42 PLANET ROCK
What was the first piece of music that truly
connected with you?
Well, my brother Rudolf is six and a half years older
than me, so whatever he was listening to – Elvis
Presley, The Beatles, Rolling Stones – automatically I
heard too. I think the first song I learned to play on
guitar though was Hippy Hippy Shake by The Swing-
ing Blue Jeans. From day one, Rudolf was obsessed
with becoming famous, while I wanted to be a
musician. He once told me a story about an Elvis
movie where Elvis’s character had a blond younger
brother. Apparently, the dark-haired brother, played
by Elvis, became a star, while his younger blond
brother got nowhere and died. I was thinking, “What’s
the message here, Rudolf?”
Were your parents musical?
My father used to play violin, before we were born: he
actually used to earn money playing it in the street. I’d
hear him playing and say, “That sounds like someone
standing on a cat’s tail!” But he always had a smile on
his face when he played, and that passion was nice
to see. My mother had fun playing our small piano,
and my parents both loved waltzes, so they were
always dancing. The first song I wrote, In Search Of
The Peace Of Mind [which appeared on the debut
Scorpions album, Lonesome Crow], is actually a
waltz. When people ask me where my classical
influences come from, I always think I must have
absorbed the music as an embryo.
You were nine when you began playing the
guitar which Rudolf received for his 16th
birthday: what first attracted you to the
instrument?
Our bedroom was full of Rudolf’s posters of musi-
cians with guitars, so I was always curious. Plus I was
hearing The Beatles and the Stones for the first time,
this wild, crazy music from England that was making
girls scream and cry. So when there was a guitar in
the room, of course I was going to touch it. I immedi-
ately had a connection with it and wanted to experi-
ment. I wasn’t learning chords, or learning from a
book, I was experimenting by playing one note after
another on a single string, and I just went from there.
What can you tell us about your first band,
The Enervates?
I was 11 years old, and Rudolf told me
about this band in [hometown] Sarstedt
that needed a guitarist, and said, “If you
want to join them, I can connect you.”
So I did. We played hit parade music,
anything that was on the radio, and per-
formed anywhere people could dance.
My first time on-stage, though, was
actually with Scorpions, when I was 11.
I fell in love with Hank Marvin, and the
music of The Shadows, so my first per-
formance was jamming Shadows songs
with Scorpions. A few years later, when
Rudolf moved to Hanover for work, he
met a band called Cry, later Cry Express,
who were pretty professional, even
though they were also really young, just
my age, and they needed a guitar player.
So then I played with them for a year,
until Rudolf decided I was ready for my next big step.
Did you have any reservations about joining
Scorpions when he offered you a role in
his band?
Well, you have to understand how it happened.
Klaus Meine was Rudolf’s favourite singer in the
neighbourhood, and he
understood that with
Klaus and I alongside him
he had a chance to break
through. Rudolf used me
to get Klaus to him, be-
cause Klaus wanted to
play with me. Klaus and I
had started Copernicus
with the drummer from
his old band Mushroom
[Mike Grimke] and the
bass player from Cry
Express [Holgar Twelve].
We were playing Rory
Gallagher, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Led
Zeppelin songs, and because Klaus had such a great
voice we sounded really professional and powerful.
Scorpions played right next door to us in the rehears-
al space, and they were still playing dance music, but
Rudolf could hear how great we were. So then he
sent his bass player into our room, and he said, “Hey,
Klaus and Michael, do you want to jam with us?”
I can’t believe that Klaus and I just said, “Oh, OK!” but
we did, and left the other two guys sitting there!
It was exciting for me because the Scorpions
rhythm section was incredible, they were a step
ahead of anyone I’d played with. Rudolf was more
a manager than a musician, a businessman in musi-
cian’s clothing, and he had a vision of how things
could work out. So basically we never went back to
Copernicus. I was Rudolf’s tool and slave, he took
advantage of me to get what he wanted.
The first Scorpions album, Lonesome Crow,
was recorded in just one week, with Conny
Plank. What do you recall about the making
of that record?
I remember that I wrote all the songs but they were
credit- ed to the whole band. I wrote In Search Of
The Peace Of Mind, and after that I just
kept writing: some of my pieces ended
up on Fly To The Rainbow, the second
Scorpions album. The first album was
made quickly, and my guitar playing was
pretty raw, but I think with Klaus and
myself you could hear the potential
from the start, and Scorpions started
getting international attention immedi-
ately. The two years we toured with that
album were fantastic and fun, I remem-
ber us drinking and singing Beatles
songs as we drove around in a VW bus,
and every day I learned something new.
During those two years Rudolf and
I were closer than we ever were again.
Scorpions supported UFO in
Germany in the summer of 1973,
and you stepped in to help the
English band out for a couple of shows when
fill-in guitarist Bernie Marsden went AWOL.
What did you know about UFO at that point?
