UDO DIRKSCHNEIDER Says ACCEPT Was In Existence For Nearly Eight Years Before WOLF HOFFMANN Joined The Band

In a new interview with Sakis Fragos of Rock Hard Greece, former ACCEPT singer Udo Dirkschneider reflected on the band's early days, particularly the years before classic-era members Wolf Hoffmann (guitar) and Peter Baltes (bass) joined the legendary German heavy metal group. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "The ACCEPT name came at the end of '69 already. And I was on tour already — not on tour, but we did nearly every weekend some shows in Holland, Belgium, stuff like that, a lot in the south of Germany and also around our hometown, Solingen, Wuppertal. So that means before the ACCEPT, let's say the original one everybody thinks, like Wolf Hoffmann, Peter Baltes, Stefan Kaufmann and Jörg Fischer, they came in '76. So that means I was already with ACCEPT in a way nearly eight years, doing some shows. And still now with [my current project] DIRKSCHNEIDER, I play ACCEPT songs again. The name is just now [owned by] Wolf Hoffmann for some reason, but I don't wanna go deeper."

Back in June 2022, Udo expressed regret over not securing rights to the ACCEPT name. The German frontman has been vocal over his dissatisfaction with the current Mark Tornillo-fronted version of ACCEPT that features only one original member — Hoffmann. Despite announcing plans 11 years ago to stop performing ACCEPT material live, Dirkschneider continues to do so in both U.D.O. and DIRKSCHNEIDER.

In an interview with BLABBERMOUTH.NET, Udo talked about the business decisions that had forced him to carve out a legacy in U.D.O. and DIRKSCHNEIDER, which have also created fervent debate over who should be performing ACCEPT's back catalog.

"[ACCEPT's longtime manager] Gaby Hoffmann was clever to have us sign paperwork that all the rights should go to Wolf for the name in 1981," he said. "At this time, we were signing a lot of papers. I found out very late that I signed something like that. It's history. I'm fine with U.D.O., I'm fine with DIRKSCHNEIDER. I can still play ACCEPT songs. It doesn't matter if it's called ACCEPT or U.D.O. — people know what's going on. For me, it's history. It's not the nicest thing in the world, but it was a long time ago, but so what?"

In April 2021, Udo spoke about the fact that almost all the members of ACCEPT's classic lineup are no longer in the band, telling TNT Radio Rock: "There is only one guy left: Wolf Hoffmann. To call this ACCEPT — it's completely a different thing.

"A lot of people say, 'Yeah, what about the whole story with ACCEPT…?' Blah blah blah," he continued. "I don't wanna say anything bad. Wolf is a great guitar player. He's a great guy — I know that. But one thing, and that's why never ever can happen again a reunion or stuff like that, is he was stealing my name. A long time ago, in '81, when we had to sign some papers. I was really young, and, 'Yeah, okay,' I signed my contracts. There was some paper in between [all the others], and he [got] the rights [to the ACCEPT name]. But it was not Wolf [who orchestrated it]; I think it was now his wife. She was the manager of ACCEPT, and she was clever to put the [ACCEPT] name on Wolf Hoffmann. And this is the thing that makes me still angry — he was really stealing the name. I mean, I was making ACCEPT in '68.

"In the end, as a person, [he's] definitely a great guitar player, a great guy," Udo added. "It's history. I think I'm quite successful with U.D.O. If I want, I can do anytime a tour under [the name] DIRKSCHNEIDER and play ACCEPT songs. If I really say, 'Okay, I wanna do this again,' no problems at all. But the rest, in a way, is history."

In January 2021, Hoffmann was asked by SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk" if he was surprised to see Baltes working with Dirkschneider on some new music. He responded: "Yeah, I probably shouldn't say much about that. Again, I can only speculate what that was all about. At the end of the day, we do our thing, and everybody has to know for themselves what they wanna do. Yeah, let me not say as much about that as I can, please."

Back in 2015, Hoffmann dismissed Dirkschneider's comment that the band's then-lineup — which included Baltes and ACCEPT's singer of more than a decade and a half, Mark Tornillo — performed live "without any emotion." "It's just hilarious at this point," Wolf said. "It's just a big joke in our lives. And we just go on about our lives, and we do our thing, and we just… We let these things go by and laugh about it. He's actually sort of our press agent, in a way. He keeps us [in the news]."