KROKUS Planning 'One More Great Album', Followed By Farewell Tour

Rob Cavuoto of Guitar International recently conducted an interview with KROKUS bassist Chris von Rohr. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Guitar International: Why do you think [KROKUS] couldn't really break the U.S., yet you were just as good as any band from that era?

Chris von Rohr: Beside bad management, there were poor decisions by the record company. They had no vision or feel for metal music or metal bands. They bought a metal band because every other label was successful with that kind of sound. The record company we had at the time was more into the Barry Manilow type of artist and didn't know how to promote us, particularly in the states. We preferred to work with Geffen and A&R man John Kalodner. Unfortunately, legal fights stopped that. I agree with you, why weren't we as big as our peers at the time? "Headhunter" was a massive album which went platinum in America. We were right on track but everything after it was a mistake. Our follow-up album should've been in the vein of "Headhunter" and I think it would've really broke us in America and Canada. After that point, every mistake that could've been made was made. There's no way that our record company should've allowed the band to make "Change Of Address", a "DEF LEPPARD wannabe album." The record label all the way to management killed the band. We almost made it, but somehow lost it all. You live and you learn.

Guitar International: What prevented you from coming to the U.S. to support "Hoodoo"?

Chris von Rohr: Because everyone in the U.S. was in financial trouble at the time. In 1984, you could get your flight and hotels paid for and then get money from the gig. With all the financial issues now, we can't go there to lose money or pay to play. KROKUS is not big where we can make a lot of money off ticket prices or merchandise. It doesn't make sense for us. In Europe we can fill up stadiums and make some money to survive. The only thing that would come close, is to go on tour with three other bands from that era and tour the U.S. We're missing the States. Even though we aren't the biggest of the big now, we still want to come back to the states and make up for the lost time. Hopefully the whole situation in the U.S. gets better soon, because the fans deserve to hear how this band rocks nowadays, there's no old fart bullshit here.

Guitar International: What does the future hold for KROKUS?

Chris von Rohr: To tell you the truth, if you wanna make God laugh, tell him your plans! We wanna make one more great KROKUS album to say goodbye. To do something that ends the legacy with pride and a good feeling. We started that with "Hoodoo" and plan to do one more, which will come out mid or end of 2012. Then a farewell tour to finish off our careers with pride. At the moment, we're just as good as we were in the "Headhunter" days. Marc [Storace, vocals] is hitting the high notes and singing his ass off. The band is tighter than ever and we're still having lots of fun. We want to close with something big and positive. Maybe a great live album and a DVD of all the classics plus some new stuff. Who knows, maybe we can make it in the U.S., because we miss the country that brought us rock 'n' roll, hot babes and coke a cola!

Read the entire interview from Guitar International.