. The resulting documentary is a moving portrait of the band, one that's packed with candid moments and memories, culminating with the decision to scrap their retirement plans.

“I think it'll be a really special film for our fans," says Scorpions vocalist Klaus Meine.

Scorpions continue their global assault in support of their 19th studio album, Return to Forever, which was released September 11 via Sony Music/Legacy Recordings. You can check out their remaining North American tour dates below.

Scorpions are Klaus Meine, Rudolf Schenker, Matthias Jabs, James Kottak and Paweł Mąciwoda.

For more information, visit The-Scorpions.com.

Remaining dates of the first leg of their North American tour:

• October 6 Santa Barbara, CA Santa Barbara Bowl
• October 7 Las Vegas, NV Hard Rock Hotel
• October 9 Seattle, WA ShoWare Center

Scorpions made one 12-year-old guitarist very happy during the group’s performance in Brooklyn, New York, on Saturday, September 12.

As you can see in the video below, young Brandon Niederauer got a chance to play with the German hard rock group on their classic hit “No One Like You” at Barclay’s Center in downtown Brooklyn.

Niederauer says the band’s song “Rock You Like a Hurricane” was the first song and guitar solo he learned, back when he was eight.

“The Scorpions’ music is a big influence on my playing,” he says.

Not surprisingly, given his age, Niederauer learned of the group’s music through video games. Both “No One Like You" and "Rock You Like a Hurricane” have been featured in the Guitar Hero franchise.

The youngster—who not only plays well but also makes some pretty good guitar face—clearly has a future in music: he’s set to appear on Broadway this fall in Andrew Lloyd Weber’s School of Rock, which opens November 9.

Scorpions are currently celebrating their 50th anniversary and promoting their album Return to Forever, which came out last Friday. You can check out their current tour dates here.

In related news, Scorpions guitarist Rudolf Schenker said last week that he and brother Michael have plans to record an album together once the Scorpions’ tour wraps up.

A new tab book, Best of Scorpions, is available now at the Guitar World Online Store.

The book features note-for-note transcriptions with tab for 14 favorites from these Hanover hard rockers.

It includes their mega-hit “Rock You like a Hurricane” plus:

• Big City Nights
• Blackout
• Coming Home
• Holiday
• I Can't Explain
• Loving You Sunday Morning
• No One like You
• Passion Rules the Game
• Rhythm of Love
• Send Me an Angel
• Still Loving You
• Wind of Change
• The Zoo

This 128-page book is available now for $19.99. Head to the Guitar World Online Store now.

In celebration of their 50th anniversary as a band, Scorpions have announced their 19th studio album, Return to Forever.

The album is set for a September 11 release via Sony/Legacy. You can check out the track list below.

The first single, “We Built This House,” is set for a July 3 digital release and will be available to fans as an instant-grat track when pre-ordering the album, which you can do right here, right now.

Scorpions are heading out on a North American tour this fall, the dates of which you can see below.

Tracklisting:

• 1. Going Out With A Bang
• 2. We Built This House
• 3. Rock My Car
• 4. House Of Cards
• 5. All For One
• 6. Rock ’N’ Roll Band
• 7. Catch Your Luck And Play
• 8. Rollin’ Home
• 9. Hard Rockin’ The Place
• 10. Eye Of The Storm
• 11. The Scratch
• 12. Gypsy Life
• 13. The World We Used to Know
• 14. Dancing With The Moonlight
• 15. When The Truth Is A Lie
• 16. Who We Are
• 17. Crazy Ride (exclusive)
• 18. One And One Is Three (exclusive)
• 19. Delirious (exclusive)

Scorpions on Tour

September 10 Boston, MA Blue Hills Bank Pavilion
September 12 Brooklyn, NY Barclays Center
September 13 Gilford, NH Meadowbrook
September 16 Moncton, NB Canada Moncton Coliseum
September 18 Toronto, ON Canada Molson Canadian Amphitheatre
September 19 Montreal, QC Canada Bell Centre
September 22 Columbus, OH LC Pavilion
September 23 Cleveland, OH Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica
September 25 Windsor, ON Canada Caesar's Windsor TBA
September 26 Chicago, IL Allstate Arena
September 29 Denver, CO Fiddler's Green Amphitheatre
October 1 San Jose, CA SAP Center
October 3 Los Angeles, CA The Forum
October 6 Santa Barbara, CA Santa Barbara Bowl
October 7 Las Vegas, NV Hard Rock Hotel
October 9 Seattle, WA ShoWare Center

Guitar legend Uli Jon Roth and Guitar World have teamed up to premiere "In Trance," a track from Roth's new studio album, Scorpions Revisited.

The album, which features 19 "re-invented" Scorpions tracks, will be released March 10 via UDR. Guitar World will be premiering other tracks from the album in the coming weeks.

In 2013, Roth found himself unusually intrigued by his early days with the Scorpions, including his work on Fly to the Rainbow, In Trance, Virgin Killer and Taken By Force. As a result, the guitarist spent a year re-visiting, exploring, performing and re-recording his favorite Scorpions songs.

