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Ask Rudolf Schenker how he is, ask him how he feels about Scorpions’ Australian tour with Def Leppard in November, ask the guitarist for the German rock legends anything in fact and you’ll be met with an enthusiasm and energy impossible to match. “I. Am. Fantastic!” he shouts down the line.
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Look up the word ‘excitable’ in the dictionary and you’re bound to see an image of Schenker in action. Though he’s ready to talk, the early hour in Germany is, as Schenker putsit , not rock ‘n’ roll time. “Any time is rock ‘n’ roll time, not this early though,” he says, roaring with laughter. “A little rock ‘n’ roll joke there!”
Scorpions, arguably Germany’s greatest rock music export, who brought us hits like Wind of Change and Rock You Like A Hurricane, have so many statistics and achievements to their name you could compare the data to that of a small country. Though the band performed Melbourne’s Palais Theatre in 2016 as part of their 50th Anniversary World Tour, Scorpions are only now coming to Australia for their first full tour–and Schenker, fast-approaching his 70th birthday, is still making music history. In vibrant, broken English, he says, “There’s a secret behind it, an actual thing that most people forget when they become famous, that [it’s] a playground, being in a band – you can do anything as long as you have friendship!
“I was watching The Beatles and Rolling Stones and I said to myself, ‘What they’re doing, four, five friends, I want to do that also.’ That’s the reason I was always looking for good musicians, people I can build the friendship with and that’s the situation which makes the whole life on tour so much more easy! It’s a holiday actually! The fans coming to you, they’re enjoying, you can bring the new music, it’s so unbelievable!
“Actually, we already had an offer in 1991 to go on tour [in] Australia, but the problem was we were already one and a half year on the road and my friends, they were tired. But then grunge came on the scene and the very effective moment was over.
Believe it or not, in the 70’s our first fan club lady was from Australia
[ Rudolf Schenker ]
“Now we’ve got the offer to tour with our very special friends, Def Leppard! We said, ‘That’s the perfect tour!’ because I remembered touring in the 80’s, Def Leppard were our specials guests and we had always [a] fantastic time and enjoy playing with them!”
Schenker holds nothing back as he swoons and gushes his excitement through the conversation. He speaks highly of his band members and peers, though clearly doesn’t see them as such–this is a band of very close friends. On tour, the audience too, become friends of Scorpions. “You know, the music is actually the code for the audience. People who are listening to our music, it’s a code coming, connecting with their brain!
“People who are feeling connected to this music, they are becoming our friends, no question about this!”
Schenker is absolutely ready to mingle with Australian fans, some of their first followers having originated from our fair land. “Believe it or not, in the 70’s our first fan club lady was from Australia, actually! Can you believe it? I forget her name, such a long time ago, but it’s so funny that she was from Australia and leading our fan club–amazing thing!”
The longevity of Scorpions code is admirable and it’s funny, this enigmatic musician, Scorpions, Def Leppard, other bands originating from the same era, though their music in its infancy was called heavy metal some might refer to it now as classic rock despite members still being alive and kicking and very active on the scene. Naturally, Schenker finds this point very amusing. “Classic rock is not a bad word,” says Schenker, “Classic rock is the formula, the basics of what music comes from!
“Classic rock, influenced from rock n’ roll, blues, actually put together from, let’s say, Led Zeppelin, from the Cream, from Deep Purple, and other bands. So these kinds of bands, they’re building roots that came from Elvis, Little Richard, they became a part … Chuck Berry, don’t forget him, I played with him a few times–and then, we end up by the form classic rock! We are classic rock, no question about this!
“I remember when we brought out our album In Trance [1975], in the next moment they talked about heavy metal. ‘We have a new heavy metal band! Scorpions!’ We said, ‘One moment, we are [a] rock band!’
“It was a same situation with our friends AC/DC, they say the same thing. Interviewer said, ‘Hey, you guys are heavy metal.’ ‘What?! We were there before heavy metal, we’ll be there after heavy metal!’
“In this case, we can say, we are a classic rock band, no questions about this, because we have the roots from the old days and we have of course, we innovated our music by using technology and composing differently to fit in the time–make classic rock with a twist, that’s Scorpions!”
Catch Def Leppard with special guests Scorpions at the following dates:
Friday 2 November // Perth Arena // Perth
Sunday 4 November // Adelaide Entertainment Centre // Adelaide
Tuesday 6 November // Brisbane Entertainment Centre // Brisbane
Thursday 8 November // Rod Laver Arena // Melbourne
Saturday 10 November // ICC Sydney Theatre // Sydney