I knew nothing. But I learned that they already had a
few hits in Germany – Prince Kajuku, Boogie For
George and their cover of C’mon Everybody – and
they didn’t want to cancel the tour when they
-$ 18 $5<0,&+$(/6&+(1.(5 5(&(,9('$ 1 ( 0 $,/ 287 ĥ 2 )ĥ 7 +(ĥ
EOXHIURPDVWUDQJHURɱHULQJWRUHXQLWHKLPZLWKDKLVWRULFDODUWHIDFWORQJFRQVLGĥ
HUHGORVWWKHVNHOHWRQRIDJXLWDUKDQGĥFUDIWHGE\6FKHQNHUDVDWHHQDJHU
³,W¶VXQEHOLHYDEOH ́6FKHQNHUH[FODLPV³$WVFKRROZKHQ,ZDVZHKDGDZRUNĥ
VKRSFODVVDQG,GHFLGHGWREXLOGDJXLWDU7KHERG\ ZDVWULDQJXODUVRLWORRNV
EDVLFDOO\OLNHD)O\LQJ 9 ,¶GQHYHUVHHQD)O\LQJ 9 DWWKDWDJHEXW,PXVWKDYHKDG
DSUHPRQLWLRQWKDWDJXLWDUORRNLQJOLNHWKDWZRXOGEHLPSRUWDQWLQP\OLIH ́
,PSRUWDQWWRRIRUWKHGHYHORSPHQWRIKDUGURFNDQGKHDY\PHWDO,QWKH V
DIWHUEHLQJSRDFKHGE\ 8 ) 2 IURP6FRUSLRQVKLVROGHUEURWKHU5XGROI¶VEDQG
6FKHQNHUDQGKLVLFRQLFZKLWH*LEVRQ)O\LQJ 9 HOHFWUL¿HGWKHURFNVFHQHRQDVXFFHVĥ
VLRQRIVXSHUEUHOHDVHVIURP ¶VDSWO\WLWOHGPhenomenonWKURXJKWR ¶VStrangers
In The NightDUJXDEO\WKHJUHDWHVWOLYHDOEXPRIWKHGHFDGHEHIRUHVWRUPLQJ
RXWRIWKHEDQG
,QWKH\HDUVWKDWIROORZHG6FKHQNHUGHFOLQHGLQYLWDWLRQVWRMRLQ 2 ]]\2VERXUQH¶V
EDQG7KLQ /L]]\DQG$HURVPLWKRSWLQJLQVWHDGWRIROORZKLVKHDUWE\OHDGLQJKLV
RZQJURXS +LVMRXUQH\IRUWKKDVEHHQIDUIURPHDV\ ZLWKDGGLFWLRQPHQWDOKHDOWKSUREOHPV
DQGDQJHUPDQDJHPHQWLVVXHVGHUDLOLQJEHVWĥODLGSODQVHDUQLQJWKH*HUPDQĥERUQPXVLFLDQ
DUHSXWDWLRQDVDPDYHULFNPHUFXULDOWDOHQW
%XW \HDUVRQIURPMRLQLQJ6FRUSLRQVDVD ĥ\HDUĥROGJXLWDUSURGLJ\ 6FKHQNHU¶V¿UH
IRUPXVLFUHPDLQVXQGLPLQLVKHG*LYHQWKHIUHHĥÀRZLQJQDWXUHRIKLVSOD\LQJLWVKRXOGFRPHDV
QRVXUSULVHWKDW6FKHQNHULVDFKDOOHQJLQJLQWHUYLHZHHSURQHWRFDUHHULQJRɱĥWRSLFIRU¿YHPLQĥ
XWHVDWDWLPHSDUWLFXODUO\LIVDLGFRQYHUVDWLRQDOMR\ULGHPLJKWDɱRUGDQRSSRUWXQLW\WRYHUEDOO\
GLVVKLVROGHUEURWKHUZLWKZKRP0LFKDHOKDVDUHODWLRQVKLSEHVWGHVFULEHGDVμFRPSOLFDWHG¶
%XWRYHUWKHFRXUVHRIDWZRĥDQGĥDĥKDOIKRXUFRQYHUVDWLRQKLVPHPRULHVDUHUDUHO\GXOO«
INI
RABBIT
While living in
Palmers Green,
Schenker famously
‘liberated’ a white
rabbit from a cage in
a neighbour’s garden,
fearing that it was
being fattened up
to be eaten.
In search of the
peace of mind:
(clockwise from
top left) Scorpions,
1971; with brother
Rudolf; live in
Chicago with MSG,
1980; MSG, 1980;
Assault Attack
line-up at Château
D’Hérouville, June
’82; bare-chested
at same sessions;
in UFO, 1974.
RO
SS
H
AL
FI
N
,^
IC
O
N
IC
PI
X
,^
G
ET
T
Y
