One of the most successful bands ever and one of the few bands that have been together for over 50 years, and still selling out stadiums all over the world, is hard rock band Scorpions. I had the pleasure of interviewing Klaus Meine, lead singer and one of the best hard rock vocalists of all time.

I asked Klaus about their upcoming tour called Crazy World, and he said, “It’s named after our album 27 years ago. We thought about that these days. It’s a pretty crazy world out there, so we thought this is a very good title for the tour.” The Scorpions were suppose to come to Florida last year, but had to cancel due to vocal issues. I asked Klaus what he was looking forward to most about coming to Florida and he said, “Well, first of all, looking very much forward to come back to play a great show. Hopefully, we have a great evening together with our fans in Florida, because I let them down last year. That doesn’t feel good. You come down with laryngitis and your buddy shows you a red card and sends you back home. It took a while to come back, it’s almost a year. So sorry to all the fans out there, but it feels really good that finally, I have a chance to come back to Florida and to play in Fort Lauderdale.  Of course, in Tampa and all the other dates that were canceled last year as well. Florida is always fun. I remember we had a good time last time in Tampa. It used to be always be a great rock crowd. It’s always been fun, therefore, it’s the last show on this short US tour. We’re looking really forward to throw a crazy rock and roll party with you guys!”

Klaus says, “It feels a bit weird to promote a tour with over 50 years anniversary on there for one second, but then on the other side, it’s something you can really be proud of because, there are only very few bands out there who reach that mark. When you still can pull it off and play a great show for the fans and play pretty much everywhere in the world in front of three generations. Many young kids, especially over here in Europe, in South America or Asia, come to see us for the first time. They go, ‘Hey Scorpions, what a great show, when are you coming back?’ That’s really a big compliment, it feels really good. It’s motivating. The fact that we have around seven million fans on Facebook. That’s like a global stage we’re playing for so many years. That’s very inspiring and motivating. That keeps us going! It’s a young generation. Of course, the fellows and fans that are growing older with us. They are in the back of the arena. It puts a big smile on their face when they see the young kids going crazy on Blackout or Rock You Like a Hurricane. They know all the words, I guess it’s because Rock You Like a Hurricane, it’s featured in so many movies. Like lately, Stranger Things, Angry Birds and all that stuff. Through video games and all that, there’s an access to the younger generation as well. Of course, check it out on YouTube and if they like what they see they might go, ‘Okay, when the Scorpions come to our country or our city, we might go with our friends and have a great, great evening and just rock out.’ Like I said, that’s very inspiring when you see that. That our music makes a connection with a young generation as well.”

The Scorpions have a new member to the band, Mikkey Dee, who used to play for Motorhead for more than 20 years and Klaus says, “He gives the Scorpions a whole new shot of energy. It’s fantastic. He brings out the harder edge of the Scorpions as well. James Kottak had been with the Scorpions for more than 20 years, same as Mikkey for Motorhead. So you don’t want to think about changing musicians after such a long time. It’s feels really no good at all. With James it was a question about rock and roll, or to support his health. James needed the break and we supported him all the way through this. Since we had all these obligations and shows to play, then Mikkey came in. First, he just stepped in for the moment, for a couple of shows. Then later on we decided to go all the way with him. It’s just the way it is. Looking back it was a good thing to do. I think it was also very important thing for James for his personal situation and for his personal life. For our artistic life and with the band, it was a good move in the end to have Mikkey as a full replacement.”

The Scorpions last album released was in 2015, “Return to Forever.” I asked Klaus if there is any plans to release new music and he responded, “Yeah, the thing is of course, we talk about it as well. I think we’re all on the same page there. I mean, we’re pretty much scheduled up until the end of the year, but next year is pretty much blank. I think it’s a good moment, next year, to take a deep breath and go back into the world of creativity and start writing again. I think all of us, we have a feeling there might be an album in the Scorpions, even if nothing is planned yet. You really have to feel confident about it and I think with Mikkey, there’s some fresh blood, but you got to find the right moment. At the end of the day, it’s a band decision. Like I said, nothing is planned right now, but there’s a good chance we might end up next year writing songs. When the time is right, hopefully we come up with a new album. It’s got to be the right moment and everybody must feel great and strong about it. Otherwise, it doesn’t make sense. You have to have the right material and say, ‘Oh, come on guys let’s go for it.’ The whole set up must feel good.”

Some of Klaus’s favorite songs to perform live are, “Of course, Rock You Like a Hurricane. That’s such a worldwide rock anthem, but at the same time, a song like Wind of Change give you chills when the crowd is singing it and you can really feel the deep emotions. Those songs, they feel really good to play onstage wherever we go. It will be the same in Tampa. I know you guys are pretty loud and pretty crazy crowd.”

I asked him what he would consider the most important album to the Scorpions and he said, “I think for me personally, it was Blackout, because in the early 80s I lost my voice, you see. Back then it was really serious, I was almost out of the band. After surgery, I came back and recorded Blackout. What a fitting title that was. It became such a smash. After Blackout, Love at First Sting. I think those albums were really key moments. Blackout has a very special meaning for me. But so was Crazy World, when Wind of Changes became such a smash around the world. There are a couple albums that have really, a very special place in my heart.”

One of Klaus’ biggest musical accomplishments to date is, “It’s not about record sales, it’s more about bringing people together with music. To use the power of music, especially when it comes to places like when we play in the Middle East. We just did a show in Tel Aviv; in a couple of months we play in Beirut, Lebanon. When you can feel the power of music bringing people together as well as the emotions in a peaceful way. When we went to the Soviet Union, back in the late 80s to show it’s not the Germans that came with tanks to Russia, and now we’re also Germans who came with guitars. I like to think that people remember the Scorpions being like ambassadors of peace.”

It’s amazing to me, that as long as the band has been around, that they still continue to be energetic and fresh. The secret to this Klaus says, “It’s our fans and the audience, and the fact that we do what we do. The music, I mean of course, we’re getting older and we can feel it here and there as well. No question about it. I think we stay young in our hearts, and that is just because we’re lucky that we still can live our dream being a musician, traveling all over the world to play music. That keeps you young at heart.”

The music industry has changed drastically over the years and Klaus says, “It changed so much with all the Spotifys and the streamings. In the old days, it was about going on tour to support albums and to sell records. These days it’s like the motivation to go into a recording studio to make an album, you spend a couple of months maybe. In the end, compared to the old days, you cannot compare it. It’s so different. These days I think you would record new songs just to play them live. Just for your fans and for yourself to have something new to play on stage. It’s such a different game these days. It’s all about concerts. There’s a reason that worldwide festivals like here in Europe, in Germany, Wacken, the famous big heavy metal festival or Hellfest in France or so many others. We just played a few in Barcelona, and played the Mexico City Hell and Heaven Festival in early May. There are thousands and thousands of fans and they come to see their favorite bands live. This is what bands are doing today, they go out there on the road and play all those big festivals. It’s like over here in Europe this summer, it was so busy. We just came back from playing around 22 concerts between June and now between London, Paris, Barcelona, Tel Aviv, and Athens. Even the Arena Di Verona in Italy, beautiful places. We had a good time. This kind of life, business is so booming all over the world. That’s because the record sales, they don’t mean anything today anymore. There might be a few artists, of course, maybe hip hop or Beyonce, I don’t know. They probably sell millions of records. The business changed completely that’s why the live business is still so strong and successful.”