The first results can be found on Scorpions Revisited, which was recorded in Hanover, Germany. You can check out the complete track list below.

Today's song, "In Trance," is the title track from the Scorpions' third studio album, which was released in late 1975 in Europe and early 1976 in the U.S. It was written by Rudolf Schenker and Klaus Meine—and, of course, Roth played guitar on the original recording.

“The material for this CD was recorded last year in the same hall in Hanover that we used for the Scorpions rehearsals 1973 to 1978,” Roth says. “Together with an amazing bunch of talented young musicians, I revisited my favorites from the early Scorpions period, some of which were written in that same hall.

"It was an emotional few days, and I'm very pleased with the results. The idea was to stay truthful to the original spirit of the music, while also putting a new slant on it whenever it felt like the right thing to do. I feel we succeeded in this, and I’m excited about this project. It was a intense journey into the past.”

Roth's band on the album includes Nathan James (vocals), Jamie Little (drums), Ule W. Ritgen (bass), Niklas Turmann (guitar, vocals), Corvin Bahn (keyboards, vocals) and David Klosinski (guitar).

For more information, visit ulijonroth.com. Be sure to tell us what you think of "In Trance" in the comments below or on Facebook!

Track listing - CD1:
01. The Sails Of Charon
02. Longing For Fire
03. Crying Days
04. Virgin Killer
05. In Trance
06. Sun In My Hand
07. Yellow Raven
08. Polar Nights
09. Dark Lady

Track listing - CD2:
01. Catch Your Train
02. Evening Wind
03. All Night Long
04. We’ll Burn In The Sky
05. Pictured Life
06. Hell Cat
07. Life’s Like A River
08. Drifting Sun
09. Rainbow Dream Prelude
10. Fly To The Rainbow

2015 ULI JON ROTH U.S. Tour Dates:
FEBRUARY
05.02.2015 – Connecticut – Hartford – Infinity Hall
06.02.2015 – New Hampshire – Londonderry – Tupelo Music Hall
07.02.2015 – New York – Poughkeepsie – The Chance
08.02.2015 – New York – Manhattan – BB King’s
09.02.2015 – Virginia – Springfield – The Empire

• 2015 ULI JON ROTH International Tour Dates:
• 19.02.2015 – Japan – Nagoya – Bottom Line
• 20.02.2015 – Japan – Tokyo – Nakano Sun Plaza Hall
• 22.02.2015 – Japan Osaka - Quattro

11.04.2015 – Full Metal Cruise II –
to Mediterranian Sea –
16.04.2015 Plama de Mallorca/Barcelona/Ibiza
24.04.2015 – Germany – Lauda-Königshofen – Keep it True Festival
22.05.2015 – Germany – Bocholt – Alte Molkerei
23.05.2015 – Germany – Bocholt – Alte Molkerei
22.08.2015 – Germany – Balve - Balver Höhle
27.08.2015 - Full Metal Cruise III –
to North Sea -
31.08.2015 Kiel/Copenhaven/Gothenburg/Hamburg

Uli Jon Roth will release a new double album, Scorpions Revisited, March 10 via UDR.

The album will contain 19 "re-invented" Scorpions tracks. According to a press release about the album, no one in their right mind would dare call these mere re-recordings; it’s clear Roth reinvents these songs from the soul up.

In 2013, Roth found himself unusually intrigued by his early days with the Scorpions, including his work on Fly to the Rainbow, In Trance, Virgin Killer and Taken By Force. As a result, the guitarist spent a year re-visiting, exploring, performing and re-recording his favorite Scorpions songs.

The first results can be found on Scorpions Revisited, which was recorded in Hanover, Germany. You can check out the complete track list below.

“The material for this CD was recorded last year in the same hall in Hanover that we used for the Scorpions rehearsals 1973 to 1978,” Roth says. “Together with an amazing bunch of very talented young musicians, I revisited my personal favorites from the early Scorpions period, some of which were written in that same hall.

"It was an emotional few days, and I am very pleased with the results in more ways than one. The idea was to stay truthful to the original spirit of the music, while also putting a new slant on it whenever it felt like the right thing to do. I feel we really succeeded in this and I’m very excited about this project. It was a intense journey into the past and I think we really managed to bring the songs back to life with a vengeance.”

Roth's band on the new album includes Nathan James (vocals), Jamie Little (drums), Ule W. Ritgen (bass), Niklas Turmann (guitar, vocals), Corvin Bahn (keyboards, vocals) and David Klosinski (guitar).

For more information, visit ulijonroth.com.

