Accept are the most important heavy metal band Germany has ever produced. Their metallic aesthetics have influenced legions of Europen bands who were swayed by the band's brutal yet euphonious brand of heavy rock, one propelled by a potent double-pronged axe attack. The brash German quintet refined a pile-driving yet melodic style marked by intense shrieks and growls, majestic guitars and headbanging rythms. On their immortal anthem of uprising, "Balls to the Wall," the group developed trademark chants that vocalist Udo Dirkschneider aptly compares to the sounds of slaves singing on ships, an appropriate motif for a band championing the underdogs of the world.
Inaugurated at a time when the term "heavy metal" had yet to achieve mass attention, the group were founded by diminutive frontman Dirkschneider with guitarist (and future famed metal producer) Michael Wagener in 1971. The group went through a series of personnel changes for four years until 1975, when classically inspired six-stringer Wolf Hoffmann and bassist Peter Blates entered the fray, following the next year by drummer Stefan Kaufmann and off-on-again axeman Jorg Fischer.
While their first three albums (Accept, I'm a Rebel and Breaker) steadily advanced their incendiary aural agenda, Restless and Wild was their initial commercial breakthrough, defined by the aggressive speed metal predecessor "Fast as a Shark" and the epic mood-piece "Princess of the Dawn".
Unafraid to take chances, the group made truly bold statements between 1983 and 1986 with Balls to the Wall, Metal Heart and Russian Roulette, successive albums that combined the group's larger-than-life sound with manager Gaby Hoffmann's intense, thought-provoking lyrics that explored concepts such as Cold War tension, the manipulative politics of war, the hypocrisy of religious institutions, the moral dilemma of euthanasia, and sexual confusion. Working under the unusual pen name Deaffy, Gaby broke from rock convention by writing many lyrics that did not rhyme but still maintained a natural flow. She was also a pioneer in being one of only three major female metal managers during the 1980s besides Wendy Dio and Sharon Osborne. Accept's powerful marriage of music and words reached mass audiences as the band toured with Kiss, Ozzy Osbourne, Motley Crue, and Dio during that decade.
Even though Dirkschneider departed the band in 1986- the reasons of which vary depending upon whose side one might hear- Accept eventually continued on with American singer David Reece on Eat The Heat in 1989 but soon faltered and dissolved. Meanwhile their former frontman racked up four solo albums by 1992. However, fans still cried for the original Accept, even after they released the 1990 live album Staying A Life, recorded during their 1985 Japanese tour. In 1993 the group reunited as a foursome for Objection Overruled, the first of three '90s studio albums that would include Death Row and Predator. While Objection Overruled was a brilliant record- and possibly their best work- the group transformed into a one guitar outfit and attempted to tap into the modern metal vibe with Death Row. (In retrospect, neither Dirkschneider nor Hoffmann said he likes it that much.) During the making of and touring behind Predator, internal friction and logistical problems (half the band lived in Germany, the other half in the U.S.) led to the group finally calling it a day in 1998 with the release of the live album The Final Chapter, a double- CD record capturing vigorous Accept concert performances.
Goldmine sat down with two members of the group's classic lineup,
Dirkschneider and Hoffmann, to discuss the history of the band and what
they have been doing since. Sometimes their views and opinions on their
shared experiences differ- in paticular, Dirkschneider easily discusses
negative events while Hoffmann prefers to focus on the positive side of
Accept- but no doubt such dichotomies are what fuled this German musical
juggernaut throughout their lengthy and fruitful career.
Udo Dirkschneider
The inimitable frontman of Accept, Dirkschneider has not stopped making music since he formed Accept. After his initial departure from the band, he released four solo efforts under the moniker U.D.O. (Animal House, Mean Machine, Faceless World and Timebomb). Since the German legends disbanded in 1997, he has released three more studio albums (No Limits, Solid and the new Holy- his first U.S. release in a decade) and a "best of" compilation.
Furthermore he has plans to record a live album in Russia later this year for an early 2001 release. Now that he has his own label, he is working with Nuclear Blast America to domestically reissue his entire back catalog. The releases have only been available as expensive imports these past several years.
Currently residing near Cologne, Germany, the singer with the love-it-or-hate-it style has not forgotten the important legacy his former band left behind. U.D.O. maintains the rugged sound of Accept minus the classical influences. These days, he says, he plays 60 percent U.D.O. songs and 40 percent Accept songs, many of which the band rarely or never performed live. U.D.O. also features former Accept drummer Stefan Kaufmann on guitar and as a co-songwriter, insuring that the famous sound stays alive for years to come.
