SCORPIONS Have 'So Much Great Material' For Next Studio Album, Says KLAUS MEINE

SCORPIONS frontman Klaus Meine spoke to Marci Wiser of the 95.5 KLOS radio station about the band's upcoming studio album. Tentatively due in 2021, the disc will mark the German hard rock legends' first release since 2017's "Born To Touch Your Feelings - Best Of Rock Ballads", which was an anthology of SCORPIONS' new and classic material.

"We have so much great material, and, of course, many, many hard and heavy rockers," Klaus said (hear audio below). "A couple of ballads as well. We're so excited. I tell you it's a blessing in troubled times, like we all go through right now, that we have a chance to be at home and to go into the studio to work on new material and to go and lose yourself in the creative world. It's great."

Speaking about SCORPIONS' post-pandemic touring plans, Meine said: "When we made this decision [to make a new studio album] last year, we all were excited about it. But that means also, when this record comes out, with all those new songs, and no more songs from way back, from the vault — it's all new written material — and we're excited to put it out. And then, of course, we wanna go out on the road again. Not only will we play the postponed Las Vegas [residency] shows next year, but we also wanna put on a full tour in the U.S. — we wanna present a new show, a whole new setup with hopefully a lot of new songs, new song material. We're really excited about it.

"[As for] what the future brings, you never know," he continued. "Right now, we're all in this terrible lockdown, and every other day, you watch the news, and it feels like, here in Germany, the place where we are, in Lower Saxony, our state, it feels like it's pretty much under control and it's okay. It's not great yet. But every other day, you hear news when the virus pops out in some places, some meat factories and stuff, and it's scary. And absolutely we have no idea where this whole thing will go. And nobody knows around the world. The good thing is, in a crazy way, we're all united, because we're all facing the same problem together through these difficult times. And it's a good way to think about it, that we all live on the same planet, and we'd better work together and we really have to stick close together to get through this terrible time. And hopefully there will be better days around the corner."

SCORPIONS' new album will be produced by Greg Fidelman, who began his career as the guitarist and songwriter for RHINO BUCKET before launching his career as a producer, engineer and mixer, finding an early mentor in Rick Rubin.

SCORPIONS' last full-length collection of new recordings was 2015's "Return To Forever", partially comprising songs the band had in the vault from the '80s. It was the final recorded appearance of SCORPIONS' longtime drummer James Kottak, who was dismissed from the band in September 2016. He has since been replaced by Mikkey Dee, formerly of MOTÖRHEAD.

Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, SCORPIONS were scheduled to take over the Las Vegas Strip in July with their exclusive headlining residency show at Zappos Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino.

The band previously played a Las Vegas mini-residency in May 2016, consisting of five shows at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.