Track listing - CD1:
01. The Sails Of Charon
02. Longing For Fire
03. Crying Days
04. Virgin Killer
05. In Trance
06. Sun In My Hand
07. Yellow Raven
08. Polar Nights
09. Dark Lady

Track listing - CD2:
01. Catch Your Train
02. Evening Wind
03. All Night Long
04. We’ll Burn In The Sky
05. Pictured Life
06. Hell Cat
07. Life’s Like A River
08. Drifting Sun
09. Rainbow Dream Prelude
10. Fly To The Rainbow

2015 ULI JON ROTH U.S. Tour Dates:
JANUARY
21.01.2015 – California – Ramona - Mainstage
22.01.2015 – California – Anaheim - House of Blues
23.01.2015 – California – Hollywood - House of Blues
24.01.2015 – Nevada – Las Vegas - Vamp’d
25.01.2015 – California – San Josè - Rock Star Bar
26.01.2015 – Oregon – Portland - Tonic
27.01.2015 – Washington – Seattle - Studio 7
29.01.2015 – Minnesota – Moorehead - The Garage
30.01.2015 – Minnesota – Spring Lake Park - POVS
31.01.2015 - Illinois – St. Charles – Arcada Theatre

• FEBRUARY
• 01.02.2015 - Illinois – Chicago – Reggie’s (& Sky Academy)
• 02.02.2015 – Michigan – Detroit – Token Lounge
• 03.02.2015 – Toronto – Mod Club
• 04.02.2015 – Ohio – Cleveland – Agora Ballroom
• 05.02.2015 – Connecticut – Hartford – Infinity Hall
• 06.02.2015 – New Hampshire – Londonderry – Tupelo Music Hall
• 07.02.2015 – New York – Poughkeepsie – The Chance
• 08.02.2015 – New York – Manhattan – BB King’s
• 09.02.2015 – Virginia – Springfield – The Empire

2015 ULI JON ROTH International Tour Dates:
19.02.2015 – Japan – Nagoya – Bottom Line
20.02.2015 – Japan – Tokyo – Nakano Sun Plaza Hall
22.02.2015 – Japan Osaka - Quattro

11.04.2015 – Full Metal Cruise II –
to Mediterranian Sea –
16.04.2015 Plama de Mallorca/Barcelona/Ibiza

24.04.2015 – Germany – Lauda-Königshofen – Keep it True Festival
22.05.2015 – Germany – Bocholt – Alte Molkerei
23.05.2015 – Germany – Bocholt – Alte Molkerei
22.08.2015 – Germany – Balve - Balver Höhle

27.08.2015 - Full Metal Cruise III –
to North Sea -
31.08.2015 Kiel/Copenhaven/Gothenburg/Hamburg

P.S.: Here's some random Roth riffing for you!

On a bright, frigid afternoon in early December, Guitar World is standing in front of the Romexpo arena in Bucharest, Romania, hoping the Scorpions will arrive soon. We’ve traveled nearly 5,000 miles to meet the German band on its Farewell World Tour, and we’re eager to catch up with guitarists Rudolf Schenker and Matthias Jabs and chat before they hang up their guitars for good. But for the time being, it’s just us and the local Romanian crew, who are huddled together, chain-smoking cigarettes and flashing us suspicious looks.

The Scorpions are not only one of the world’s best-selling hard rock acts, but since their formation in 1965 they have exemplifed the unifying and transformative power of rock and roll, especially for fans in places like Romania, which was under strict communist rule in the not-too-distant past. In that spirit, we sidle up to the crew and introduce ourselves. The guys instantly warm up and start flashing peace signs and devil horns for our photographer.

• Tonight’s concert marks the 20th anniversary of the Scorpions’ first show in Bucharest, and back then the vibe was considerably different. The country was early into the process of rebuilding itself after decades of communist oppression under which the media and arts were stringently controlled. As we learn when we eventually sit down with Schenker and Jabs, simply listening to rock music back then was a very risky endevour.
• “I remember in the mid Nineties, we met a Romanian couple that came to our show in Los Angeles,” Jabs says. “They said they were jailed for listening to Scorpions’ music. And they weren’t the only ones! It was tough times like you couldn’t even imagine. We played here early enough to see some of it. We first played behind the so-called Iron Curtain in Hungary in 1986, and went to communist Soviet Union in early 1988.”
• “And one year after that we were back for the [Moscow] Music Peace Festival,” Schenker adds. “To play with all the crazy guys—like Mötley Crüe, Bon Jovi, Cinderella and Ozzy Osbourne—in front of 110,000 people was fantastic. That’s why we composed the song ‘Wind of Change,’ because of the feeling that there was something new coming. I still have a big collection of army caps, because [the Russian soldiers in attendance] were so excited they kept throwing them into the air!”

“A lot of time’s passed since then,” Jabs continues. “But it is still different playing countries like Romania. They just might be a bit hungrier in these countries. It’s still a big event.”

While political revolution isn’t brewing during the Scorpions’ current visit, there is a distinct air of excitement surrounding today’s proceedings, both from inside and outside their camp. This stop marks another date of the band’s ongoing Farewell World Tour, and before its conclusion the Scorpions plan to hit every country in which they’ve played, in addition to a few new markets such as China and Australia. They’ve been rolling along for the better part of the past three years and have performed in nearly 40 countries.
“It’s not like we want to finish,” Jabs says. “But we decided in 2010, when we announced the final tour, that this was a good point to do it. My colleagues are 65 years old now, and we wanted to finish in a state of full energy and professionalism.”

