By Kelley Simms
SCHENKER'S BACK
Michael Schenker
G
erman guitar god Michael Schenker
returns to Chicago’s Concord Music
Hall on May 4th for the second leg of
his Resurrection Tour with his current band,
Michael Schenker Fest. The 64-year-old ex-
UFO and ex-Scorpions fret wizard has been
dazzling audiences for 50 years. Michael
Schenker Fest’s 2018 debut album,
Resurrection, was well-received by fans and
critics alike, leading to successful tours of
Japan, Europe, and the UK. The album reunit-
ed Schenker with former MSG (Michael
Schenker Group) vocalists Gary Barden and
Graham Bonnet, plus Robin McAuley of the
McAuley-Schenker Group, as well as Doogie
White of Michael Schenker’s Temple of Rock.
34 illinoisentertainer.com may 2019
The success of that album and tour persuaded
Schenker to record a follow-up album entitled
Revelation, set to release on Aug. 23 through
Nuclear Blast.
Mosh: What does the title of the new album
Revelation mean?
Michael Schenker: Revelation means to do
something unknown to people. So after hav-
ing lived for half a century of being a musi-
cian, there are many revelations. In general,
it’s based on; “be true to yourself, and every-
thing else will be added unto you and more.”
That’s the revelation of after being true to
myself after all these years; I know who I am
now. I wanted to carry on experimenting with
music and carry on with pure self-expression.
To do all these crazy albums I did, I couldn’t
have done that with Scorpions or UFO. They
were on a different, more commercial trip. I
decided not to be part of the commercial
machine and be true to myself.
Mosh: How did you approach the writing of
the new album?
M.S.: The same way I always write. The same
way we wrote Resurrection. As the years go by,
you always have to deal with different cir-
cumstances. For instance, one brutal situation
was that our dear friend and great drummer,
Ted McKenna, passed away on the 9th of
January during recording and getting ready
for this tour. He went into the hospital for a
routine operation and never came out again. It
was just a routine operation, and that makes
me really mad. You don’t know how to deal
with that [in] any way. The only way I can
deal with it is when fans watching say,
“Michael, keep on rocking.” That’s how I
move forward. The album cover also will tell
you the whole story; the picture tells all. I’m a
musician; I’m an artist. I have plenty of ideas;
Rock is not dead for me. For me, rock is dead
when I’m dead. The whole thing with the
Michael Schenker Fest was after the Michael
Schenker Temples of Rock; we needed a
break. And after the break, I thought [about]
what I could be doing next. So, I wanted to
make a new album. It’s celebration time. My
life structure is different from many people, so
I started writing these songs, and we finished
it. We just had a listening party with the inter-
national press invited, and they loved the
album. One journalist said that Resurrection
made him happy, and Revelation makes him
want to party!
Mosh: While Ted is irreplaceable and deeply
missed, you've reconnected with drummer
extraordinaire Simon Phillips, as well as
Bodo Schopf, both of whom you've played
with previously.
M.S.: The great thing is, Simon’s part of the
MSG family, so we have both drummers
involved, and it’s fantastic. I was blown away
with Simon doing the drums, he’s one of the
best drummers in the world, and Bodo Schopf
is really good. I took him to the UK, and we
worked a lot to make those 150 minutes (stage
time) flow for the second leg of the
Resurrection tour.
Mosh: How did the tracks with the guest
vocalists (Gary Barden, Graham Bonnet,
Robin McAuley, and Doogie White) come
about?
M.S.: Doogie was calling me asking when we
were going to carry on Temple of Rock, and I
said why don’t you join the Michael Schenker
Fest? That was a great step. At that time we
were working [together] for five years
already, and Doogie has already written a few
hits from that period. Everybody is basically
singing their own songs, except when it
comes down to the old songs where we don’t
have the original singer there. It’s more of the
celebration part of the show, and it sums it all
up and reminds people of where I come from
[musically].
Mosh: You also have vocalist Ronnie Romeo
from Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow as a guest
on one song?
M.S.: We were aiming for four “all songs,”
where everybody sings on one song. So basi-
cally we did three songs, [but] I dropped all
the ideas of the guest list that I had because of
Ted’s passing. Everything became more
stressful. It takes a lot of work to invite guests
and explain what needs to be done. So, I said
to Michael Voss, the co-producer, scratch the
guest list, we didn’t have time for that. But
then when we came to the fourth “all song,” it
became complicated to complete it. And
Michael said to me that he had just worked
Continued
on page
page 41 44
Continued on