SCORPIONS Resurrecting Previously Unfinished Songs From '80s, '90s For New Release

During a recent interview with ArizonaRepublic.com, guitarist Matthias Jabs of German hard rock veterans SCORPIONS was asked what "different things" he is planning on doing following the band's current farewell tour. "I don't know," he said. "Do you know what you're doing three years from now? The SCORPIONS will not break up. We're giving up the constant touring, into the studio, out of the studio, back on the road. At some point, you have to say, 'OK, thank you very much.' We have a project which we will probably release next year. We have so much film material. We will work on something like an anthology, some kind of box set. And nobody has said we'll never hit the stage again, for one show somewhere in the world. Why not? If somebody wants to see us desperately, yes, OK, here we are. There's also the chance ... that we would get terribly bored just sitting around at home, and we would call each other and go, 'Let's play a few shows.' But the intense touring, the way we've been doing it for decades now, it had to come to an end. The one-off show, fine. We were approached to play for the opening of the World Cup Championships in 2014. That is not confirmed, but those opportunities, we would not let slip away. We're scheduled until December 15 this year. That's the last show. It's somewhere in a small town in Germany. After that, we don't know."

When asked if the SCORPIONS' next project will consist of new material, Jabs said, "The first three months of this year, we took off to work in the studio, resurrecting unfinished songs from what some people say was our best time, leftovers from the albums 'Blackout', 'Love At First Sting', 'Crazy World', 'Savage Amusement', all the albums from the '80s and early '90s. There's so much strong material, but it hasn't ever been finished, especially the lyrics. They're like 'Blah blah blah blah blah.' It was recorded like you would record a demo, no click track, anything. But the vibe is great because it's from the time when we were starting out. Everything I played back then, I remember when I found a new riff, I would get excited. It's slightly different today because I know it all. I've heard it all. So it's much harder to get excited about the simplest or sometimes half-genius riff. But there was a definite spark in those old recordings and the idea is to redo them with today's technology and take it further as a tribute to the fans."