Ex-SCORPIONS Drummer HERMAN RAREBELL: 'For Me, The Band Has Been Over Since 1996'

In a new interview with Talking The Talk With Don, former SCORPIONS drummer Herman Rarebell, who wrote the lyrics for some of the group's most classic songs, spoke about a possible reunion with his longtime bandmates. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH>NET): "The last drummer they had was James Kottak. He passed away. I'm very sad about this because he was a good guy. And then I wrote an e-mail to them. I said, 'Why don't we do something together again?' And you know what? I didn't even get an answer. After 20 years being with those fuckers, not even an answer. I said, 'Okay, fuck you. Fine.' Because I can do my own thing — no problem. They can't. Because the chemistry we had was unique. And if you fuck that up, it's gonna be hard to replace. And the people out there, the fans, they're not stupid. They can hear it immediately. They wrote me so many e-mails: 'What happened?' I don't wanna explain all the time. Everybody can do in life what they want. That's why we have a free will. And so I respect this.

"For me, the band has been over since 1996," Herman explained. "There was nothing which they released after I left which knocked me out, where I said, 'Wow, this is amazing.' Even the last album, Rudolf [Schenker, SCORPIONS guitarist] told me, 'It's gonna be like the 'Blackout' album.' I said, 'It has nothing to do with 'Blackout'. You should have got Dieter Dierks, [SCORPIONS' longtime] producer, back with the band and me writing some lyrics for you. And then we'd have a great album. But otherwise, what is this? Why you do this?' No answer."

Asked at which point he felt SCORPIONS were starting to "lose the plot" with their musical direction, Herman said: "Really after [the ballad] 'Wind Of Change' [from the 1990 'Crazy World' album], you could see the direction. Klaus [Meine, SCORPIONS singer] obviously was all for it to go in this direction, but in my heart, I'm still a hard rock guy. So for me, I wanted to rock more, not go in ballad land. For me, there was nothing to do anymore from the creativity point. So, I said to myself, 'Well, you have to do something else.' And that's exactly what I did.

"When I look back on it, there's nothing to regret," Rarebell added. "Look at the band now. As [former SCORPIONS guitarist] Michael Schenker says in every interview, 'What have they done after Herman left?' There's no more hits. The fans write me many e-mails: 'Why don't you do something that you did before on [1980's] 'Animal Magnetism', [1982's] 'Blackout', [1979's] 'Lovedrive' and this kind of albums?, which were pure rock albums. And this is where my heart is, and that's what I wanted to do."

Earlier this month, Herman was asked by Scott Itter of Dr. Music which of the band's albums is closest to his heart. He responded: "Actually, two or three. 'Animal Magnetism'. The follow-up, 'Blackout'. I wrote a lot of lyrics in this one. Also the album title was me again. Then, of course, the one with Michael on it, 'Lovedrive'. I think those are my three favorite ones. Then, of course, [1977's] 'Taken By Force', there's one favorite song on there, 'The Sails Of Charon'.

"But I tell you what — what I don't like anymore — the albums, really, after 'Crazy World'," he explained. "Just the one [1993's] 'Face The Heat' with [producer] Bruce Fairbairn; that was nice. But everything after that, I wasn't a fan anymore. That's probably the reason why I left. I couldn't see any more progressing. So I said to the band, 'It's time for me to do something else.' I didn't wanna go along this way, 'cause after 'Wind Of Change', Klaus said to me, 'I'm gonna write more songs like this.' I said, 'You can do this, but I'm not with you anymore.' Then came another one out, which I couldn't listen to this. And I left then. Then I said, 'That's it for me. I stay in rock.' I wanted to stay in rock. I don't wanna drift up in the 'Wind Of Change' way. Great song, but it wasn't for me. For me, I'm more in the direction of 'The Sails Of Charon' and songs like this."

Back in September 2021, Rarebell blasted his former SCORPIONS bandmates, calling them "rude" and accusing them of "greed" over their apparent refusal to allow him to rejoin the band. Rarebell, who was a member of the SCORPIONS from 1977 to 1995, discussed the possibility of his return to the group in an interview for Classic Rock magazine. Asked if he was disappointed not to have been invited back into the fold following the 2016 dismissal of longtime drummer James Kottak, Herman said: "I'll tell you how disappointed I am. I sent them a message offering my services, and never even got a reply. I thought that was very rude. Now I hear the SCORPIONS are claiming their new album will be a return to the glory days of the eighties. If they're serious about that, they should get [former bassist] Francis [Buchholz] and me back, and also Dieter Dierks who produced all those classic albums. You know why they won't do that? Greed. It would mean having to share everything five ways and not three."

Rarebell also criticized his former bandmates for seemingly not giving him enough credit for their commercial success in the 1980s. "The band never mention me in interviews, which I find ridiculous," he stated. "But there's a new documentary in the pipeline from ITV on the band. I am being interviewed for this, so I can finally set the record straight on my role."

In an interview with Classic Rock Revisited, Herman stated about the huge commercial success of SCORPIONS' 1982 album "Blackout": "Mercury Records was totally behind us and they believed in us. They wanted us to keep making albums. They wanted us to grow and do better each time out. 'Lovedrive' went gold. 'Animal Magnetism' went gold and then 'Blackout' was the first one to go platinum. [Rudolf] Schenker / [Klaus] Meine / Rarebell was a great songwriting team. You can see that from how many successful albums we had. After I left the band, they didn't have any more hits."

Rarebell also talked about the inspiration for the lyrics to "Rock You Like A Hurricane", which was released as the lead single from SCORPIONS' ninth studio album, 1984's "Love At First Sting". "Those lyrics were very easy to write," he said. "I woke up early in the morning after fucking and doing cocaine all night and I opened up the curtains. 'It's early morning, the sun comes out. Last night was shaking and pretty loud. My cat is purring and she scratches my skin.' She had scratched my back during our lovemaking. I just sat down and wrote it right then and there. It was five in the morning and the girl was still in bed as I was sitting there writing it. The next day, I said to Rudolf, 'I have some great lyrics for that riff you have.'"

Rarebell is currently promoting the upcoming HERMAN RAREBELL & FRIENDS studio album "What About Love?", which will be released on April 11 via Metalville Records. The LP features Herman's re-recordings of 12 songs with good friends and great musicians as a tribute to the greatest hits of the 1980s — a time that was a golden age for him personally. Former OZZY OSBOURNE bassist Bob Daisley can be heard on this album, as can Dann Huff, who was a studio musician on some of the greatest albums in pop history, as well as Howard Leese from the legendary U.S. rockers HEART and singer Michael Voss (CASANOVA, MAD MAX, MICHAEL SCHENKER).