With a career that traces back to writing his first songs for the Scorpions at his mother's kitchen table in 1970, the Sarstedt Wunderkind has experienced triumph and tribulation in equal measure over a long productive and, at times, destructive career. It was in 2008 that a renewed Michael Schenker emerged; finally recovering his zest for making music and conquering the crippling stage-fright that had plagued him since his teens.

These past ten years has seen Schenker v2.0 recover the respect of his peers, and restore the acclaim of his avid fans alike, with a succession of vibrant releases from 2008's 'In the Midst of Beauty', 2011's 'Temple of Rock' and most recently two releases under the banner of ‘Michael Schenker Fest’.

This latest iteration of team Michael features the three vocalists from the various versions of his solo band in the 80s, including the sonorous bluesy croon of Gary Barden, the stratospheric wail of Graham Bonnet and the effortless melodic power of Robin McAuley. In addition, the equally well-travelled Doogie White (Midnight Blue, Rainbow, Malmsteen, Cornerstone and more) who rocked the mic on all three 'Temple of Rock' albums.

Originally considered by many as a short-lived one-off project, yet again Schenker has defied expectation as we approach the fourth anniversary of the first Fest shows in early 2016 and now the release of a fully-fledged second studio album 'Revelation'. It's a great cohesive collection of songs, from anthemic opening track 'Rock Steady' to the soaring instrumental 'Ascension' that closes the album. As with 'Resurrection' all four vocalists are very well matched to the songs they perform individually and blend superbly when required, with the addition of another Rainbow alumnus on 'We are the voice' a pot of gold bonus.

All was revealed when Andy Rawll spoke to Michael who explained the theme of the album from the striking cover art to the underlying songwriting process and how, more than ever, his two tattoos 'Born To Overcome' 'Born To Be Free' have resonance in the way he leads his life and drives his career.

Q: The cover art is very striking, it shows you tied to an upturned Flying V in what looks like some kind of a metal crucifixion scene with Graham, Gary, Robin and Doogie and a lonesome Scorpion looking on. What does this signify?

A: It's all about my middle years, the period that started after I split from UFO in 1978 and helped the Scorpions with the Lovedrive album. Basically, it's me breaking away and refusing to be part of the money-making machine and making the decision to follow my own vision, which was to experiment with music and to learn more about life and about myself. In the end, I got slandered, lied about, trashed and humiliated.

I found out in 2015 when they asked me to help them with the Scorpions box set. I actually read the updated 'Lovedrive' story which was completely false and that then opened a whole can of worms. I had a contract with them that I was the sixth member for the recording of Lovedrive, which should have included a picture, which is a breach of contract. There's also my name missing from composition credit and stuff like that. I discovered a lot of stuff. They couldn't handle the fact that I wasn't going to join the Scorpions full-time. They wanted me in there and they were desperate to get to America and I opened the doors to America for them. People in America were already getting very excited.

One time, I was invited on stage in front of thousands of people to jam along with some other very famous people and I was given an out-of-tune guitar with loose strings that would make a fool out of myself. I'm still shocked that people, rather than showing appreciation for helping them with the 'Lovedrive' album, they actually did the opposite.

Another revelation is, Dieter Dirks asked me at the end of the 'Lovedrive' sessions if I could play throughout the whole album and sprinkle Schenker trademarks over everywhere so we could to make it sound fresh and lively. I don't think that many people even know that.

Rather than 'Resurrection', the album could have been called 'Purity and Compassion versus Greed and Corruption'.

I didn't want to deal with the music industry. Peter Mensch wanted to do big business with me get me together with David Coverdale and get rid of Gary Barden, but I originally found Gary Barden, because I wanted to experiment with music and find an unknown singer. I had reached enough fame at the time. I had started off like a kid in a sandbox playing for fun and by 'Strangers in the Night' people were saying "Michael Schenker Is God" and I said "What !". Then Rudolph calls me from America in 1981 and says to me "You won't believe it, they're all playing your guitar style". I had no clue what I had created there.

I was very grateful that I was given so very early an opportunity to experience fame, so I was able to make a decision: do I want to stay in the lane of fame or if I want to carry on with my own vision and be an artist? I had so much stuff in my head that I wanted to get rid of, experimental stuff like acoustic instrumentals. I always celebrated Rudolph's success up to the point that I found out that they were misrepresenting the Lovedrive story. Of course, I had Herman and Francis in my band for four years so I know enough!

