Thomas: Tarja, Hello. Klaus, you thought, when Gottschalk takes the Hunziker in the show, you'll take/get yourself a beautiful finnish woman, right? 

Klaus: Yeah, exactly. 

Thomas: Helps, doesn't it? Work is a lot more fun then again. 

Klaus: Yeah, exactly. And if you have such a nice voice with you, it's amazing. 

Tarja: Thanks, oh, thanks. 

Thomas: How is it, does she speak German? A bit? 

Klaus: Yes, a bit. 

Tarja: A bit. 

Thomas: Isn't it horrible to travel with 5 of those men? 

Tarja: Horrible? No! Horrible it isn't. 

Thomas: Sport shoes are flying there, there are of course somehow, they can also be gentlemen? They can really be gentlemen? 

Tarja: They can be gentlemen, all of them, hahaha. 

Thomas: That calms me. But I somehow still hope that it's gonna be an empty threat, we would then somehow coordinate our final tours, but regarding the album, yall said firstly, we have achieved such a masterpiece, we'll let that stand like that for all eternity. 

Klaus: We thought, one last great album with Sting in the tail, and then we slowly approach the final stretch, for the next 2 1/2 years world tour to say goodbye, to say Adieu to the fans, and we are especially looking forward to our German fans in May. 

Thomas: In May Scorpions on tour in Germany, this was their newest song, Tarja, thank you very much, have fun together. Bye.

 

Интервью можно посмотреть тут или ниже в трёх частях:

 

"We have no experience in breaking up"

 

Interviewer: Yes, it is sad, 2 months ago Scorpions announced that the band will break up, but not without drums and trumpets thank god, because they just released a new studio album and a two-year long tour. And today there are in Salzburg, with me. Welcome, Scorpions, and of course Tarja Turunen. Is it the right way to spell it, Tarja Turunen?

Tarja: Tarja Turunen. (laughs)

Interviewer: I'm much better with (?).. Tarja Turunen. Once with Nightwish, now on stage with Scorpions. If it's ok with you guys, lady's first. You will be on stage tomorrow with the guys, so how does it feel to be on stage with them?

Tarja: I'm really thrilled, I'm really.. It's an honor for me to be performing with them, to make music together with them, I've been a great fan for many years, so it's a really great pleasure.

Interviewer: Where do you know eachother from?

Tarja: Oh, we met the first time in Brazil, no? A few years ago.

Klaus: At a festival.

Interviewer: Was this the start of your co-working process or..?

Tarja: No. (laughs) I don't know, how did it happen?

Klaus: Well, you know, I think we remembered Tarja from Sao Paulo and I think we also have a common friend, Doro.

Tarja: Doro. Yes.

Klaus: Yes, and on her anniversary I think we..

Tarja: Yes, a few months ago, no, last year.

Klaus: ... were there in Dusseldorf, right?

Tarja: Yes.

Klaus: Yes, so we met a few times, not really but, you know, we when we were.. Should I speak German, English? ... Deutsch... As we were producing the album, and as we were working on the title of The Good Die Young, we thought it would be cool if this title would be ennobled, and we thought at Tarja's exceptional voice, and we talked on the phone, I think you were in Argentina then..

Tarja: Yes.

Interviewer: You live there, right?

Tarja: Yes, in Buenos Aires.

Interviewer: Ah, great city.

Klaus: So she heard the song and thought it would fit her voice, so the song has got a really special touch, because Tarja become a part of this song, with her amazing voice. We are really happy about it, that we had the possibility to work together on this album, Sting In The Tail.

Interviewer: The last studio album. Tarja, what do you think about the fact that the guys want to stop with their music career?

Tarja: Oh, man, yes, I recorded the song without knowing this! I was shocked! No?

Rudolf: No, it came out in the last moment, we made the decision.

Interviewer: I think everybody was shocked actually.

Tarja: yesh, just my (touches jaw) dropped! (laughs)

Interviewer: I have to ask: why?

