MICHAEL SCHENKER: How I Want To Be Remembered

On Sunday, July 31, legendary German guitarist Michael Schenker was interviewed by TotalRock's Dawn Osborne at this year's Steelhouse festival in Wales. You can now watch the chat below.

Asked how he would like to be remembered, Schenker said: "I am a spirit on a mission spreading the joy of music from a place of pure self-expression. That's what I want to be remembered as."

Saying that he doesn't "look back at all," Michael explained that he doesn't even listen to his music — "only the stuff I need to learn, if I want to play it live on stage.

"The past is done. I don't need to relive it," he said. "I like the present. I like the now."

Schenker added that doesn't know where his live-in-the-present attitude comes from. "But somehow it feels natural to me," he said. "I understand the concept of tomorrow is not here yet and I don't know if I'm gonna be alive tomorrow. And yesterday is gone — it's done — so there's only one place left.

"I'm not a standard," Michael continued. "Everybody experiences new ideas at different times. We all have a different journey, so there's no right or wrong. And there is not a particular time when we need to have realizations. They come when they come — for each person at different times for different reasons."

There are few rock guitarists on this planet who have had such a lasting influence on so many renowned musicians as Schenker. With his outstandingly fluid style, inexhaustible wealth of ideas and instinctive feel for hooks and melodies, Schenker is a living legend who, despite his longstanding and distinguished history, still impresses with his unflagging energy and drive. The blond stringsman from Sarstedt, Germany began his international career in the early 1970s with the SCORPIONS, achieved worldwide fame after joining British rock group UFO and then seamlessly continued his exceptional global success story under his own name, as well as with acts such as MICHAEL SCHENKER GROUP, TEMPLE OF ROCK and MICHAEL SCHENKER FEST. Schenker and his career, which has spanned more than 50 years, are absolute exceptions in the otherwise short-lived music industry.

Michael Schenker first appeared on SCORPIONS' 1972 album "Lonesome Crow", earned acclaim in the 1970s on classic UFO albums such as "Phenomenon" and "Lights Out" before rejoining SCORPIONS for 1979's "Lovedrive". He departed soon thereafter to launch MICHAEL SCHENKER GROUP. And while his sometimes-erratic behavior have derailed parts of his career, Schenker remains one of hard rock and metal's most influential axemen.

"Universal", the new studio album from Schenker's MICHAEL SCHENKER GROUP, was released in May via Atomic Fire Records.