The Scorpions’ enduring passion, skill and vitality are on full display later that night when the guys hit the stage. Founding vocalist Klaus Meine’s iconic vocals soar through the drafty expanses of the old, Cold War–era arena. Schenker and Jabs run and jump around the stage like it’s still 1984 and possess a level of fretboard acumen greater than many musicians half their age, while bassist Pawel Maciwoda and drummer James Kottak expertly hold down the rhythm section. The 8,500-plus crowd that fills the Romexpo arena is an eclectic mixture of ages and looks—everything from ecstatic teenagers in flashy contemporary rock outfits to austere middle-aged men and women tucked into drab-colored winter coats. Despite the generational (and sartorial) gaps, they all exult in the Scorpions’ over-the-top set, full of mega-hits such as “Rock You Like a Hurricane,” “No One Like You,” “Big City Nights,” “Still Loving You” and “Wind of Change.”

The Scorpions have a few more treats in store for fans before they eventually call it quits. In between live dates, the guys have been quietly working on a final studio album, which will reportedly contain never-before-heard cuts from during their prolific early Eighties days, when they recorded two of their biggest successes, Blackout and Love at First Sting. They’ve also managed to find time to perform and record a full double album of acoustic songs for MTV’s Unplugged series. Culled from two sets at the open-air Lycabettus Theatre in Athens, Scorpions MTV Unplugged: In Athens is available as a deluxe CD/DVD and Blu-ray package, which contains a staggering 25 songs (15 on the CD), all rearranged and reimagined in an acoustic style. The release contains all the expected fan favorites as well as some new and never-performed live tracks.

“I listened and looked at MTV Unplugged performances from the Eighties and Nineties to check what other bands were doing,” Jabs says of how he first approached reworking the Scorpions’ classic electric guitar–driven material. “I like the Eric Clapton performance very much. But many bands—without mentioning names—just played what they played on the original electric version on acoustic guitar. Everything stayed the same. We had a different approach. Our main focus was on the acoustic guitar, which has to be treated completely differently in order to sound good. I think I played in seven different tunings and had a guitar change for almost every song in the set. It was also a very busy night for the guitar techs!”

In the following exclusive interview from Romania, Schenker and Jabs walk us through how they pulled off their ambitious MTV Unplugged performance and explain why, nearly 50 years into their career, their audiences are younger than ever.

You guys have been going full tilt on your Farewell Tour for the past few years. Why did you decide to tape an MTV Unplugged in the middle of all that?

Matthias Jabs: We were asked by MTV and Sony in January of 2013 if we could do an MTV Unplugged. We had just played our last show on December 17 in Munich. You know what it’s like in life: just when you think you’re safe, they come around the corner! [laughs] Well, we knew we couldn’t say no. It might not be as popular as it was in the Eighties and early Nineties, but we wanted to do it anyway, because we were asked at some point in the Eighties but we were too busy to do it then. But I knew right away that we had to do something different from what we did on our 2001 [live] record, Acoustica.

What did you want to do differently?

Jabs: First of all, we wanted to not do “Wind of Change,” “Rock You Like a Hurricane”…the typical ones. We have so many arrangements of those. But the fans love those, and the record company wanted it, so in the end we included those as well. I got together with our producers, Mikael [Nord Andersson] and Martin [Hansen] in Sweden, with whom we worked on our last two records, and we picked songs from every decade. We had the more well-known ones and then put the focus on ones we’ve never played live, as well as five new songs. We ended up having 25 songs. It was a lot of work.

What did the process of reworking the songs entail?

Jabs: First, I went to Stockholm for a week at the end of February and we arranged eight songs. Klaus and Rudolf weren’t part of the arrangements, but they both listened to the arrangements and said, This is the way to go; this is the way not to go.
Rudolf Schenker: Because I composed most of the songs, I said, “You know, I’m too close to them.” Because the Swedish Rock Mafia, as we call our producers, have an understanding of what Scorpions are all about, I thought I’d let them work on it. I trust Mikael very much, and he’s also a very good acoustic guitarist. He knows the Scorpions’ history and has a good feeling to not make it too poppy and always work with a little edge. And he introduced us to open tunings, like Jimmy Page used. When we talked about MTV Unplugged, we knew we wanted to do something outstanding to make five guitars sound like a cluster. We used different tunings to make the sound bigger.

Twenty-five songs is a pretty long set. Were there specific choices you made with the arrangements to keep things musically interesting?

Jabs: To keep it interesting as acoustic songs we had to have more than just two guitars. I planned on four. In the end, it turned out we had five guitars for most of the songs, six on some, plus mandolin, harp and accordion. We also had a string arranger. We were thinking of having an octet for just a few songs, being inspired by the Beatles, who always used octets because it sounds more rocking than a quartet. But it turned out we ended up with 18 string arrangements! [laughs] The arranger, Hans [Gardemar], is also a great piano player. He also plays accordion and brought it in the first week. I wasn’t sure if it was the right idea until we jammed “Still Loving You” as a tango with two guitars and accordion. It sounded amazing! We were overwhelmed by our own performance. So we started out not knowing exactly what we were going to do, but as it went on it got more interesting and I felt freer to give the full monty, so to speak.

You mentioned you tried out some Scorpions songs that you’ve never played live. Did the added personnel help in that effort?