Rudolf: It's easy, I mean we are a rock band, and Rock You Like A Hurricane, and when you are on the stage, and you don't have the mentality anymore, that you can have now, is obviously no "Rock You Like A Hurricane" anymore. It can be ridiculous and we want to use the chance with this album, Sting In The Tail, we found the essence from the '80s again. We are now where we have been before, and we wanted to use this, the fact that the '80s are at the order of the day, and it is a good thing for us to end our career in this way, so that it will be a happy end and not a fiasco.

Interview: But after so many years - maybe I am too senseless - but aren't you nostalgic on stage, when you think that everything will end soon?

Klaus: I have to say, at the moment there is a certain excitement, the album has got some great reviews, and we got some really positive feedback from our fans. And of course, the tour started recently, in Moscow, and until now we have been very happy especially about the concerts in Germany, in May, when we will play for our German fans on a big arena, so the moment, when we will be so emotional is still somewhere in the background, I have to say, as we arrived in Moscow, last week, there were so many fans at the airport, and they had flowers, and small presents and there were some who made photo albums, on which it was written "remember the good times", I have to say that was when I had the feeling that everything will get a lot more emotional, for the first time.

Interviewer: I believe that. Tarja, are you going to be on the tour with the guys as well?

Tarja: Oops! Uhh... (laughs) No, I'm preparing my own album now and a tour.

Interviewer: Ok.

Tarja: Perhaps, hopefully, there will be an event, somewhere, hopefully, to sing together, to perform together, but...

Klaus: It would be fantastic. You will be welcome to share the stage with us always, Tarja. Always.

Tarja: Thank you!

Interviewer: They are obviously getting along really well. You already said that Sting In The Tail will be leaning towards the style of the 80s, to what you doreally well, and you found a good form for it, but how far is it from a retrospect of the band's whole history of 40 years?

Klaus: No retrospect. It is more like an attempt to the future, we have searched so much, especially in the 90s, and we tried (something with acoustics?) and we tried to have our own ideal sound, and that was not that easy, because you have to be able to direct the time as well * , and when you have some experience with that everything goes a lot easier, and everything was possible because of our Swedish producer. That's when it is the decisive moment, and exactly because time is on our side we want to use it to find a good ending, and not a tragedy.

Klaus: It's like that, like when you come home from the olympiade, and you have a gold medal. Lots of athlestes and singers dream to find the perfect moment when they should stop, and I think that everybody wants to find the right time, so that at the end of a 40 year long career you don't lie on the ground, and if you think about that, the '90s were that kind of time, when alternative music was popular, now classic rock is still important and we get such a strong feedback, now in the last days, that Sting In The Tail is also in the top 10 of Itunes..

Tarja: The new times.

Rudolf: First place in Rock-Charts.

Klaus: .. that it's amazing and after 40 years of career these "older guys" still said that this is our passion, this is our life, this music, and to make another album for our fans, where we are ending this chapter, an end to this long career, and remain what we have always to be in the collective awareness of our fans, and what we still are, a live rock band. And I think that this goal and the things that still lie ahead of us are enough.

Interviewer: In '75 you were co-headliner with KISS.

Rudolf: KISS have searched for us themselves, they asked Bravo [German magazine] if they can send them a German band and they have picked us, which was really great, we have recently met and it was great, after their concert, Gene Simmons was not there but the rest of the band was there, and the conversations went so far, that one of them said that "You know, my dream was to ? Scorpions again" and they were very happy. So we have made some great friendships in America with some great bands in the '80s. This music has a great power, and it was very special in the '80s, KISS belong to that as well, to the music scene, with this message and with this power.

Interviewer: Did you know this then, in 1965 when you formed the band, and you named the school band Scorpions? Had you already planned this career?

Rudolf: Well in 1965 it wasn't planned, even though we were already writing "Scorpions" with a "C" and not a "K", but as Klaus and my brother the band joined, it was clear to me that something very big can happen and that we had to take advantage of this situation, and in 1972, on the 2nd of Feburary, we released the first album, so when you think at that, we are ending the career at the same level, also we are at "Wetten, dass...?" at the beginning of our tour, and it wouldn't be bad if we came in the end of it as well. In any way, we have been on the way since 40 years, from 1972 to 2012. And this has been some nice time, right?

