UDO DIRKSCHNEIDER Says It's 'No Problem' For Him To Play Five Or Six Shows With No Days Off: 'It Works For Me'

In a new interview with Shawn Ratches of Laughingmonkeymusic, former ACCEPT and current U.D.O. and DIRKSCHNEIDER frontman Udo Dirkschneider said that his voice has only gotten stronger over time. The 73-year-old singer explained (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "When we had our new booking agency and they start working on the European tour, they said, 'Yeah, how many shows can you do?' I said, 'Yeah, five, six in a row, no problem.' They were, like, 'What?' I said, 'Yeah, no problem at all. I can do that.' And it's, like, 'Okay.' And, of course, it makes the whole touring much cheaper — you don't have days off and blah, blah, blah. So here we go. Keep going. And for me, this is also a crazy thing with my voice. For me, it's better to have more shows in a row instead of having two, a day off, three, a day off. For me, it's the wrong way [to have days off]. It's crazy, I know, but it works for me… That's the thing. It's like a muscle… And also, in a band with U.D.O., everybody's happy that we not only play two shows and then a day off, maybe two days off, three shows, whatever. And, yeah, keep going. You're get getting really into that. And everybody likes it in the band."

Udo previously talked about the evolution of his singing voice during a May 2023 press conference for U.D.O.'s latest album, "Touchdown", in Hamburg, Germany. He said at the time: "For me, the most important thing is that you are open-minded with music — not [have the attitude of], 'This is what I did for 40 years. I don't wanna change anything.' For me, [it's important] to be really open-minded. I always was open-minded. I mean, I was working with so many musicians. It was out of my control. We had a lot of changes. And I always [had the attitude of], 'Yeah.' I'm interested for me, myself, to see how far I can go with my vocals, with my voice.

"It's a different thing, but when I did this cover album [2022's 'My Way', released under the Udo Dirkschneider banner], I was making like a spectrum… For me, it was, like, 'Yeah, I can do that,'" he explained. "It was helping me also to see, 'Oh, can I cover this like this?' The range — this is also very interesting — my range got wider. I mean, I didn't expect this. It's like an old wine; the taste is getting much better.

"With my voice now, I can do so many different stuff," Udo added. "This is also a miracle for me, for myself. 20 or 25 years ago, to sing some songs, it was, like, 'What?' [Laughs] But now it's easy for me to do some also different stuff. And yeah, it's good to see. That means, for me, I see we can do a lot of different stuff also in the future."

In an October 2021 interview with Pete Pardo of Sea Of Tranquility, Udo was asked how he has managed to keep his singing voice in such good shape after more than 40 years of recording and touring. He responded: "I don't know. I think I'm really lucky with my voice. I go every year to check everything, and the doctor always says, 'Everything's perfect. No problems.' And this is crazy.

"I never had any problems or had to cancel a concert [because of] my voice — never," he continued. "I'm really, really lucky with this. I know a lot of colleagues, they have problems with their voice.

"The only thing I can say is I do nothing really special. The only thing I did is 17 years ago I stopped smoking. And that's the only thing what I did. And the rest is, like, I do nothing. I never warm up when I go onstage. I never warm up in the studio. It's a miracle.

"My colleague Stefan Kaufmann [former ACCEPT drummer and U.D.O. guitarist], I'm working with this guy for a long, long time, and when we did the recording of [the U.D.O. album] 'Game Over', he said to me, 'This voice is a miracle. Unbelievable.' He said to me, 'You are still on the same level like [ACCEPT's] 'Breaker' [album], with the high voices.' He said, 'This is unreal.' Normally, if you're getting older, you're losing all these high parts. No. He said, 'This is crazy — absolutely crazy.'

"I have to say to somebody, 'Thank you very much.' [Laughs]"

DIRKSCHNEIDER is the name of Udo's band which performs ACCEPT material exclusively.

Although Udo announced 10 years ago that his initial DIRKSCHNEIDER tour would mark his final time performing ACCEPT songs, he has continued to play select shows under the DIRKSCHNEIDER banner for the past decade.