Goldmine: I understand that you went on tour recently?
Udo Dirkschneider: We did Germany, Scandinavia, Netherlands, Belgium, England and Italy. Now we have a break, then we'll do Spain, France and Greece, then we'll go to the eastern (European) countries like Poland, Hungary and Russia. At the moment, it looks like we may be coming to America at the end of May for a showcase to see how the market is for us. So maybe we'll do eight or 10 shows in America, and then a proper tour is planned for the end of the year. There's a lot of interest (there), and now we have two agencies who are very interested in having us tour.
Do you find that you're gaining some younger fans? Do you see them at shows?
This tour has been interesting. There were a lot of young kids in the audience, so I think the old metal scene is coming up very, very good in Europe. I believe there's still a market for this traditional heavy metal stuff. We (also) have a new market. We're very popular in Russia, so I already did two Russian tours. I didn't expect them to know about this kind of music, but I was very surprised. At the moment, it's a good live market, but they are selling more bootlegs than albums. In June we're doing a festival with 70,000 people. Iron Maiden is playing there. A lot of other bands are going to Russia.
A lot of Accept's lyrics, particularly from Balls to the Wall on, were very heavy in many cases. The band was championing the underdogs while dealing with serious social issues.
We never wanted to be teachers, to tell people what to do. If you watch two or three days of the news, you have four or five ideas for lyrics. There are so many things going on every day with polotics and new laws that you can write a lot of songs. For me it's important to tell some stories or maybe tell the people that there are some problems around, and then they can think about it or not, That's the point.
Balls to the Wall was the first Accept album that developed that style. From that point on, Gaby wrote a majority of the lyrics. How difficult was it to sing someone else's words on stage?
It was easy. For me, it's important to have a story. I have to tell a real story, like an actor in a theater, to perform the lyrics. That was very important. It was not easy for me to write lyrics. The point was I had to tell a story. Now for me, it's very easy to do this.
The media misinterpreted Balls to the Wall as having all these gay themes.
The song "London Leatherboys" had nothing to do with gay people, and everybody was saying this was a gay metal band. [laughs] The lyrics to "London Leatherboys" are about a motorcycle gang.
The song "Love Child" contained the line "feeling the power of lust as a guy's passing by."
The lyrics of "Love Child" were about somebody who was not sure if he was gay or not. But it wasn't a gay song.
It's a human theme, but the metal guys were worried that the song was not about a hot girl.
It's interesting to see how journalists read into the lyrics. The same [thing happened] when we put out Russian Roulette. The lyrics were against war, but some journalists were writing about how we were going into [pro-military ideas]. You have to live with this.
What were Accept concerts like in the 80s?
We had big stage sets. There was a lot of choreography involved. There was always a lot of power on stage. It was always like a big party, people were singing along. It was very important for Accept to get this feeling. We never wanted to have aggressive people in the audience. We were happy when we saw people smiling and having a good time. That was the most important thing.
That's interesting that you say that, though, because the music was very serious. Don't you think it was a way for people to let out their aggression?
Yeah, [but] bands playing grunge music were talking about "I hate myself" and "the world is bad." it was depressing. Or all these thrash bands- they were aggressive and the audience was aggressive. If you go to an Iron Maiden concert or Judas Priest or a Dio concert, it's like a party is going on. The audience is singing along and having a good time. For us, it was important and still is [with U.D.O.], to make music for the kids coming to the show who may have had problems at home or at their job, and for two hours, they're having a good time.
Did accept ever think of writing a hit single like a ballad?
No. We did a lot of ballads, but we never tried to do a song especially for radio.
A ballad such as "Winterdreams" from Balls to the Wall had a dark tone to it. On Objection Overruled, you had "Amamos La Vida," which wasn't about love.
It was about the kids in Rio De Jeneiro living in the slums.
You left Accept around 1986 and between Russian Roulette and Objection Overruled, you recorded four solo albums with your band U.D.O.