Interviewer: They say that in the '70s you played everywhere where there was an electric outlet. Is this something that makes a band big; playing live?

Klaus: I think this is the decisive thing. I think.. (to Tarja) When you started, it was the same thing, right? For a new band it is also very important to play on a stage in the beginning and it's the place where you can evolve, and to find out if it is your passion, your hobby, and something you will do for a few years, or if you can make a career out of it and make friends who have the same dream, the same passion, the same vision and it was like this for us, that we just saw our live band and that point; to be on a stage and to play for an audience was then, in the end of the '60s - beginning of the '70s, as we our first CDs or Vynils made, but today it is exactly the same and I think that now, in the age of the internet, young people sit at home and they watch our concerts on Youtube, and a lot more, whatever you can find on the internet, but the concerts and the fact that you have to get a worldwide dissemination, already a few hours after our concert in Moscow or Sao Paulo or San Francisco young people can see our concerts, and they can decide if it's a cool band, if they find it interesting, or not. And I think that in the last years there have been many young people at our concerts, and they sing the songs that had written before they were born, it is wonderful and very inspiring and I think that a big part of the energy that we have received from the younger audience in the last few years has flowed in the new album, Sting In The Tail.

Interviewer: So the album, Sting In The Tail is not a retrospect, and is more like a look into the future, I would like to know, when you wrote ballads like Wind Of Change, Still Loving You.. How did your hard rock fans react to that?

Klaus: Well we have a song that is classic, since many, many years, it's called Holiday. (to Tarja) You know that song? (sings)

Tarja: Oh, wow!

Klaus: Anyway, that song is from, which album, Rudolf?

Rudolf: Lovedrive.

Klaus: And the first time we played it in England, there were those "real" headbangers who were really hardcore, and I think that we played in Sheffield, and Manchester, and London and so on, and we wanted to play this song, but with acoustic guitars. And the promoter said "are you crazy?! The fans are so heavy, you can't do that!" And we played this song, and there were these guys, that hardcore metal audience from the end of '70s, there weren't many girls in the concerts, but the guys were standing near the stage and singing along, and it was emotional, I think that the rock audience can really understand if a ballad has this attitude or not. And I think this is what makes the difference.

Tarja: Good music is good music. There are no borders in music.

Interviewer: So it doesn't matter if it's a ballad or a rock song, the quality matters. Still Loving You is also sung on Sting In The Tail, no? So the abbreviation stays for that.

Rudolf: yes, that's right. It was then special in France, it was something very uncommon in the '90s, we knew nothing about it then, an interviewer told us that we had produced a baby-boom in France, I think that about 0.4-0.6% of the people...

Interviewer: Really? So all the babies were named Klaus und Rudolf?

Rudolf: .. there were families, who in 1986/1987 as we released the song, that the parents named their children Sly. Klaus has something more to tell about this.

Klaus: After we heard this, that the song was really popular in France, that this story had so many fans who named their children after it, also their daughters. Of course I know that Sly is a guy's name, from Silvester, but, this didn't stop our fans and they named their daughters Sly. I thought it was a nice idea, after all these years to end the circle with a song about Sly, not just with the story, but also with our fans.

Interviewer: Tarja, have you ever listened Scorpions while kissing a boy?

Tarja: Oh my god, yes, many times!

Interviewer: I knew it!

Klaus: I want to say something. I mean in Finland, Scandinavia and especially in Finland, it is an amazing country for the hard rock music and there are great bands and fabulous, really special, outstanding singers, like Tarja, you know, and when you look all the way in Europe, it is very special in Finland, it's something in the air and whenever we go to Finland there's an amazing audience so there is a special connection so we worked with Swedish producers this time, and recorded most of the album in Stockholm, and then Tarja, you did your parts in Finland.

Tarja: Yes.

