SCORPIONS' KLAUS MEINE On 'Wind Of Change' Video Surpassing One Billion Views On YouTube: 'It's An Incredible Number'

SCORPIONS frontman Klaus Meine spoke to Scorpions Brazil about the fact that the band's music video for "Wind Of Change" recently surpassed one billion views on YouTube. The power ballad was originally uploaded to the platform in November of 2009.

Klaus said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It's an incredible number. It's so hard to understand that [there has been] a billion clicks for 'Wind Of Change' on YouTube. It's cool [that] after so many years, [it] seems like the song hasn't lost its message, its meaning, singing about a peaceful world. It's amazing that after all these years the song seems to be still so relevant. And that's an amazing moment, I think, to reach this number and become part of the billion club, so to speak. It took a while, but here we are. And there's still another generation coming around the corner, picking up this song and the message, and to take a look into hopefully a peaceful future is, these days, more important than ever."

Meine and his bandmates wrote "Wind Of Change" after performing at 1989's Moscow Music Peace Festival in Moscow, where they shared the stage with other hard rock acts like BON JOVI and MÖTLEY CRÜE. The song was inspired by the sight of thousands of Russians cheering them on in 1988 — when they became the first hard rock band to play in Russia — and in 1989, at the aforementioned festival, even though they were a German band.

In the interview with Scorpions Brazil, Klaus explained the thought process behind changing the song's lyrics to acknowledge Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

"I thought it's not the time to romanticize Russia with lyrics like 'I follow the Moskva down to Gorky Park'," he said. "When I wrote that song, 'Wind Of Change' was something like a peace promise, going together into a peaceful future. And so many years later now, this peace promise was broken up last year. So I had the feeling I wanted to show our solidarity with Ukraine. That's why I changed a few lines."

In March 2022, at the opening concert of SCORPIONS' "Sin City Nights" residency at Zappos Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino In Las Vegas, Nevada, Meine told the crowd before launching into "Wind Of Change": "This song is calling for peace, and tonight, I think, we shall sing it even louder. We dedicate this to the brave people in the Ukraine."

Back in 2015, SCORPIONS guitarist Rudolf Schenker stated about the inspiration for the original version of "Wind Of Change" "We wanted to show the people in Russia that here is a new generation of Germans growing up. They're not coming with tanks and guns and making war — they're coming with guitars and rock 'n' roll and bringing love!"

"There were so many emotional moments in Moscow," Meine added. "I guess it could have been BON JOVI or MÖTLEY CRÜE, any of these guys who had gone home inspired by what they saw, but for them it was like, 'Hey! We rocked the Soviet Union, dudes!' For us, maybe it was different. We saw so many changes from Leningrad in '88 to Moscow in '89. That was the inspiration for 'Wind Of Change'."

SCORPIONS' latest album, "Rock Believer", was released in February 2022. The album was recorded primarily at Peppermint Park Studios in Hannover, Germany and was mixed at the legendary Hansa Studios in Berlin, Germany with engineer Michael Ilbert, who has earned multiple Grammy nominations for his mix work with producer Max Martin on albums by Taylor Swift and Katy Perry.

SCORPIONS originally intended to record the new album in Los Angeles with producer Greg Fidelman, whose previous credits include SLIPKNOT and METALLICA. However, because of the pandemic, some of the initial work was done with Greg remotely, after which SCORPIONS opted to helm the recordings themselves with the help of their engineer Hans-Martin Buff.