It was very difficult for me in the beginning. In '86, Accept was very big, and when you are big, you have a lot of business people around you. Some people came up to the rest of the band and said, "Now we have to break the American market in a big way, and we have to be more commercial, but with Udo we cannot do this." Then they [told me] they were looking for a new singer. We were already selling enough records in America. Accept was known in America, but they did [look for a new singer], so I needed to look for two guitarists, a drummer, and a bass player for a new band. There were a lot of songs left that were composed for the next Accept album. I wanted to take them for the first U.D.O. album. It was very easy for me because I had the songs. I was just looking for the right members. When it {Animal House] came out, everybody said it could be the new Accept album. I was already recording the second U.D.O. album and they were still working on their first album with the new singer. When they were finished with this new album, they started touring in America, then the whole band split up. Everybody said, "What is this?" Eat The Heat was a good album, but it was not Accept anymore. I did the third album [Faceless World], which Stefan Kauffmann produced, then I started writing songs with him again. When Staying A Life came out, I was already in the studio recording Timebomb. We kept getting tons of fans' letters from all over the world [pleading], "Please get back together!"
What happened then?
When I was finished with the Timebomb tour, Wolf and Peter were living in America, and I hadn't seen them for two years. They had to do some business in Germany. We got together and [soon decided to] try a reunion of Accept. At the time, the Timebomb album was selling very well. I had a very good European tour. It was hard for me to give up U.D.O. and do Accept again. I said, "First, let's start composing and see what songs can we do after all these years." Then we had the songs, and I said, "Let's do it." I think Objection Overruled was a really good Accept album. It sold very well, and we had a successful tour. But when we started rehearsing for the tour for Objection Overruled, we had a second guitar player who got a solo deal and two weeks before the tour, his lawyer said he could not go out with Accept on tour. We couldn't cancel the reunion tour, so we changed all the arrangements and then toured just with Wolf. After this tour, people asked for us to look for a second guitar player. The Accept sound always had two guitars. When we did Death Row, Wolf didn't want to have a second guitar player anymore. He felt more comfortable alone. In a way, the Death Row album was too modern- it was like Pantera. The other problem was that Stefan Kauffmann couldn't play drums anymore, so we had to look for a new drummer. The Predator album was a good album but not a real serious one. For me, Peter [Baltes] was singing too many songs on the album- I mean, i don't have a problem with this- but when the album came out, people asked me, "Who's the lead singer?" After touring for a week in America for Predator, [the band] said, "this is the last tour. We want to stop." That was it. [There were] too many problems, and [they] were feeling that the atmosphere was not right anymore. I didn't want to stop, so after that tour, I started U.D.O. again and started writing songs with Stefan again.
Since predator, U.D.O. has done No Limits, Solid and Holy?
Yes. I think it was the best thing to stop with predator. Now I'm very happy. Accept still has a good name, and we did a lot of things in the business. I know that a lot of bands were inspired by Accept. A lot of people asked me, "Why did you not take the name Accept?" I didn't want to do this. The most important people in Accept were Wolf and Udo. There was a trademark. Without Wolf, it isn't Accept. I already did four albums with U.D.O., and everyone knows who I am. It was very hard in the beginning when I did the first album [after predator], and everybody said, He's doing a solo album again, and after this Accept is coming back together." I said, "No, not this time, This is definitely over." After I did No Limits, people started realizing it was true. What we're trying to do now with U.D.O. is keep the spirit of accept alive.
Do Stefan's back problems affect his guitar playing?
No, this is easy [for him]. With the guitar, it's no problem. It's a lot of fun. The whole chemistry is right. It's very comfortable at the moment. For me, the most important thing is to have fun. I still like to make music. I don't know how long I want to do this, [but] now with my own record label, it's much easier to do everything. I can control everything. Now when I make a mistake, I make a mistake on my own.
Looking on the back of Timebomb, I noticed that Deaffy is listed on almost all the songs.
I was writing lyrics together with Gaby.
Were these older lyrics from Accept?
No, when I did the Timebomb album, I asked her to do some lyrics together, and she said yes.
So even though you've been in and out of the band, you were still friends with them?
Yes. We never had any real serious problems. I think we were also old enough to know when we had to stop the whole thing, that the chemistry was not right anymore.
You definitely have a style that repeats on each U.D.O. record, a classic metal vibe, but I like it. It's heavy but very melodic. It has that Accept sound, but there are elements you wouldn't hear in Accept, such as the song "Trip To Nowhere," which has fast verses with a very light guitar sound. Meanwhile, Timebomb sounds like you were listening to [Judas Priest's] Painkiller a lot.
Timebomb was a very aggressive album. I had some problems, not with
my record company, but with my production company. There were a lot of
bad things going on contract-wise. When we did this album, the atmosphere
was very aggressive. It reflects in the songwriting. I never know what's
coming up. In a way, it keeps you alive. I don't go into the studio and
say "Now we have to do this and this and this." On Holy, [we have the song]
"Cut Me Out,"
which has a gypsy [motif] in there and a very jazzy solo. It's very
funny. [Now] it's one of the best live songs. Everybody likes it. We [now]
have airplay.
