DREGEN Confirms It Wasn't His Decision To Leave THE HELLACOPTERS: 'Maybe We Could Have Gone Full-On IRON MAIDEN And Had Three Guitarists'

In a new interview with Argentina's UnDinamo - La Última Radio De Rock, founding THE HELLACOPTERS guitarist Dregen (real name: Andreas Tyrone Svensson) discussed the recent announcement that he was exiting the band due to the fact that he injured his hand three years ago, causing "permanent damage to his fingers" and making THE HELLACOPTERS' songs impossible for him to play. Asked how his hand is right now, Dregen said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, you shouldn't believe everything you read. In Sweden, they made a big thing out [it in the media]. Even my mom, she was calling [me, saying], 'Have they amputated your arm?' Because it's, like, 'Oh, he can't play anymore'."

Dregen continued: "But I have to be honest with myself. I'm still in rehab… And you have to stretch and do certain [exercises]. But I should say that I'm at least back 85 percent out of my hundred, if I had before. And I'm working on a new solo album.

"The hard thing for me is that maybe I can never play as I really did before," Dregen explained. "But there's always new ways to play. So, for me, with THE HELLACOPTERS or BACKYARD BABIES, fans maybe wanna hear [the songs played] exactly the same [as they are on the records]. Some of the solo stuff I still can't really do yet, but give me a few months and I'll be back. It's not so bad."

"The hardest [part of it] for me hasn't really been the actual pain or whatever, [although] it's been fucking painful, but it's that it's been three operations," Dregen added. "And every time they cut up, because it's over like two hundred stitches, they've been opening up everywhere, and then it's another year [you have to wait for it to properly heal]. And I can't work. So it's been more mentally, actually. That's been really, really tough."

Asked specifically about the statement that THE HELLACOPTERS put out on September 16 in which the band said THE HELLACOPTERS' songs were "just not doable" for Dregen "anymore" due to his "permanent" hand injury, the guitarist said: "Yeah, like I said, I can't play a hundred percent maybe all the solos exactly note by note as [they were originally written and recorded] — not yet — but they've been doing over time, when I've been, whatever, in rehab for my hands and operations, they recorded the last album without me. And that was understandable because then I really couldn't play because I was fucking with stitches everywhere; I couldn't even move my hands. But maybe I have a different opinion about… I mean, I think that maybe we could have gone full-on IRON MAIDEN and have three guitarists because I can play 85 percent. But, on the other hand, the future is looking bright. I'm working on a new solo album, and a lot of projects. And also, I shouldn't promise anything [on the] radio here, but I have a feeling that we should do a big, big — if it's gonna be a farewell tour with the BACKYARD BABIES, but I think that we still have some stuff in us. And I'm really looking forward for that as well. So I can't really do HELLACOPTERS anyway."

Pressed about whether it was somebody else who "took the decision" to "let" him out of the band, Dregen said, "Yes." As for whether it's fair to say that he is "not happy about it", Dregen said: "Well, I don't wanna... The future's looking bright. And I don't have time for THE HELLACOPTERS anymore anyway. I got a lot of new solo stuff and possibly the BACKYARD BABIES as well. I'm getting old as well. I can't fucking tour two bands all the time. [Laughs]"

On the topic of the musical direction of his upcoming solo album, Dregen said: "Well, it's hard to talk about your own stuff. That's easier, actually, with a band because when you're solo, you gotta take the whole thing. But I think that, like my first and my only real solo album [2013's 'Dregen'], [it will have] good songwriting, but it's hard to say… But this time, I'm gonna work with [other people]… My first album, that was very much, 'I'm gonna show that I can do all of this. I'm singing everything, playing all the guitars, writing all the songs.' This time I'm gonna work with a lot of different musicians — but friends. And some well-known friends as well that you even know about… But we haven't started recording yet, so I can't tell you anything."

When THE HELLACOPTERS announced Dregen's exit from the band in September, they said that LG Valeta, who has been filling in for Dregen since the injury, "will carry on with us going forward."

THE HELLACOPTERS were formed in 1994 by ENTOMBED drummer Nicke Andersson and BACKYARD BABIES guitarist Dregen.

THE HELLACOPTERS' second album, 1997's "Payin' The Dues", was the band's last studio effort to feature Dregen before his departure to focus full-time on BACKYARD BABIES.

In October 2007, THE HELLACOPTERS announced that they would be breaking up after the release of their seventh full-length album, "Head Off", a collection of cover songs. Eight years later, the band reunited, initially for an exclusive performance at the Sweden Rock Festival to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the release of their debut album, "Supershitty To The Max!"

Robert "Strängen" Dahlqvist, who played guitar for THE HELLACOPTERS for nearly a decade, died in February 2017 at the age of 40.

Dahlqvist was a member of THE HELLACOPTERS from 1999 until the group disbanded in 2008.

THE HELLACOPTERS achieved two gold certifications, won the Swedish Grammy equivalent and a Kerrang! award, and have amassed hundreds of millions of streams to date.

THE HELLACOPTERS released their comeback studio album, "Eyes Of Oblivion", in April 2022 via Nuclear Blast. It marked their first full-length collection of new material since "Head Off". Less than three years later, they released "Overdriver" in January 2025.

In the meantime, THE HELLACOPTERS celebrated their triumphant return by playing a show with the mighty IRON MAIDEN in Gothenburg in July 2022, and gigs with GHOST in Germany in June 2023, apart from their own string of headline shows throughout Europe. Eager to keep the rock flowing, February 16, 2024 saw THE HELLACOPTERS release not one, but two stunning versions of their classic "Grande Rock" album, which was originally made avaialble in 1999. "Grande Rock Revisited" included a remastered original version and a remixed and partially re-recorded version as a companion piece, showing how the album could have sounded in a parallel universe with Dregen being in the band at the time. After making rock grande again, the group set sights on new material, debuting the phenomenal single "Stay With You" in May 2024 and releasing it as a limited seven-inch via Lightning Records.

THE HELLACOPTERS' ninth full-length album, "Overdriver" was recorded at Strawberry Studio & The Honk Palace and was the band's first album entirely produced by guitarist/vocalist Nicke Andersson.