ACCEPT's WOLF HOFFMANN: 'I Hate It When People Always Ask Me About The '80s'

Niclas Müller-Hansen of RockSverige.se recently conducted an interview with guitarist Wolf Hoffmann of German/American metallers ACCEPT. An excerpt from the chat follows below.

RockSverige.se: Are you a nostalgic person in any way?

Wolf: "No, not at all. That's why I can subscribe to an idea of a song called 'No Regrets' or 'What's Done Is Done'. That's my way of thinking and always was. I don't worry about the past too much. I actually hate it when people always ask me about the '80s and 'Why did this happen?' and 'He left then and why did he leave?' and 'Why did you choose that producer back in 1982?' or whatever. If it's too long ago… Most people aren't concerned with what they did forty years ago. Why is it that musicians always have to sort of…? I just thought of the other day. If somebody leaves a company… I was actually talking to a friend where I knew that the editor in chief had just left the magazine and I asked what happened? He said, 'Well, it was decided between him and his boss that he no longer works here.' And I was, like, 'Why the fuck do you get away with that, but if somebody leaves a metal band, there's always these questions for years after the fact?' There are people that left us [ACCEPT] twenty years ago and they're still nagging me about it. Why is that? People leave companies all the time, and if it's over, let it go! But no, everybody's got an opinion about it. 'It must be Wolf, he's an asshole.' All this kind of stuff."

RockSverige.se: And with social media today, everybody's got an opinion about everything.

Wolf: "Yeah, strong opinions. A thing I find very concerning, and it contributes to the fact where people are so polarized now and on some issues people don't see eye to eye at all. There's no middle ground and everybody either absolutely loves it or absolutely hates it and they interpret everything… no matter what it is, one way or the other way and nobody seems to be even keeled anymore."

RockSverige.se: Sometimes you have to think twice about posting something because you know somebody's gonna bitch about it.

Wolf: "Totally. Things you would say in a conversation and everybody would laugh, they turn it around and crucify you and it's terrible. You have to be really careful. I don't even go on Facebook or anything. It's so full of poison and I don't like it. We got our first dose of that eight years ago when we announced to the world that we were coming back. People were up in arms and nobody had heard a thing. They had an opinion before they had even heard what it would sound like. They made up their mind that they were not gonna like it because 'it can't work and it really never worked.' and nobody's heard a damn thing. It's unfair. So, there you have it. It's a strange world we live in."

Read the entire interview at RockSverige.se.

ACCEPT's new album, "The Rise Of Chaos", will be released on August 4 via Nuclear Blast. The follow-up to 2014's "Blind Rage" is the first ACCEPT album to feature the band's latest additions, guitarist Uwe Lulis (GRAVE DIGGER, REBELLION) and drummer Christopher Williams.