What would you like the legacy of Accept to be, or what do you think you will be remembered for?
I notice that a lot of bands were inspired by Accept. I asked them
why, and they said it was the quality of the music and [the fact that]
we wrote serious songs. One band told me that the first time they first
heard Breaker, it was completely new. They had never heard something like
this before. A lot of bands said that it was how Accept composed songs,
putting aggressive and melodic things together.
Wolf Hoffmann
Equally as important as Udo's incensed shrieks and growls were the guitar pyrotechnics of Wolf Hoffmann, an agile guitarist who combined his passion for rockers such as Uli Roth, Ritchie Blackmore, and Angus Young with his love for classical masters such as Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, and Mozart. He remarked that the band eventually found a style somewhere between Judas priest and AC/DC. But his classical influences remained.
Since the dissolutionof Accept, Hoffmann has immersed himself in photography but kept his hand in music. He released his solo album Classical a year and a half ago through his website at www.wolfhoffmann.com, while also securing an official release in Japan. The disc features him jamming on famous pieces such as "In The Hall Of The Mountain King" and "Bolero" in his own distinctive manner. The album rocks but doesn't lose sight of the dynamics and passion of the original works. Hoffmann's other musical endeavors have included writing a song with former Skid Row frontman sebastian Bach titled "(I'll Never Turn My Back On) Rock 'N' Roll," which appears on Bach's recent solo album, Bring Em Bach Alive. [See story on page 26.- Ed.] as well as recording two seperate covers with Bach and former Rainbow singer Joe Lynn Turner for a Japan-only Randy Rhoads tribute album.
Currently residing outside Nashville with his wife Gaby, Hoffmann keeps busy shooting photographs. The couple also co-own a studio on their property. They built the studio for Michael Wagener, and it's where he produces albums for many heavy metal bands. Proximity to this facility led Hoffmann to collaborate with Bach and could conceivably introduce him to other musical inspirations in the future.
Goldmine: You've been doing a lot of photography the past few years.
Wolf Hoffmann: Forever actually. I've always been interested in doing fine art photography, selling in gallaries. Since this whole band thing came to an end two or three years ago, I went that route and decided to keep contracts in music, and if anything happens that's fine, but I'm not going to push it like that anymore. That's what I do these days- I go out and take pictures of people, and I'm enjoying the hell out of it.
Do you work with models?
Models, advertising photography, basically having a day job, only I'm freelance. I'm in charge of things. When you're in a band, you're in it together. Accept was always the five of us or the four of us, and if one guy didn't show up or one guy screwed up, everybody went down with it. I got tired of that over the years. That's why I'm doing something where I can be creative, and if it sucks, it's my fault and nobody else's. It's not because the drummer didn't show up or something.
As you get older, your tolerance for bullshit drops.
I look at it this way- you have to be greatful that it did last that long. What are the chances of five young [guys] getting together and staying together for as long as we did? [We came] from different backgrounds, and everybody developed different personalities. What are the chances of that actually working out? What a stupid idea to begin with, to have a band. [chuckles] How strange is that? If you think about it, nobody else in society does it that way- just friends getting together and starting an enterprise like that is very rare. It hardly ever lasts as long, but it did and it was great while it lasted, but it was time for something else.
What's interesting about the band is that even with Udo's aggressive vocals, there is always that sense of melody. You obviously like classical music and even stole a couple of pieces here and there.
That was totally on purpose. That was kind of a statement. I always liked more melodic stuff, and I always thought that opposites attract. It's nice to have the total aggressiveness and the raw power. [But] if you just have aggressive metal and noisy solos on top of that, it's not as cool as if you have an aggressive sound and rhythm and then some melodic stuff on top. To tell the truth, I never really analyzed it much or gave it that much thought. I just played from the heart.
I think it's cool that you brought in the classical sound. There's a strong connection between heavy metal and classical music.
Certain classical genres have a lot of parallels to metal, because it's all about being big and powerfull. It can be very aggressive and very emotional. It can really grab you.
The band really began to solidify their sound with Balls to the Wall, in terms of a unified musical and lyrical approach. You collaborated with the lyricist Deaffy, who was actually your wife [and the band's manager] Gaby. She didn't want people to know who was writing the lyrics. Why do you think people would have had problems with a female lyricist for a male band?
