NEVER SAY DIE
After years of being counted out, Michael Schenker is back at the top of his game and touting a new album rightly titled Immortal.
BY MARK McSTEA
MATTHIAS RETHMANN
MICHAEL SCHENKER IS about to celebrate his 50th anniversary in the music business, since joining Scorpions in 1971. His first appearance on record was at the age of 16 in 1972, on Lonesome Crow, the debut Scorpions album. Soon after, the band was on tour opening for the U.K. hard-rock act UFO when Schenker accepted their offer to join. “I always said to the guys in Scorpions that if an English band asked me to join them, I wouldn’t hesitate,” Schenker recalls today. “England looked like the place to be if you wanted to have a career playing rock and roll, not Germany.”
Schenker’s work with UFO saw him quickly join the ranks of the great ’70s guitar heroes. His style influenced legions of subsequent legendary names, including Randy Rhoads, though unlike Rhoads his style remained more hard rock than metal. Ozzy courted him after Rhoads’ untimely death in 1982, but Schenker turned him down, as he had Aerosmith and many others. Following the glory days of the ’70s and ’80s, Schenker’s profile took a dip as he withdrew from performing in the early ‘90s while dealing with personal issues. He acknowledges that difficult period as necessary to his spiritual development, and he is at peace with himself these days, enjoying life to the max. His playing is more fluid and inventive than ever, and he is currently riding the most successful wave of his career since the late ’70s. Schenker is due to release Immortal under the Michael Schenker Group banner in January 2021. Coronavirus permitting, a world tour is set to follow later in the year.