Driving Fast
By Tom Lanham
photo by Ian Laidlaw
T
hey say you should always err on
the side of caution. And Scorpions
bandleader Klaus Meine whole-
heartedly agrees. So he isn’t taking any-
thing for granted as his band celebrates its
50th anniversary with its umpteenth world
juggernaut, backing its recent Return to
Forever album, a compendium of mostly
unearthed, unfinished demos from the
Blackout and Love at First Sting era upon
which the band put modern finishing
touches. But at 69, the gale-force banshee is
knocking wood that it all goes off without
a hitch. “Growing older and doing this,
there are only a few bands in our genera-
tion out there doing this,” he noted in a call
last month from his home outside of
Hanover, Germany. “But it’s only fun
when you can deliver every night, and
when you still enjoy it. And going back to
the United States again, playing Madison
Square Garden in New York, coming back
to the Bay Area, hitting the Forum in L.A.
– so many places that are connected so
much with our lives – you do want to
enjoy it. And nobody knows how long we
can do it, you know? We should have
called this tour the Unknown Territory
Tour, because year after year, you don’t
really know how long you can pull this off.
Because all of us, at this kind of age, rock-
ing out like crazy every night? Hopefully
we can still do it for a while.” Mention
slightly older Rolling Stones, and he
snorts. “But The Stones are a blues band,
you know? Jagger playing the harmonica
and Richards playing his guitar – they
could sit on stools and do that, and still
everybody would be thrilled to hear their
wonderful music.” Now, especially with
former Motorhead drummer Mikkey Dee
22
providing a thunder-hoofed backbeat,
Scorpions members don’t stand there idly
in concert – they really move, pinballing
across the stage like the classic arena-pleas-
ing rock outfit they are. But they’ll keep
doing it, Meine swears, “As long as young
kids keep coming to see us, going, ‘Oh,
Scorpions – you were great tonight! When
are you coming back? I just saw you for the
first time!’ That’s just a great compliment,
you know?”
ILLINOIS ENTERTAINER: One of the
most-used songs in metal has got to be
your old chestnut “Rock You Like a
Hurricane,” which is still getting place-
ments in “Brooklyn 99,” “Let’s Be Cops,”
the “Angry Birds” movie, and “Nut Job 2:
Nutty By Nature.”
Klaus Meine: Yeah, I know. It’s cool. We
know that in America and in many other
parts of the world, this song is a big rock
classic. And it feels really good that it’s
played in so many big movies. Even when
Tom Cruise did that Rock of Ages project, I
think he was even singing it, you know?
But it’s wonderful for any band, after a
long career, to have one or two or maybe
more big songs on your list, in your cata-
log, with tons of use. Especially for a whole
new young audience that’s watching
movies or listening to their soundtrack.
That’s really cool. Those are the high
points in the life of a musician, and fortu-
nately, we have a few of them.
IE: And you have kids yourself, right?
KM: Yeah. But of course my son is 31 now,
and he works in Berlin for a big record
company, Universal Music. He’s our guy
in the music business, just working from
illinoisentertainer.com september
2017
the other point of view. Which is wonder-
ful, because he’s also very much into music
and he really loves his job. And Berlin is a
great, fascinating city, and it’s also not too
far away from here where we live. So life is
good, after all these years. We’re a happy
family, and at the same time, we’re still out
there with our rock and roll family, still
touring around the world. We still play this
global stage, which after so many years I
think is a privilege to play in front of so
many generations. I think it’s wonderful
when a lot of young kids are picking up on
your music. To reach them with our music
is great, whether it’s a song like “Rock You
Like a Hurricane,” “Blackout,” or “Wind of
Change” – they certainly understand the
message of that song, about a more peace-
ful world, hopefully, in the future.
IE: You have seen so much in your lifetime.
I mean, you were there when the Berlin
Wall came down, something you probably
never thought you’d witness back then.
KM: Absolutely. We grew up in the shad-
ow of the Berlin Wall, and it was like,
“Okay – this was the price that the
Germans had to pay for WWII.” It was the
way we grew up, and we were lucky we
grew up in the West. So visiting East Berlin
– which (Scorpions guitarist) Rudolf
Schenker and myself did once, when we
played a club there in the early days – was
a really strange experience. And to see that
wall, where so many people lost their lives,
where people were shot, just trying to
reach out and live in a free world, it was
really very emotional for all of us here in
Germany when the wall came down. We
saw people dancing on top of the wall, and
it was a revolution without one shot, with-
out a gunshot being heard. It was a peace-
ful revolution that came from the people
on the street in East Germany. And it was a
wonderful moment in history, to be part of
it and live through this moment in time.
IE: What winds of change do you see blow-
ing through Germany today? And are you
pro-Angela Merkel?
KM: I think she’s doing a great job. Not
only for Germany, but also for being a
great European politician. She’s doing a
great job, but I think the world is going
through some rough times, and she is one
of the key politicians – the Germans feel
about her that, “This is a person we can
trust.” And hopefully, she’ll be carrying us
through these rough waters, and hopefully
it will be good for a united Europe. I mean,
with Brexit, it was quite something, and
we feel like these days, when we play
“Wind of Change” live – which we just did
last week in Auschwitz, which was also a
very emotional moment for us, to be up
onstage there – we say, “Take a look at the
world today. We could use another wind of
change right now – what do you think?”
And the people go, “Yeeeesssss!” And I
think Angela Merkel has the right heart for
that job.
IE: While America is stuck with this belli-
cose, infantile, reality show h