You have to keep in mind in those days the metal audience was kind of intolerant towards new ideas. It was five guys up on stage doing their thing, and just the idea of having Gaby the manager actually writing the lyrics would not have been so cool. Nowadays we can all laugh about it. I still think it's great.
Another interesting thing about that record is the fact that some of the songs were misinterpreted as having gay themes. I remember metal magazines kept asking about it. It says a lot about the metal audience that they were that concerned about it.
Not only that, it says a lot about Americans. It had never been much of an issue anywhere in Europe, because in that respect, people are a little more open-minded, and they can see through things. If you try to provoke somebody with just writing about this kind of stuff, it doesn't automatically mean that you are gay. We always made fun of it. It was hilarious, man.
Gaby explored many serious lyrical themes, and the Cold War definitely had an influence on her writing.
You have to realize [that] where we're from polotics are a way bigger part of life. Social issues are discussed more openly. When you pick up a magazine, they're full of controversial things, sexual issues, on a daily basis, much more than over here. It just seemed natural to bring that [into our songs]. It hadn't been done quite as much in the metal world, but we had Gaby write the lyrics with us, whatever touched her or whatever issue [inspired her]. We loved it. We wanted to be a little controversial and never follow a mainstream kind of path. We always wanted to do it our way.
How did fans in Germany react to the record?
For the most part, they loved it. In Europe, the dividing factor was never the lyrics, [but] it was Udo's voice. People either couldn't stand him or they adored him. A lot of people were interested in the lyrics, but there was never a big outcry over them.
How did Gaby help shape the band during the '80s?
A great deal. We probably wouldn't even have been around for as long without her, and for sure we never would have gone anywhere without her. She was really like a band member in a way. She was a manager, but she was like a family member. For several years, she wrote [all the lyrics] exclusively. In the latter years, she lost a little bit of interest, and we had a guy from England help us form our ideas and put them in the right words. She was always involved, all the way to the end, but she didn't write like she used to [at the end].
I understand that she was involved in everything.
When she came on board, everything changed. She worked on the stage shows with us, and she really taught us how to do things. She took care of the business, she got us our first deal, she got us our first major tours, and without her, nothing like that would have ever happened. She always downplayed her role if you would ask her [about it].
You married her, but you weren't dating when she first came on board.
No, it was afterward. It didn't take long for us to click, but we kept it under wraps. Most people didn't find out 'til we finally got married 10 years ago. We didn't really hide it from anybody, but we didn't make a big issue out of it either.
Metal Heart was the most diverse Accept record.
I thought Metal Heart was a great record. It was the first time I actually did that whole classical thing. We got a great response from it. People loved that [Beethoven] "Fur Elise" thing in "Metal Heart". I was actually surprised at how big of a deal [it became]. It was just a little thing I did, and I thought, "Wow, that seemed to work well. Let's do it again sometime."
Many of Accept's lyrics did not complicate the issues, but they were rebellious outcries against political injustices or social problems. Was it ever the intent to constantly bring this stuff to the forefront, or was it just the way Gaby wrote?
It's the way Gaby's mid worked and still does. Sometimes there were people in the band who weren't 100 percent sure that that was the right way to go. There's always a certain percentage of the fans who don't get it. They don't want to deal with any of that stuff. They just want to come to the show and party. We got a lot of mail from people who appreciated it, who understood why and whatnot, but sometimes we weren't so sure that it was always the right way to go. It's tough sometimes. You ask yourself, "What can we do that's going to be different enough where people will take notice?" We don't want to offend too many people, yet we want to be rebellious. You're always walking a fine line.
After Russian Roulette, Dirkschneider left to do a solo record, although the band wrote music with him. How did that work?
We were still good friends with Udo at the time, and we just thought we'd go different ways. He couldn't write songs, so we had all these ideas, and we wrote a record for him. It was a piece of cake actually, because we had been doing it all these years. The band got together and wrote a bunch more songs and just gave him all these songs. It's one of his better records.
Accept made Eat The Heat with American singer David Reece after Dirkschneider's Animal House.
We had a hard time finding a singer, and when we finally did... I thought we had some great songs, but it took a long time to get everything ready and get it done right. We did a video, went on tour and didn't survive the tour. We didn't get along with each other then.
What was the reaction to having a new frontman?
I don't think it was really working for the fans. I know it wasn't working internally. I know we weren't as good on stage as I wish we could have been. It's hard when you grow together as a band over years and years and years and all of a sudden you have a new frontman. Everything's different. On top of that, we had to play with a new drummer live, because Stefan had a health problem with his back. It was not the same thing anymore.