Jabs: Absolutely. We had another Swedish guitarist named Ola [Hjelm]. He’s one of those guys I call “Swiss Army knives” because they have at least five functions. [laughs] He sings, too, as do Mikael and [producer] Martin [Hansen], which was very important. So finally we could perform songs like “Passion Rules the Game,” from a late-Eighties album, Savage Amusement. We could never do it live because the lead vocals are overlapping within the chorus.

Even with the help, 24 songs is a lot for Klaus to tackle. Did he voice any concerns?

Schenker: Klaus was moaning a few times, because he didn’t know how he was gonna do all this stuff! So he said there needed to be a few instrumentals too. I had already been working on an instrumental during one of our tours through Russia on the Trans-Siberian express. On the train I wrote a song called “Love Is the Answer.” So when this album came around, I thought about how I could work on that instrumental and maybe even sing on it, because I was a singer in the early Scorpions days. So I made a demo and presented it to the guys. And Klaus was jealous! He said, “I have one song too, and I want to play it on my own with guitar.” That was “Follow Your Heart.” So we didn’t always have a set plan, but we were freely creating. That spirit is at the heart of the Scorpions’ MTV Unplugged.

Rudolf, when the Swedish Rock Mafia and Matthias presented you with their initial arrangements, were there any tracks that were particularly surprising?

Schenker: Most of them! They weren’t easy to do. I had to relearn my own songs! There were open tunings, lower tunings and string arrangements. The songs all had a new flavor.

Did either of you ever write any of the classic Scorpions material on acoustics?

Schenker: I wrote “Holiday” on an acoustic. But in the early days I only had one guitar, my black-and-white [Gibson] Flying V. There’s such a special feeling between me and that guitar. It’s a really good guitar for composing. You can compose eight hours a day, if you have the time, because its body creates this very healthy position when you’re holding it and sitting down. I think “When the Smoke Is Going Down,” from Blackout, and “The Riot of Your Time,” from Taken by Force, were also composed with acoustic guitars. There were a few exceptions like that.
Jabs:I’ve written more than half of my songs on acoustic. When you’re writing on electric guitar the riff might be too flashy to begin with. But on acoustic it’s a different approach, and it’s better to have simplicity. It makes you more like a songwriter. I wrote the intro to “Bad Boys Running Wild,” if you remember that one, on an acoustic. It was my first Ovation I ever had, from 1975.

Rudolf, one unexpected moment on the Unplugged performance is when you break out the sitar for “When You Came Into My Life.” How did that come about?

Schenker: Klaus and me were invited to a songwriter session in 1994. The idea was that about 30 guitar players from America and Europe would compose with Asian people. Jack Blades was there, Tommy [Shaw] from Styx was there, and a lot of country guys. Then, on the other hand, there were the people from Asia. So our names were put into a tumbler and picked out at random. So they announced, “Klaus Meine and Rudolf Schenker are writing with…Titiek Puspa and James Sundah from Indonesia.” So we got a room and started writing. We wrote the song “When You Came Into My Life.” This song has a very Asian flavor. At first I was going to use a 12-string; then I realized that it had to be a sitar to give it the right sound and vibe. Then I just had to figure out how to play it! Sitar playing is very difficult. You could play your whole life and still not be doing it right. But I found a way to play it the best I could.

A song like “No One Like You” has a great harmonized lead opening section. Was that difficult to translate onto acoustics?

Jabs: Yeah. Obviously, you focus mostly on the riff, and I couldn’t play the fills or the solo like I could on the electric. There isn’t even a solo. It’s like a part of a solo but more of a melodic thing. We worked that out with the mandolin, and I played the acoustic guitar.

On the original studio recording of that song, did you compose the solo ahead of time?

Jabs: In songs like “No One Like You,” it’s a composed melody and harmony. The solo comes to me because I start with the vocal melody. I go with the song, because there’s no point in writing a completely different instrumental part in the middle, which some people call the solo. For me, it’s all about continuing the song but, if possible, turning it into a highlight. Same with “Rock You Like a Hurricane.” It’s also rhythmic, but if you listen carefully it’s also part of the melody, which is just transformed into a guitar part. You can follow it, but it’s still complicated enough that guitar players can enjoy it. It’s a fine line: not too simple, but not too complicated that it becomes, well, bleh.

Rudolf, you’re known primarily for your riffs and rhythm work. But you do play lead on some of the band’s most memorable tracks, like “Wind of Change” and “Holiday.” How do you approach your leads?

Schenker: When I play the solo on songs, it forces me to try new things. When I would write a song and have an idea for a solo, I would convince the band not by talking about it but by playing it for them, even in the days when [former Scorpions guitarist] Uli [Jon Roth] was playing lead. I remember in the early days I played a lead on one song—I forget which one—and he said, “Oh, Rudolf, that’s great! Why don’t you play that!” With Matthias, very often I was the lead player for more of the slower songs, like “Holiday,” “Lady Starlight,” “Still Loving You,” “Wind of Change,” “Big City Nights” and some stuff on “China White.” Actually, Uli gave me some very good advice in the Seventies when I was trying to learn lead guitar. He said, “Rudolf, you know it’s much better to be a great rhythm guitar player than an average lead guitar player.” So I really spent more time forcing myself to make riffs that had a special flavor.