Klaus: And so it is an European kind of issue, but this part of the world is for hard rock music fantastic.

Tarja:It's very important, yeah.

Interviewer: It's really amazing when you prepare yourself for an interview, you can speak about so many things, and there are many things to be proud of, but is there anything you would rather not have done, when you think: "I shouldn't have released that song" or "that album was not a good idea" there has to be something you can say "ugh" when you think about it.

Rudolf: I have to say that each mistake is not a mistake, but a boost to do something, when you make the rest right. Many people say they shouldn't have done that or that, but that is silly. When you take to heart a certain decision that you made, and you make a good decision it is a good thing, so to say that for me the song "To Be Number One" was a bit too far away from that, what we had done until that certain point, but fortunately after that we found the right way again. Especially in the '90s it was very hard, because there were so many new styles, like grunge and alternative, and you have to be able to experiment, to have the courage to cross the boundaries, and if we hadn't done that we couldn't have made an album like Sting In The Tail, so you have to do these things, to go into the extremes and then you will be like "Oh! Now we are there!", so everything has its sense, even the nonsense.

Interviewer: Is it like that, that everyone has a certain image of himself and the others can have another one. Is it like that with you, did you always have the same image that your fans had of you, or did you ever feel misunderstood like "they can't understand us"?

Klaus: We felt misunderstood at that time, in the 90s, when the music world changed a lot, that we didn't know who we were making the music for. When you get no feedback, when the radio doesn't play your songs, when on the TV there were only young bands singing alternative and being cool, so the bands from the '80s, who had had a great success, were so yesterday, they were the past. And then you had to re-orientate yourself. Many bands went wrong, and the you felt misunderstood. Misunderstood was also the big success of Wind of Change, as we went into the '90s with such a big success, in mainstream. And a hard rock band from the '80s was suddenly a part of that big family. The misunderstanding was that Scorpions is a ballad band. "They were a live band, now they only play soft ballads." And this was a big misuderstanding, what we with our show in 2006 in Wacken.. (to Tarja) You know Wacken? You played there?

Tarja: Yes, many times. It's a hardcore metal festival.

Klaus: So in 2006 we finally had the chance to solve this misunderstanding, because we had played in Mogolia before, and the Mongols said "What do these softs want to do here?". That was the perfect place to solve this, and this was a challenge for us, and we convinced the audience of 60-70.000 metal fans, I think this was like our comeback in a way, our tour will start in May in Germany, there is a strong feedback, and also the metal community supports us and I have to say that everything that we lived to see in all these years means a lot to us, that we can do this in our home country, and we had gotten this feedback since November, no one can really imagine that your heart beats faster and that we are so happy about it.

Interviewer: I can not imagine, about the break up, now all the cards on the table. There is the song "The Best Is Yet To Come", and James has a tattoo that says "rock and roll forever" so these show that it's not actually the end.

Rudolf: The Best Is Yet To Come is actually something about the tour. You sit in the studio and you try to give your best to the album, and then, when you go on the stage, that's the best thing. Can you imagine? There is a band, it's called Kottak, and he plays with his wife, the sister of Tommy Lee from Motley Crue, he has something to do. We are doing the following: we are, like Klaus already said, on a wave of euphoria, because of the success the album has had and especially in Germany here, and in America and everywhere else. We have experience in a lot of things, but not in breaking up. We don't want to think at tomorrow, but at today, and to enjoy the moment, we can now enjoy Rock and Roll more than 20-30 years ago, because earlier we made parties like"Rock You Like A Hurricane" and then you had to get better in time before the next concert. Now we can actually experience the success and to absord it.

Interviewer: Ok, I understand. I wish you a lot of luck and all the best and thank you for talking to me. Tarja, I'm so sorry because this time it was about Scorpions, so the last question is for you, but the next time you are coming with your solo project and we are talking about yourself, right?

Tarja: Thank you very much.

Interviewer: Thank you so much for being here with us tonight.

Tarja: Thank you.

Scorpions: Thank you.

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