When did he start having problems with his back?
Around 1990. He left the band for a little while, then he came back when we had our reunion, then he left again.
Is this a problem he had all his life?
Nobody really knows for sure where it really came from or how serious it really is. There are different speculations about how it all started and how serious it is. It could have been from the way he had his drums set up. He played real hard, and he never was the athletic kind of drummer who warmed up before the shows. He was always a rough guy- "Let's go out and do it." He had his drums set up in a pretty bizarre way where he was playing over his shoulder. The hi-hat was kind of way back. he thought it looked cool. That's the way he thought it should be, and he got used to it. i think it fucked up his back pretty badly.
So you didn't finish the tour with David Reece then?
No. We went on tour in America, and it didn't even last three weeks until we finally broke up because it wasn't tolerable.
Could he not deal with the lifestyle? Was he not experienced?
I don't know exactly what it was, but we never grew together. i think the drugs in his previous life played a certain role there, messed up his brain to a certain extent. He was always paranoid about things. He was just high maintenance. I don't know if you have any friends like that, but even when they stop taking drugs, they're kind of done for life. They're always a little wierd. I've had quite a few- even when they showed up sober, they're really nice, but something remains. That might have been the case there. I don't really know, but he was really wierd and hard to deal with.
After the Berlin Wall came down, did you get the chance to play any Eastern bloc countries?
We did, before and after actually. We played in East Germany, we played in Poland, and it was pretty wild to see these countries change that fast over the years. I never thought that damn wall would come down, to be honest, because when you grow up there and you see those guard towers and the barbed wire and how rigid and tight this whole system was run, you would have thought it was stronger than anything. Then all of a sudden, overnight, it was no more. It was wierd.
I heard that during the song "Russian Roulette" you would goose-step around the stage, mocking the communists and the fascists.
Totally. We played in Poland at the time, and because it was under Russian "supervision," however you want to call it, they asked us not to call that album russian Roulette in radio interviews. We had to call it Roulette of Life or something like that because the term Russian roulette was considered anti-Russian.
On Objection Overruled, what was it like to write for two guitars but to play both yourself?
I loved it, and the band loved to play like that way better than with two guitar players. A lot of people don't realize that when you have two guitar players playing exactly the same thing, it's like a fucking chain gang, man. You have to be drilled like the army to play exactly a certain way or else it sounds totally messy. When Jorg [Fischer] left the band and we tried out some new guy, it was a major issue how it would sound and how tight it was. Jorg was on and off there for many years. It was a major pain every time getting new guys tight enough to where it would sound good. So when we got back together and decided to go out as a foursome, it was a huge relief for everybody. It was way more fun.
The Accept fans were pretty loyal over the years. Do you still get letters and e-mails?
Since I've had my website, it's incredible. I get these heartbreaking e-mails on a daily basis from people who tell me how much I meant to them and how much I influenced their guitar playing, which is really moving. It opened my eyes quite a bit, because yo never really have that contact with people from all over the world. I get letters from Russia and Scandinavia. It's wierd. The only people I haven't seen much on the Net are the Japanese, who always were the most loyal and dedicated fans we had. Maybe they are not that prominent on the Internet yet.
If people asked Accept to do a reunion, do you think that would ever happen?
No, it's out of the question.
Are you tired of doing music?
No, it's not that. We live worlds apart, literally, and we drifted into different priorities.
You recently made your Classical album.
I loved doing that. I had a ball. I had a very clear objective. I knew exactly what I wanted to do and exactly how I wanted to do it. It's very easy for me to do something if I have a clear goal. I do it until I'm totally satisfied, then I leave it alone and never touch it again.
What would you like the legacy of Accept to be?
I can't speak for the whole band, but I can speak for myself. To me it was always important not to be a phony or a poseur. I always wanted to do what I like doing and do it the best I could at the time. It was always more important to me to leave a little bit of musical history than do a song like [Warrant's 1990 Top 10 hit] "Cherry Pie." Ideally, I would have had both- we would have stayed true to our principles and sold more than "Cherry Pie"- but that never happened. But against all the odds, with a singer like Udo and being this wierd little band from Germany, we did fairly well, I thought.
You left a mark.
I think so, too. You know what is really satisfying to me? A couple of years, in one of the magazines- I think it was Guitar Player- there was [a list of] the 100 greatest guuitar riffs, and we were there at number 20-something [for] "Balls to the Wall." I wrote that riff and thought, "Damn, maybe I did something!" I liked that more than a lot of the other things we achieved. I don't know why, but I did.