Author: Jernej Vene
Interview date: 11.09.1993
The conversation took place during the worldwide promotion of the album Face the heat.
Vene: I don’t know exactly what you are: rhythm or lead guitarist? How would you define it?
Rudolf Schenker: I’m a musician. Okay: I’m a rhythm guitarist, but my hobby is
playing lead guitar. Mostly I’m a composer, because that’s my favorite thing to do in the music business.
Vene: The main songwriters are the singer Klaus and you. How come?
Rudolf Schenker: I guess I have a knack for writing songs that reflect the times
we live in and that give the audience something. That’s probably the real reason. In Scorpions everybody gets a chance to write songs, which is why we have a producer. We give him over thirty songs and he picks. And it seems my songs are the ones that make it through.
Vene: How do you personally get ready for your long tour? Do you have any special training?
Rudolf Schenker: I do yoga and meditation. I swim a lot, as much as I can. Right now that’s not possible, because there are so many interviews and so much going on around us that I just don’t have time. I always go on tour with a positive attitude and try to stay normal. The road has different rules. There are lots of parties and crazy nights, which is fine. I try to stay healthy and in good shape, since the tour lasts more than a year and a half and people want to see us in good form even after eight months. So I have to be well prepared.
Vene: After twenty years, what does it mean to you to be a member and founder of Scorpions?
Rudolf Schenker: It’s the best thing in my life. Music is my first
love and I’m surrounded by great people to work with. I get to play all over the world and see what’s going on out there. I met Mikhail Gorbachev in early 1991 in Greece on the Crazy World tour. You get a lot of opportunities and you can give people special feelings.
I hope I can keep doing this for more than twenty years. As long as I have something to say and as long as it’s fun, I’ll keep going.
Vene: It’s best to combine passion and work, right?
Rudolf Schenker: Yeah, that’s the main thing.
Vene: Your first album came out in 1972. What lifted Scorpions to this mega-stardom level?
Rudolf Schenker: Chemistry. It’s all chemistry. People who are too wrapped up in themselves forget that success hides in just a handful of people. Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and a few others can make it solo, but it’s different with Led Zeppelin, the Beatles and the Stones. They all try to go their own way, but it never works out as well as when they were together. Paul McCartney once said: I’ll never reach the level I did with John Lennon. And that’s the situation. Take a Piña Colada, for example. Without rum it’s nothing, and without pineapple juice
it’s nothing either. The right mix – that’s the real thing.
Vene: How did you feel when you played in Moscow for the first time, and later at the Peace Festival in 1989?
Rudolf Schenker: We first played there in 1988. It was fantastic. As a German band we always wanted to find out what Russia actually was. Our parents and Germans in general fought the Russians in two wars, and later we were told the Russians were scoundrels. Of course you want to see
what’s really behind that. In Leningrad we had ten concerts, with around fifteen thousand people at each one, and we were really surprised by them, because they were so warm-hearted. In 1989 at the Peace Festival in Moscow we were even more surprised when a hundred thousand people sang Still Loving You along with us. Even the Red Army. That’s when Klaus came up with the idea of writing Wind Of Change. We wanted to show the Russians that we Germans can do more than start a war. We can make music. That was our gift to the Russian people.
Vene: Would you come play in Slovenia, if you were invited?
Rudolf Schenker: We want to be everywhere there’s electricity. If there isn’t any, we’ll show up with acoustic guitars. If things fit our schedule and you have a suitable hall, then we’ll come.
Vene: What keeps you playing guitar for so long?
Rudolf Schenker: Music is my first love.
Vene: Still?
Rudolf Schenker: Yes.
Vene: And always will be?
Rudolf Schenker: Yes.
Vene: How do you manage family life and work?
Rudolf Schenker: I try to keep the right balance. That’s very important in life in general. I was never a family man. Maybe that’s also why my wife loves me and I love her. I always want to go down other paths, and that’s important. When you love someone, you want to let them enjoy life the way you do.
Vene: It’s hard to be away from home for a year. Do you ever pop home just for a moment?
Rudolf Schenker: My home is wherever my head and heart are. It’s nice to be home in Hannover, but it’s also nice here, and in America, and in Japan. Different countries can offer you so many interesting things, so there’s no reason to love home more than other places.