So my middle years were devoted to overcoming. My first song was 'In Search Of Peace Of Mind', although it was credited to all the Scorpions, I wrote the song by myself in my mother's kitchen in 1970. There was nobody else there (on the album the song is credited to all band-members). I was already being taken advantage of at that point with me being 15 years old and the others 21. But I accept my position as a 'Jump-starter'. Jump-starting the Scorpions with 'Lonesome Crow' (in 1972); jump-starting UFO with 'Phenomenon' (in 1974); jump-starting the Scorpions again with Lovedrive (1979); jump-starting UFO again with Walk on Water (in 1995). It's incredible that people don't really look at the good things of life: appreciate them and show some acknowledgement at least. When I gave Phil back my share of the UFO name; he never said thank you.

Looking at it the other way, if you want to play the 'If' game, can you imagine what would have happened if I hadn't joined UFO? If I hadn't introduced my friend Uli Roth to the Scorpions? If I didn't leave UFO and help with the Lovedrive album, where would the Scorpions be today?

So coming back to the image on the cover, it represents that idea of purity and compassion v greed and corruption. Like Caesar, he couldn't get enough, he didn't look at the good things he had and always wanted more and then he heard about the boy that everyone was talking about and he got jealous and wanted to kill him. It's a bit like that.

The point is that I'm hanging on the Flying V, I'm being tortured and that's what happened in my middle years. I didn't feel much of it because I was in a different world but this is what happened.

Then in 2008, when I lost my stage fright and I wanted to be on stage, I realised that it was the middle years that had given me everything that I needed to carry on in a happy way. From then on, I went with the speed of light all the way back to the top step by step. The album cover also shows the musicians being ready to fight and rescue me, is just a way of showing the steps that were involved from 2008 all the way up to the point when I got freed from that. Eventually, I broke free from that situation, teaming up with the Michael Schenker Fest and I'm back in life, stronger than ever, and I have a lot to talk about based upon what I found out

Q: With all that past experience, did that influence the new music or did it make it harder to come up with the riffs?

A: The way I do it hasn't changed. How I do my stuff is I don't practice: I play and discover. It's like treasure hunting. I enjoy looking for gold. I know I'm eventually going to find something and when I do I put it in a special place and these are my riffs. I keep collecting them. I do it on a daily basis. Of course, I don't find gold every day, but I find enough. I'm pretty regular. So when it's time to make a record, I just carry on where I last finished. I don't look through all the riffs I have for the best ones that automatically. I do it all the time. I do it from within. I don't take it from a trend, which is why I'm always able to do it fresh because it’s coming from the uniqueness that every person has.

I made the decision when I was 17 to stop listening to music, stop copying people and so therefore I created, as a by-product, my own guitar style and I'm still creating fresh stuff today. Bands that recycle trends are inspired by the freshness of my compositions

After we confirmed the second leg of our Resurrection tour in America for April 2019, I had a window of 6 or 7 months after the last show in England during September 2018. So I called up Nuclear Blast and said I'm not going to sit around, I'm going to use this window now because who knows if the same window will come up again. After all 2020 will be my 50th anniversary (since first joining the Scorpions in 1970). I'm very happy I did that as six months is a good amount of time to make an album. I did that. Got my songs together. This time it was 13. I usually do 12. Right at the moment that I had 13, I stopped listening to any more stuff that I had. I went to the studio put down the first song and off we went.

Q: It's a great album from 'Resurrection' the first Michael Schenker Fest album to the new one, it's great that you have all four singers and this time there are more songs with all of them singing ?

A: Michael Schenker Fest has chemistry. Just like UFO had chemistry. Everything that works and people represents good chemistry. You have what you have, based on what is there. What comes out is what comes out. You look at it and say ‘what is it that I like about Resurrection that I want to hear more of’?, for instance. For example, when I wrote the music for one of the first track on 'Resurrection' and Michael Voss the next morning played what he had lyrics and melody-wise for 'Warrior', I was blown away. Michael Voss is a UFO fan, an MSG fan, an 80s fan, a Graham Bonnet fan, he is the best man for the job and we started together nine years ago with 'Temple of Rock' and then we developed from there and every album from then on I did with him. He did such a great job with 'Warrior', I was so happy with it and 'Last Supper', he was very good with it, he knows exactly which singer needs to do which part.

