SCORPIONS 'Locked The Door And Left The Cruel Reality' During Making Of 'Rock Believer' Album

In a new interview with Bonnie Laufer, SCORPIONS singer Klaus Meine spoke about his band's recent return to performing live after a two-year coronavirus-related break from the road. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I think we were very lucky that when we finished the last tour, around 2020 in Singapore, we had started writing new songs already in 2019, so we could use the time of all those lockdowns in the best way to record [our new album] 'Rock Believer', and now it's been released in February and we just started with the residency in [Las] Vegas. So it feels like we're back in the groove. And it feels so good. We could make the best use out of these miserable days and times. In the studio, just coming together, we locked the door and left the cruel reality, COVID-19, pretty much outside the door. We were in our own bubble creating new music and thinking about hopefully we'll be out there on the road again and playing new songs with a new production. And fortunately, it seems like with the pandemic slowing down, it seems like we're back and coming every other day a little closer to our normal life."

SCORPIONS will return to North America on the "Rock Believer" world tour with special guests WHITESNAKE on the David Coverdale-fronted outfit's farewell tour.

Fresh off of their sold-out "Sin City Nights" Las Vegas residency, SCORPIONS will kick off a two-month-long Live Nation-produced run of dates on August 21 in Toronto, with additional concerts in Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago, Dallas, and Denver, among others. In addition to WHITESNAKE, Swedish band THUNDERMOTHER will be joining the tour.

"Rock Believer" was released on February 25. 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.

SCORPIONS' new album marks their first release since 2017's "Born To Touch Your Feelings - Best Of Rock Ballads", which was an anthology of new and classic material.

SCORPIONS' previous full-length collection of new recordings was the aforementioned "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.