ACCEPT's WOLF HOFFMANN Says He Was Dragging His Feet During Pandemic: 'It's Been Such A Weird Time'

In a new interview with Robert Cavuoto of Sonic Perspectives, ACCEPT guitarist Wolf Hoffmann was asked if he and his bandmates will enter the studio after their upcoming U.S. tour to begin work on a new album. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, the studio is basically my house, or the band house, in Nashville. But, yeah, I will go there and definitely start working seriously on songs. We're not quite ready to record because, quite honestly, we don't have finished songs yet. I've got a collection of stuff that I started to put together but it's at the very beginning stages. But, yeah, we wanna put out a new album as soon as we can, sure."

He continued: "I've also been dragging my feet quite a bit because it's been such a weird time with corona. You would think I had all this free time so I have dozens and dozens of songs ready to go, but the truth is I don't. I was sitting here basically like you sit at the airport. You get there, you wait for your flight, and 10 minutes before it's ready to take off, they tell you, 'Oh, there's an hour delay.' And you think, like, 'Okay. An hour, that's not so bad. There's not much time to do much anyhow, so let me just sit here and wait.' And then, when that hour is over, they tell you, 'Oh, by the way, it's gonna be another two hours.' Had you known all this upfront, you would have probably done something useful. But it was almost like 'hurry up and wait.' And that's how it felt, to me, with corona. And I thought, 'Well, in a couple of months the tour is gonna go on anyhow. So I'm not quite ready to work on new songs quite yet.' But had I known it was gonna be a long two-year break, I might have gotten my act together and jumped into it. And we had just done an album during corona, so we were arranging to tour with it and not start working on new songs already. Because I felt like, 'Hey, I just made a record. Give me a break, people. I wanna tour this album first. I don't really wanna work on another album.' And also I don't know that the world was ready for yet another album. I mean, come on."

As previously reported, ACCEPT will embark on a North American tour in the fall. The trek, featuring support from NARCOTIC WASTELAND, will kick off on September 29 in Nashville, Tennessee and conclude on October 29 in Columbus, Ohio. Fans can expect a career-spanning setlist of new and classic tracks, including mega-hits "Balls To The Wall", "Princess Of The Dawn", "Fast As A Shark" and many more.

This past February, it was announced that ACCEPT had inked a worldwide deal with Napalm Records.

ACCEPT's latest album, "Too Mean To Die", came out in January 2021 via Nuclear Blast. The LP was 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.

Mark Tornillo joined ACCEPT in 2009 as the replacement for the band's original lead singer, Udo Dirkscheider. He can be heard on ACCEPT's last five studio albums, "Blood Of The Nations" (2010),"Stalingrad" (2012),"Blind Rage" (2014),"The Rise Of Chaos" (2017) and "Too Mean To Die".