DORO PESCH Talks 'Forever Warriors, Forever United' Album, Memories Of WARREL DANE

Anthony Morgan of Metal Forces recently conducted an interview with Doro Pesch. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

On the catalyst for new album "Forever Warriors, Forever United":

Doro: "When Lemmy left us, I was so heartbroken. Lemmy was my best friend, and I went to the funeral. I was flying, and on the plane, I got this idea to write a song for Lemmy to honor him, and to give thanks. It all came out at the same time, lyrics and melody, and it was the song 'Living Life To The Fullest'. I thought 'I want to record it right away,' so I went to Hamburg and started working on that song with a great friend of mine. Andreas Bruhn was his name; he's the ex-guitar player of THE SISTERS OF MERCY, and we have a long history of working together — at least 22 years. We did the last one, 'Raise Your Fist' [2012], together. Many, many songs, and this duet with Lemmy — it was called 'It Still Hurts'. I said 'Andreas, I have this song for Lemmy. I want to record it right away,' and so we started working. That was kind of like a wake-up call. I thought 'Man, you never know what will happen,' like if you're still alive in a year, or if the world will be still standing. I had this feeling that I wanted to do a new record now. I put all of my energy, heart and soul into it, and then suddenly we were songwriting. So many ideas came out; it was really an intense, creative phase, and then after a little while, I had like 45-50 songs. Then I called the record company and said, 'I would love to do a double album, because I have so many songs. Some of them have great potential.' Then a couple of months ago, they called me back and said, 'Yeah, go for it. Do it.' That's the reason why it became a double album. I had so many songs that really had something to say, with great meanings, great melodies. It's an album that's full of anthems, and heavy songs, and fast songs. 'Bastardos' is one of the heaviest and fastest songs. We have a duet with Johan Hegg [AMON AMARTH], which is called 'If I Can't Have You - No One Will'. It just came out as a video; I don't know if you've seen it, but it came out really nice. Yeah, there's some soulful songs, some ballads. We have many guests playing on it and singing, which always makes me so happy. I love it when people I love and who are heroes of mine participate — that always means a lot to me. We had Doug Aldrich playing great licks and solos on the song 'Heartbroken', and Johan Hegg from AMON AMARTH was a duet partner on the song 'If I Can't Have You - No One Will'. Then the anthem was the first single, which was 'All For Metal'. 'All For Metal' reminds me a little bit of 'All We Are', and many people sing on it; Mille [Petrozza] of KREATOR, Johan Hegg of AMON AMARTH, Chuck Billy of TESTAMENT, Warrel Dane [NEVERMORE, SANCTUARY] — who's unfortunately not with us any more — Jeff Waters from ANNIHILATOR, the guys from SABATON, Ross The Boss. My old guitar player from the 'Triumph And Agony' album [1987] sings on it and plays licks and solos on it. All the songs were such a joy to make, but this one was probably the most fun because everybody sang on the top of their lungs. I had a big studio and recorded everybody, and there were video cameras. When we recorded more and more great guests, I thought 'This feels so good. It should be the first single; it should be the first vibe of the new album.'"

On the music video for "If I Can't Have You - No One Will":

"David Havlena is now a great friend of ours, from the Czech Republic. He did both videos, by the way; 'If I Can't Have You – No One Will', 'Lift Me Up' which is a lyric video, and 'All For Metal'. I told him about the story, and then Johan did his part. I did my part, and then this story of these two little kids who loved each other when they were little, that got filmed in the Czech Republic. We went to all kinds of old ruins in Germany, and then Johan filmed stuff in Sweden. I think it came out really beautiful, and I love it. It's like this dark, possessive love story which probably many people can relate to. I sure can relate when I was a teenager; many times I was in love, and I couldn't get over a break-up. All of these feelings, like 'If I can't have you, then no one will,' it's deeply emotional stuff. Some love stories do not work out."

On late SANCTUARY and NEVERMORE vocalist Warrel Dane, who appears posthumously on the track "All For Metal":

"He was one of my great friends. We toured together in 1988, which was when our friendship started. It was a big, long tour in America; it was with SANCTUARY and MEGADETH and WARLOCK, and that's when we first met. We got along so great; he always came to visit me, and I visited him. He came to my anniversary shows; he was one of the guests with the longest flight, when we celebrated our 25th anniversary. He came from Seattle; he had to change his plane three times — I think the whole trip took 35-50 hours. He came there to just sing one song with us, and to celebrate with us. I thought that that was so awesome. I met him many times at festivals, and he was one of the sweetest people I knew. Very, very talented."

Read the entire interview at Metal Forces.