Your last studio album was 2010’s Sting in the Tail. I heard a rumor that Scorpions might be working on an album with some material that was written around the time of Blackout and Love at First Sting.

Jabs: Yes, we started already. We have 12 songs. We found songs mainly from the early Eighties Blackout and Love at First Sting days, when many people consider our most creative and best time. The leftover tracks sound good, but they were never finished. They don’t have lyrics or vocals, and they’re not recorded to a click. So we have to do everything new. But it sounds quite good so far.
Schenker: Two of the new songs on Unplugged, “Dancing with the Moonlight” and “Rock & Roll Band,” we had saved for bonus tracks. So we have those two songs, which are great, and we’ll put them out as an electric version. I think we have a total of 15 songs from the Seventies and Eighties that we want to release. I think in 2014 we’ll finish the places we haven’t played yet on the farewell tour, and then get back to the record after that.

What are your main guitars for this farewell tour?

Jabs: I’m playing my Dommenget electrics tonight, as well as an acoustic Dommenget Explorer. Its neck is much closer to an electric. Because we’re playing electrics all night, it’s hard to switch to a fatter neck for just two acoustic songs. I have many different makes and models of guitars, but for Unplugged I used only Martin guitars. The 000-42 plays really well, and the intonation is good even when you tune down. We also had big help from Taylor guitars, but I passed them along to the other players. We had 56 guitars onstage, and there were no spares. Rudolf had so many guitars, Explorers and 12-strings, mostly made by Dommenget. I also played a fantastic Martin guitar, the D-180. And you know what? It also smells so good! You open the case in the studio and it smells like vanilla and other things. Even my wife came in and said the studio smelled nice! [laughs]
Schenker: Tonight I’m using my Dommenget customs, Gibson Flying Vs and Gibson [Chet Atkins SST] 12-string. Gibson is also finally making me a Flying V acoustic, which I will present at the Frankfurt music show.

What are your amp setups?

Jabs: My Mastertone [Matthias Jabs Signature amp], the orange glowing thingy. Unfortunately, the guy who made them died this year. They’re great amps, and I fortunately have enough to last the whole rest of my career. You know these people that all they do is work all night and smoke too much and drink too much coffee? He had a heart failure and passed away at four in the morning after coming out of his workshop. Too bad.
Schenker: I’ve played so many amps! I started actually with Vox, then Marshall, then Boogie, into Hiwatt, then Diezel, then Engl, Soldano. Then I found this Danish guy who makes the Skrdstrup R&D [Triple Drive 50]. It’s an amazing amp. It allows such an exact attack and just enough distortion. Tonight I’ve got that, the Engl [Savage 120] and a Rivera [TBR Series rackmount stereo tube amplifier].

Do you have a clear plan of the amount of countries you want to hit before the Farewell World Tour concludes?

Jabs: We basically wanted to play again in every country we’ve played before, plus China and Australia, because we had never played there before. We’ve played pretty much everywhere in the world, except the middle zone of Africa, where nobody wants rock and roll. And we don’t want to play a shitty show; we want to say goodbye to people with our full, big production. So far it’s good and all selling out.
Schenker: During all these shows, we realized we have so many young people coming out to see us. You know, I just found out we have four million Facebook fans and their average age is between 17 and 24.
Jabs: We do have a lot of young people in the front of the stage, and I think it’s due to the new media, like Facebook and YouTube. I don’t think we’ve had this many young fans ever. Even in the Eighties, most of the fans were our age. Now they’re under 20. And we were never that young in the Scorpions!

Do you think it’s because there aren’t that many new huge rock bands coming up and people are looking back to the classics?

Jabs: I know! Who’s filling stadiums? Bruce Springsteen, U2, Bon Jovi, the Rolling Stones, and sometimes Scorpions, Iron Maiden and Metallica. It’s still the same ones! There’s not a new band doing that.

Unless it’s Kanye West.

Jabs: Yeah, okay. [waves hand dismissively] I don’t want to know! [laughs]

Photo: Jimmy Hubbard

Scorpions have posted a clip from their upcoming live CD/DVD, MTV Unplugged, which will be released January 21 through Sony International.

The song features a guest appearance by a Hamburg-based singer named CÄTHE.

Recorded and filmed this past September 11 and 12, MTV Unplugged was culled from two sets performed at the Lycabettus Theatre in Athens, Greece. The open-air theater, which is 300 meters above the city, made for an impressive backdrop for the first-ever open-air show in the history of MTV Unplugged.

Scorpions are Klaus Meine (vocals/guitar), Rudolf Schenker (guitars/vocals), Matthias Jabs (guitars), Pawel Maciwoda (bass) and James Kottak (drums); additional support on the DVD includes contributions from Swedish musicians and producers Mikael Nord Andersson (guitars, mandolin, lap steel, vocals) and Martin Hansen (guitars, harmonica, vocals).

