Your source for news about the Scorpions since 1996.

go jimmy go recently spoke with Matthias Jabs about MTV Unplugged and got an update on the band’s current activities. We also discussed the 30th anniversary of the band’s monumental album, “Love At First Sting”.

http://gojimmygo.net/2014/02/13/guitarist-matthias-jabs-talks-scorpions-mtv-unplugged/

A little teaser for American fans:
Q-Is the band planning any U.S. tour dates this year?
MJ-Yes, we’re working on playing some U.S. shows maybe in late summer.

This Saturday February 15th Rudy and Klaus will be on “That Metal Show” where both members will skype into the show.

Klaus Meine, Rudolph Schenker Share Career Retrospective InTheStudio
Dallas, TX – February 11, 2014. North American syndicated Rock radio show and website InTheStudio: The Stories Behind History’s Greatest Rock Bands gets rocked like a hurricane by the Scorpions on the 30th anniversary of their biggest selling album Love At First Sting.
The Scorpions from Hanover Germany had been the decade-long international long shot when their 1982 album Blackout blew up Top 10 in the US, powered by the # 1 Rock radio track “No One Like You”. The Scorpions’ follow-up album Love At First Sting two years later soared to # 6 on the Billboard album chart with triple platinum sales while delivering a blitzkrieg of rock anthems including “Rock You Like A Hurricane”, “Big City Nights” and the signature power ballad “Still Loving You”. But the real story is how the Scorpions overcame unbelievable barriers of distance, language, lack of management, their lead singer’s desperate throat surgery, the notorious East German Stasi secret police, and the Berlin Wall to be key players with Soviet Premiere Mikhail Gorbachev’s dismantling of Communism in the Soviet Eastern Bloc. Lead singer/ songwriter Klaus Meine shares with InTheStudio host Redbeard how Rock’n’Roll helped them escape the uber guilt of Germany’s Nazi past and build a future.
“We were not proud of our country and our parents were not proud of our country. They just survived the (Second World) War. So rock music is the way we got out. And starting as young musicians playing English and American music, it was in a way something like an attempt to be part of the world community, to escape a place where you feel this burden.”
This week’s InTheStudio program celebrates the best of the Scorpions including the international hit “Wind of Change” which provided the soundtrack for freedom during the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
Scorpions ‘Love At First Sting’ / InTheStudio interview program is available now to stream at: www.inthestudio.net/redbeards-blog/scorpions-love-sting-3

knac.com recently had the chance to sit down with legendary vocalist Klaus Meine of SCORPIONS to discuss their newest project MTV Unplugged. Recorded live in Athens, Greece to a crowd of about 3,000 under the stars, it’s available now on CD/DVD/Blu-Ray. Klaus was very excited about it, and rightfully so. We also talked about what the future holds for the band. Check it out: http://knac.com/article.asp?ArticleID=10902

SCORPIONS guitarist Matthias Jabs revealed in an interview with Classic Rock Revisited that his band is recording a cover version of RAINBOW’s “Temple Of The King” for inclusion on the upcoming Ronnie James Dio tribute album. The collection, which is being assembled by the singer’s widow and longtime manager Wendy Dio, will also tentatively include contributions from METALLICA, ANTHRAX, JUDAS PRIEST’s Rob Halford, MOTÖRHEAD’s Lemmy Kilmister, DEEP PURPLE’s Ian Gillan, Alice Cooper, Glenn Hughes (DEEP PURPLE, BLACK SABBATH), HALESTORM, Sebastian Bach (SKID ROW), Chris Jericho (FOZZY) and Dave Grohl (NIRVANA, FOO FIGHTERS).

“I’m letting them pick what songs they wanna do in the way they wanna do it,” Wendy told Artisan News in 2011.

The Dio tribute album will see Grohl covering BLACK SABBATH’s “The Mob Rules”, Halford contributing a version of RAINBOW’s “Long Live Rock ‘N’ Roll” and HALESTORM delivering a rendition of “Straight Through The Heart”.

“We reached out to Wendy Dio about wanting to be a part of the Dio tribute that’s getting put together,” METALLICA singer James Hetfield told U.K.’s Metal Hammer magazine. “We’re very honored to be a part of that, and to be a part of a celebration of Ronnie’s life and his great contribution, man.”

In an interview with Guitar International, former ANTHRAX guitarist Rob Caggiano stated that the band’s cover version of “Neon Knights” “came out pretty smoking.”

Ronnie James Dio, best known for his work with BLACK SABBATH, RAINBOW and his own band DIO, died of stomach cancer on May 16, 2010 at the age of 67.

Read more at http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/scorpions-recording-cover-of-rainbows-temple-of-the-king-for-ronnie-james-dio-tribute-album/#jfJDx8G3l9OwyL3i.99

Matthias Jabs interview at www.classicrockrevisited.com – http://www.classicrockrevisited.com/show_interview.php?id=1029

http://www.rocklineradio.com/

We  were beyond saddened to learn a couple of years back that Germany’s finest Rock  & Roll export, the Scorpions, had decided to begin unwinding their career  as a live touring band, yet they alluded to the fact that there might be more  music released over the years. Already, we have something new to celebrate. On  the heels of their LIVE 2011 release and 2010 studio album, “Sting in the  Tail”, the band has decided to strip things down again. Not since their  2001 release, “Acoustica”, has the band taken such elaborate steps to  offer more with less. Assuming, of course, one views acoustic as somehow less  or inferior. Even a cursory look at the new DVD/CD “Scorpions: MTV  Unplugged in Athens” will dispel any notions of anything construed as  less; the stage is teeming with performers, a coterie of female background  singers, an accordion player, harmonica, piano/keyboards, beautiful, exotic looking  instruments, a string section and in the middle of it all Klaus Meine resolute  and confident in the eye of the storm, his domain. Matthias Jabs is on fire  from the get go, his picking style of guitar playing really lending itself to  an acoustic performance, Rudolph Schenker plays a wide range of guitars,  sneaking in a bit of electric, and even offers some sitar and a lead vocal too.  The Polish prince, Pawel Maciwoda, stoically lays down fluid bass lines  propelling the delicate yet powerful band throughout the evening and American James  Kottack is so tasteful and in the moment on his drum kit that he’s sometimes  forgotten. From note one, Scorpions lay down a nasty groove that persists  throughout the evening. The completely rearranged “Sting in the Tail”  begins the set and sets a tone. This show, all two hours of it, is something  special. Visit at       The-Scorpions.com

Klaus  once said to me the European audiences seem to enjoy the slightly softer side  of the band where the Americans wanna rock more. Likely, “Humanity” was  more in line with Europe in its scope, “Sting in the Tail”, perhaps  more USA. There’s very little to not enjoy in this sparkling set from Athens. It’s  an ornate and beautiful show, powerful in performance, symphonic in scope. Their  songs take on a new dimension, they resonate differently, they’ve been given  new life and we cannot imagine any band performing at this level calling it  quits anytime soon. Scorpions give us the hits we want, offer five new songs  and have structured their set so it all flows beautifully as well. A terrific  new song, “Dancing with the Moonlight” is followed by “In  Trance” (for longtime fans) featuring a duet with Klaus and Cathe  intertwining her made-for-rock voice with his. Arrangements are so clever at  one point Meine teases the audience to identify the song the band is playing  under him. They can’t….until the chorus of “Blackout” removes any  doubt. Something special for sure.

Join us for Klaus and  Matthias from the Scorpions on the next Rockine!

-bc