WOLF HOFFMANN Reflects On 'Rivalry' Between ACCEPT And SCORPIONS: 'They Never Talked About Us' Or 'Acknowledged Us'

During an appearance on MACHINE HEAD frontman Robb Flynn's "No Fuckin' Regrets With Robb Flynn" podcast, ACCEPT guitarist Wolf Hoffmann was asked if there was ever a rivalry between his band and legendary German hard rockers SCORPIONS, especially in the early 1980s when both ACCEPT and SCORPIONS were still on the rise. He responded (see video below): "The SCORPIONS were already up. When we got started, the SCORPIONS were already big. They had already released 'Tokyo Tapes' and then it was 'Lovedrive', and they were huge in our minds. They were touring America, and they were always way ahead of us. So we always looked at them as our goal or our hero — maybe one day we could be half as good as they are. And they never mentioned us, oddly enough, and they never talked about us, they never acknowledged us in a way, or so it felt. And we always felt it a little odd that they almost were a little afraid of our competition. It almost felt like they maybe wanted to be the only German successful band, and they resented the fact that we were even recording at the same studio with the same producer. We always had this idea that they were thinking, like, 'Who's this other band? Who do they think they are?' They wanna be the only ones… I don't know. This might be total speculating on my part, but it felt a little bit, like, why are they so…? They don't have to be afraid of us. We're doing something completely [different]. And they are huge. Why are they afraid of this little other German band in their footsteps?"

Asked if he ever got a chance to meet the SCORPIONS and question them personally about the perceived animosity between the two bands, Wolf said: "I tried to at one point, because eventually we played one show with them, and this is only recently — I'd say four or five years ago. We played one show with them. And I never got a clear answer out of them, because they are always very friendly on the surface and they're great guys, and I like them, but there's never any deep conversations like that. They always stick to themselves, and they never hang around and open up and have a beer or two. They're always a little bit distant, and they're the stars, and they're in their own little world. I have probably the best connection to [guitarist] Matthias Jabs, and, of course, I admire [guitarist] Rudolf [Schenker] — he's my hero; he's amazing. But they never come down to our level — or so it seems. [Laughs]"

He continued: "The cool thing is now we're all a little bit older and we can chuckle about it and have a good laugh about this stuff. They probably might open up a little bit more — if we ever had a little bit of a sitdown or whatever, they might tell me a little more of the truth. But they always kept their distance, and they never spilled the beans. They never were the talking kind. I don't know why. It's always been that way."

ACCEPT's new album, "Too Mean To Die", will be released on January 29 via Nuclear Blast. The LP will be the group's first without bassist Peter Baltes, who exited ACCEPT in November 2018. He has since been replaced by Martin Motnik. ACCEPT's lineup has also been expanded with the addition of a third guitarist, Philip Shouse, who originally filled in for Uwe Lulis during 2019's "Symphonic Terror" tour, before being asked to join the band permanently.

"Too Mean To Die" was recorded in Nashville, Tennessee with British producer Andy Sneap (JUDAS PRIEST, MEGADETH),who has been responsible for the studio sound of ACCEPT since 2010.

ACCEPT's last album, 2017's "The Rise Of Chaos", marked the band's first release with Lulis and drummer Christopher Williams, replacing Herman Frank and Stefan Schwarzmann, respectively.