Throughout their extraordinary career, Scorpions guitarists Rudolf Schenker and Matthias Jabs and singer Klaus Meine have enjoyed the highs and suffered lows of the music business. Having sold more than 100 million albums, with platinum and gold titles including Lovedrive, Blackout and Savage Amusement, played more than 5,000 gigs in 80 countries, and received more prestigious awards than you can shake a Flying V at, the German band are deservedly up among the elite in rock history. The release this month of Scorpions: Colours Of Rock Limited Edition – 12 albums including Fly To The Rainbow, In Trance, Virgin Killer, Tokyo Tapes, Blackout, and Love At First Sting, all on 180g coloured vinyl – is the latest significant milestone on the long and winding road that has taken them from playing clubs in and around Hanover in the 60s to performing on some of the world’s biggest stages.
Rudolf, Klaus and Matthias: December 2022 marked the tenth anniversary of the announcement of Scorpions’ retirement, but you still haven’t stopped. Indeed the past decade has been hugely successful for the band.
Matthias Jabs: To be honest, it is still a mystery to me how the idea of retirement could have created such a stir in the first place.
Rudolf Schenker: At the same time as our ‘Get Your Sting And Blackout’ farewell world tour, YouTube has become a growing platform. Many of the kids who found us first through this medium understandably wanted to see the Scorpions live at least once. This was really cool for us because a new generation of fans really rocked the shows. Such touching experiences make you think: “Is the decision to draw a line under the band the right one?” I think there is only one right answer to that. Besides, the band is quite simply our life. Sitting at home and doing nothing is not us at all.
Klaus Meine: The last ten years have been simply fantastic, and feel like an encore after the regular set-list of a gig that our rock’n’roll life has handed us. The energy during the shows and the enormous buzz within the group shows us that we’ve still got enough gas in the tank. In retrospect, the decision not to quit was exactly right.
You are also on track for 2025 and sixty years of the Scorpions.
Meine: The Rolling Stones have always been a few years ahead of us with anniversaries. That’s why we take a leaf from Mick, Keith and Ronnie’s books. We’ll just see where the road takes us.
What I like about these events are the memories of the Scorpions’ early days. When I was twenty-three or twenty-four, a lot of people laughed at me: “What? You’re still a musician?