[[ Dear Guitar Hero: Submit Questions for Matthias Jabs and Rudolf Schenker! ]]

Got a question for your favorite guitarist? Let us be your go-between. The concept is easy — you submit your queries and we pass them on to some of the world's greatest guitarists. Only the sharpest and funniest questions will be used.

This month, we're giving you the chance to ask Scorpions guitarists Matthias Jabs and Rudolf Schenker anything you want!

Just email your questions to dearguitarhero@guitarworld.com and put "Scorpions" in the subject line. Remember to include your name in the email body, so you can get credited in the magazine, and impress and annoy your jealous friends!

Cort Guitars has announced the second signature guitar from Scorpions guitarist Matthias Jabs — the Arena 1. The guitar features Scorpu pickups, which were designed by Jabs and made to his exact humbucker/single coil/humbucker specs.

The Arena 1 is the second guitar in the Matthias Jabs Signature series. The first, which came out last year, offered a single pickup and a single control setup called the Garage. The Arena 1 goes to the other extreme.

“The idea was to provide guitars to musicians of all levels ... an instrument that could grow with them from their first garage band to their latest arena tour,” Jabs says.

Features include a Full Force Switch and Easy Grip Tone Pot. The switch provides a direct-out option that lets you bypass the electronics of the guitar and send the signal directly to an amplifier or preamp. The Easy Grip Tone Pot offers a single coil push/pull option on both humbucker pickups for maximum tone flexibility.

Specifications include:

• Bolt-on Neck Construction
• Solid Swamp Ash Body
• Maple Neck
• Rosewood Fretboard - 15 3/4" Radius (400 mm)
• 24 Frets - (2.7 mm)
• 25 1/2" scale - (648 mm)
• White Dot Inlay
• Die Cast Tuners
• Floyd Rose Special Tremolo Bridge
• Scorpu Pickups designed by Matthias Jabs (H/S/H)
• Electronics: Two volume, one push / pull tone, one mini toggle, one 5 way switch
• Chrome Hardware
• D'Addario EXL 120 strings
• Matthias Jabs Custom Gig Bag
• Colors: Black and Candy Apple Red

MSRP: $949

For more information, visit cortguitars.com.

Michael Schenker and his band, Temple of Rock, have announced a 12-date U.K. tour in April 2013. The tour kicks off at the ARC, Stockton-on-Tees, England, on Tuesday, April 9.

The band lineup includes ex-Scorpions stars Herman Rarebell (drums) and Francis Buchholz (bass), MSG man Wayne Findlay (keyboards) and Scottish vocalist Doogie White (Rainbow, Yngwie Malmsteen).

The Temple of Rock concerts will highlight Schenker’s time with the Scorpions, UFO and MSG.

For more information, click here.

Michael Schenker, April U.K. Tour:

• April 9 - Stockton Arc
• April 10 - Aberdeen Lemon Tree
• April 11 - Edinburgh Picture House
• April 12 - Newcastle O2 Academy
• April 13 - Holmfirth Picturedrome
• April 14 - Warrington Parr Hall
• April 16 - Falmouth Princess Pavilion
• April 17 - Bristol O2 Academy
• April 18 - Salisbury City Hall
• April 19 - Oxford 02 Academy
• April 20 - Nottingham Rock City
• April 21 - Norwich Waterfront

When Tesla first set the rock world on fire with their debut album, 1986's Mechanical Resonance, Dave Rude was 8 years old.

As fate would have it, in 2006, founding Tesla guitarist Frank Hannon came across The Dave Rude Band on MySpace and asked Rude to join his band as a rhythm guitarist. That eventually led to Rude joining Tesla, where he's remained ever since.

We recently spoke to Rude about his technique, influences and gear.

GUITAR WORLD: Your style of guitar playing suggests influences well beyond your age. Who are some of the players who influenced you in your formative years?

I'm heavily influenced by Stevie Ray Vaughan, Slash, Joe Perry, Steve Vai and The Edge, all the classic guys. My favorite players have a very unique identity and sound all their own. which has always been really important to me and something I strive for. I prefer originality to technical prowess, even if it's a little sloppy or unorthodox. That's where the magic lies.

You are almost never seen without a Les Paul or another Gibson around your neck. Do you have a favorite?

Gibsons and Epiphones are the best guitars around. I've always been a Les Paul player, and I've gotten into Explorers recently too. Epiphone just sent me a new Explorer Pro in a really cool finish I've never seen before called TV Silver, which I am loving.

Also the Gibson Slash AFD Signature Les Paul is out of control. Part of what makes that guitar so great is the Seymour Duncan Slash Signature Alnico II pickups. which are just amazing. They're so clear, you can hear each note in a full chord through a distorted amp, but still hot enough to give you some serious bite and drive. I love them so much that Seymour Duncan is sending me out some to throw in my other guitars too.

What do you use as far as amps and effects?

I play Marshall amps: a JCM 900, DSL 2000 and an older Slash signature from 1997, which is an exact replica of the old Jubilee head from the '80s. The vintage 4x12 cabs with 30-watt Celestions are my favorite -- killer saturation because you really drive the speakers to the breaking point and make them sing.

Can you give us a little background on your "other" band, The Dave Rude Band?

