Former SCORPIONS Drummer HERMAN RAREBELL Sells Music Rights To ROUND HILL MUSIC

Round Hill Music has acquired Herman Rarebell's music rights, which includes his writer's share of publishing, neighboring rights, and master royalty income. Rarebell is best known as the original drummer of the SCORPIONS, playing a major part in the band's success with his songwriting.

Rarebell penned the lyrics for songs like "Rock You Like A Hurricane", "Make It Real", "Dynamite", "Blackout", "Arizona", "Bad Boys Running Wild", "Don't Stop At The Top" and "Tease Me Please Me".

SCORPIONS were formed in 1965 in Hanover by Rudolf Schenker and have sold over 100 million records around the world. They're one of the best-selling hard rock and heavy metal acts with twelve studio albums that were in the top 10 in Germany. Three consecutive albums reached the Top Ten on the Billboard 200 chart in the United States. Two of the songs on their ninth studio album, "Love At First Sting", are regarded as classics of the heavy metal genre. Those singles are "Rock You Like A Hurricane" and "Still Loving You".

"The SCORPIONS are a truly legendary band with a catalog of truly iconic music that helped define the heavy metal genre," says Josh Gruss, founder and CEO of Round Hill Music. "Herman played a pivotal role in their success with writing credits on some of their most enduring songs and is a welcome addition to our roster of world-class writers and performers."

"The SCORPIONS are one of my favorite rock bands," says Robin Godfrey-Cass, managing director of Round Hill's London office. "To represent Herman's great body of work as a songwriter and performer from the band's first 11 albums is an incredible honor."

"It is my pleasure to sign up with Round Hill Music," adds Rarebell. "I feel I'm with the right company. I am grateful to Josh Gruss, Robin Godfrey-Cass and his team, and Marvin Katz, my attorney, for making this happen."

Last September, Herman blasted his former bandmates in the SCORPIONS, 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 with 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 "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.'"

Herman's solo album "Nip In The Bud", originally recorded 40 years ago, was re-released last August, remastered and available digitally for the first time.

Photo credit: Round Hill Music