I said to him "you did such a great job on 'Resurrection', this time I want four songs with all the singers. People enjoy, I enjoy even, guessing who's singing what or guessing which is the next singer coming up. I wanted four songs like that this time. In the end, we managed three. Sadly, Ted McKenna died halfway through the recording of the album. He died on the 19th and on the 24th February were scheduled to record his drums in Frankfurt.

We had many ideas for guest musicians, but that takes a lot of work and it's very time consuming, so I said to Michael Voss, let's get rid of the guest idea and focus on what's important now. First of all, we were stuck in a pit, devastated at the news of Ted's death. Nobody could really understand what happened and the way he died made me so angry. But I said to everybody, look, Ted is watching us and he wants us to rock on and want us to keep on rocking. I had to do that and be positive and then Paul Raymond died. At the same time, I'm kind of feeling, we can't just leave it unfinished; people are getting older, it's going to be more frequent that people are dying and sooner or later it's going to be me. I look at it in a positive way. Nobody knows when they are born, nobody knows when they're going to die. With Paul and Ted passing away, they kind of paved a bridge for me for my own departure. I'm not going somewhere to the unknown where I don't know anybody. I already know that I'm going to be going somewhere where Paul and Ted went. It takes the edge off dying, for me anyway. I look at it in a positive way, that it's not so scary to die as you're going somewhere where everyone else is going

I said to everybody, come on we have to move on, we have to keep this going.

I was focusing on what was most important, which was the almost impossible drum situation. So I asked Simon Philips to do the album, but he wasn't available for touring, so Bodo offered help to tour. I said, ah, two drummers, both family members. Simon Philips, from Jeff Beck, Toto and The Who, was the original Michael Schenker Group drummer and Bodo Schopf was the McAuley Schenker Group drummer, so that was magic. We decided that Simon would play ten songs on the album and Bodo three. I then took Bodo to the UK, just him and me, to rehearse the heck out of the live set, in particular, the beginnings and endings of all the songs. In a two and a half house show, there are 32 songs, but he was so good and so well-prepared that by the 28th we had delivered the master and were ready to go on tour.

Towards the end of the recording, we had into the situation 'We Are The Voice'. We realised that it was the fourth song for everybody to sing, but that didn't seem possible as it had become a double-tempo song. Michael Voss said, before we get into a pit here, there's a guy I know that sings for Richie Blackmore, I can ask him if we wants to do it. Ronnie Romero was so happy to do it and he did such a fantastic job. He went straight to work and nailed it down. It's an unusual song anyway, but with his voice so different to the others it just added a whole new dimension to the thing. So that's how we ended up with a surprise guest singer. We then carried on with the rest of the album. I was the architect, doing the blueprint, putting the windows, doors, the garage and the pool and the musicians decorated the house with sprinkles of solos, sprinkles of keyboards and made it look nice and we gave them the master on the 28th and on the 31st we had a listening party for the international press. People loved the songs and one guy said that when he listens to 'Resurrection' it makes him happy, but if he listens to 'Revelation' he wants to party. By the 11th we were already doing two videos in Los Angeles and on 15th we were on stage and managed everything

Michael Schenker Fest will be touring the UK to promote the brand new studio album ‘Revelation’ in April 2020 as well as celebrating 50 years of Michael Schenker. We will have a fresh setlist and there could even be some extra special guests.

UK TOUR DATES

http://www.michaelschenkerhimself.com/tour.php

16.04.2020 UK Wolverhampton, KK’s Steel Mill

17.04.2020 UK Newcastle, O2 City Hall

18.04.2020 UK Leeds, O2 Academy

19.04.2020 UK London, O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire

Michael Schenker Fest featuring: Michael Schenker (Guitar), Gary Barden, Robin McAuley, Doogie White (Vocals) Chris Glen (Bass), Steve Mann (Guitar/Keys), Bodo Schopf (Drums).

NOTE: Due to scheduled surgery, to alleviate a pinched nerve in his back, and the resulting necessary recovery time, Graham Bonnet will not be with the band for these dates. This does not affect the Japan tour dates during March 2020.

OFFICIAL VIDEO: Behind the Smile

OFFICIAL VIDEO: Sleeping with the lights on

OFFICIAL VIDEO: Rock Steady

OFFICIAL TRAILER: Schenker and co-producer Michael Voss discuss the production of the album

OFFICIAL TRAILER: Schenker and co-producer Michael Voss discuss the album artwork and title

OFFICIAL TRAILER: Schenker and co-producer Michael Voss discuss the drumming

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