I started that band in 2005, and we made a demo that I put up on MySpace when that was happening. Six months later, Frank Hannon randomly found our profile and sent me an email, which is how I ended up joining Tesla. We've released two EPs which are available at daverudeband.com and on iTunes. I'll be releasing a new album later this summer with some really cool songs that I'm super excited about, too. It's a hard rock thing, and I sing and play guitar.

Tesla will be supporting the Scorpions on their farewell tour. Are you looking forward to soaking up as much of them before they call it a day?

Absolutely!! They're still amazing after all these years. We played a few shows with them in 2010 and they were just on fire. Klaus still sings his ass off and, of course, Mathias and Rudolf are tearing it up. I can't wait. Plus we're doing Red Rocks, which has always been a dream of mine.

2011 saw Tesla release Twisted Wires & Acoustic Sessions, which has lots of interesting material and different renditions of Tesla classics. What sort of gear did you use acoustically during the recording of that record?

I played my trusty No. 1 Les Paul and an acoustic nylon string that Frank has.

When can we expect to hear a follow up to 2008's studio album Forever More?

We've all separately been working on songs for a new Tesla record here and there, so I'm sure we'll get together and lay them down sometime soon. So far there's some cool stuff I think people will dig a lot. Really rockin'. But right now we're focusing on all the touring we'll be doing this summer, both with the Scorpions and headlining on our own after that. We're all looking forward to getting back out on the road this summer!

Tesla will be supporting the Scorpions starting in early June before starting a string of US headline dates. Follow them via their Facebook page and official website.

Having sold more than 100 million records over the course of their 47-year career, German rock gods Scorpions will certainly be missed once the final note rings out on the last date of their two-and-a-half-year-long farewell tour later this year.

But, as longtime guitarist Matthias Jabs explained in a recent interview with GuitarWorld.com, the band doesn’t want to fall victim to an avoidable element that has tainted the legacies of so many groups before them: time.

“We would like to be remembered as Scorpions in top form. I’ve seen too many bands that missed their point. All of a sudden, they don’t play arenas anymore, and then it’s the theaters and then the clubs,” said Jabs, who joined the band in 1978 and played on all of their biggest hits, including “Rock You Like a Hurricane” and “Wind of Change.” “We don’t want to see ourselves aging onstage.”

There’s still some sting left in the rockers’ tails, though. Last week, they released Comeblack, which combines updated versions of their greatest hits and covers of the songs they swear by, including The Beatles’ “Across the Universe” and The Rolling Stones’ “Ruby Tuesday.”

“We narrowed it down to the songs that were all written in the ‘60s,” Jabs said. “The music of that decade had the biggest influence on us.”

GUITAR WORLD: How did you guys figure out which songs to cover for Comeblack?

We had plenty of ideas, but we narrowed it down to the songs that were all written in the ‘60s. The music of that decade had the biggest influence on us, even though ‘70s music like Led Zeppelin did, too, of course. We tried some Zeppelin but decided we shouldn’t touch it. Same with Hendrix. I wish we could’ve done a Hendrix cover, but we were focusing on the vocals, so we were only going to do the song if we could sing it well.

What does it feel like to be nearing the end of your farewell tour?

The farewell started in spring 2010 and we’ve been to a lot of places since then. I think everybody’s trying to postpone the future. Now 2012 will be the final tour and the last time we play in these various cities. You cannot say goodbye to your fans every night. It’s a sad thing, and you get depressed after awhile. When we finally play our last show together, it will probably be a very spectacular but very sad moment at the same time.

Has the band thought about what the last song at the final show will be?

Nobody knows when or where the last show is going to be, so I don’t know. Even though we’ll have played the final show, nobody can forbid us from making music. We can still play together, so the very last song might be much later. This doesn’t mean that we’ll stop making music.

Do you guys feel any regrets about retiring from the road?

No, we never regretted it because it makes sense. After listening to (2010's) Sting in the Tail, which turned out great, we wanted to finish on a high note. We would like to be remembered as Scorpions in top-form. B.B. King, he’s in a wheelchair and playing up there at age 85, but as a rock band, we don’t want to see ourselves aging onstage.

You now famously play a Gibson Explorer, but what was your first guitar?

My first guitar was an acoustic guitar, a Klria. I think it’s an old German brand. I got it from my parents for my 13th birthday. Soon after, I got my first electric guitar, which was a 1963 Fender Stratocaster, which wasn’t considered vintage yet because that was only 1969. It was a great guitar.

What's the most memorable concert experience you've had as a member of Scorpions?

I remember the first time in Bangkok in 1982 we played two shows. It was an adventure! People were trying to thank us by throwing live scorpions onto the stage. It was meant to be a nice gesture. I also remember sitting in a traffic jam on the way to a show in Bangkok and I had the tinted windows rolled down so I could actually see something, and here’s this guy riding on an elephant who waves to me and goes, “Hi Matthias.” That was cool.

Scorpions' latest album, Comeblack, was released January 24 via Sony Legacy. Be sure to visit the band's official Facebook page.

Matthias Jabs photo: Uwe Weger