DORO PESCH: GENE SIMMONS 'Was The Best Producer We Ever Had!'

Gus Griesinger of Glam-Metal.com recently conducted an interview with German metal queen Doro Pesch. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

Glam-Metal.com: You have been touring a little over a week in support of "Warrior Soul". How's the tour going so far?

Doro: Excellent, Excellent! Very excited to be in the States and in Canada. The shows have been killer so far. Yesterday in Montréal it was mind-blowing. It was one of the best shows on a tour so far. You feel the excitement. It reminded me of a little Wacken show you know? Very high-energy and overwhelming. I couldn't be more happy! It took us so long, because it's never easy the tour to states unless you get support from the record company.

Glam-Metal.com: You have the very talented Chris Caffery in your band and on your tour. Is this just for this tour? Also, how did you start working with them?

Doro: He is always doing the TSO [TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA] thing in October, November, and December. He's been a great friend of ours for many, many years. He's always been a special guest like at Wacken and other festivals. We had known each other for a very long time. It's wonderful to do the American tour together, and it's working great. His band is opening up. His keyboarder is our sound guy and he's an excellent sound guy. Everybody's been working hand in hand.

Glam-Metal.com: I have ask this question. "All We Are" is your most well known song, and it's been around for almost 20 years off your "Triumph and Agony" album. Why would you go back in the studio and remake such a classic?

Doro: It was for a special reason. A very good friend of mine who is a boxer and her name is Regina Halmich and it's her 10-year anniversary and we wrote walk in anthems for her. A couple weeks ago was her last fight, and she was fighting a guy. They were fighting together seven years ago, and he lost. Regina broke his nose and stuff. For seven years he's been asking for revenge and Regina said she never wanted to do it. Now this year, she was finishing her career and the guy asked her again and she actually said okay. A couple weeks ago, she called me up and said 'I'm gonna do the fight! Can you sing a song for me?" I said "Yeah," but Regina said, "I don't want my anthem 'She's Like Thunder' because that's like sacred to me." That's is for the real fights, this is more like a show. I would love a classic." I responded "You pick." She said, "How about 'All We Are'?" I said, "Okay." We had to tweak the version because it had to be a little shorter. Then we made big fireworks in the beginning. Even know this is a big the TV show, I didn't get any money for it. So I wanted to see what I can do. I didn't want to do it alone. I would like to have a band. So I called all my friends in Germany — Marcel "Schmier" Schirmer from DESTRUCTION, Bas Maas from AFTER FOREVER, and Tim Husung. Then we played "All We Are" live. It was a massive event, like 10 million viewers. Then afterwards people that never heard of us were like "Wow, what's that song?" And the record company got so many requests they asked if they could put it out. Then I said, let's not just put out the song. Let's make it a nice little special edition. There are also five videos on it. It came out June 8th. We did a cover of "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You", which was so nice then, "All We Are" and some new stuff for the diehard fans. People who never heard of us got turned on by the song, which was so cool! This event was great. By the way, she won again!

Glam-Metal.com: Where do you call home now?

Doro: On the tour bus always, like for the last 20 years. The tour bus is home. I have a place in New York, Long Beach, which I love, it's right on the beach. I always used to live in Manhattan, but it got pretty expensive and I ran out of money. We were touring anyhow. I have another place and in Düsseldorf, Germany. When we are in the States it's the New York area because Johnny is coming from Philadelphia. When were in Germany it's usually Düsseldorf or Cologne area. Where we're doing rehearsals. It all depends when we are starting the tour.

Glam-Metal.com: Here's an off-the-wall question. They had the big G8 summit last week in Germany with the world's top politicians. What is your view, you can be honest, if you hate our president or something you can say it.

Doro: It's so difficult to do the right thing. Growing up in Germany it was okay. Now in the last couple of years it got really bad with the economy. There are some really heavy problems. The thing with G8, it's good that people are getting together to communicate and figure out what to do. The whole world has changed especially after the attacks. Everything has changed. In America you don't feel so free anymore. Like now, you might feel more free in Russia. It's so hard to tell what's the right thing, I have to follow my heart. Some will say, how can they do that? I say at least they are talking. It's really good. The First Lady of Germany, Eva Luise Köhler, I think, really tries to do all the good things. She has a different background. She comes from East Germany and grew up totally different from the West Germans. Sometimes we don't understand what she's talking about (laughs). I think it's so difficult but people are talking. I think that's very positive. I like that Germany and America have a good relationship again. There was a time when the politicians weren't getting along so good. Getting into the border we were treated like ahhhhh you know. I got the green card in 1991, and I love America. I'm so happy to be here and think it's the best country in the world. When I came to New York for the first time in 1987, it was for a three-day promotional tour. After two days, I stayed and told everybody I wanted to stay. After "Triumph and Agony", everything fell into place.

Glam-Metal.com: This will be my last question. I'm a huge KISS fan and you have a little KISS background with Gene Simmons producing one of your albums. Do you still have any connection with the guys in KISS at all?

Doro: Gene came down the last time we were on tour here (the States). It was a long time ago. There is still a friendship there, even when we don't see each other for a long time. It was a dream come true when he was working with us in 1990. Gene always showed me when you start a new record you start from zero again. I was always a big fan of him and became a big fan of the person after working with him. So intelligent. I love that! It's was so great to watch him working with all the musicians. He was a great motivator, fantastic! Every time before I went into the studio, I was driving my car like maybe 20 minutes and I was very happy. Right before I went into the studio, my knees were shaking. "Not again!" (laughs) He made me very happy in so many ways he really tried his best. I remember one song the mix wasn't coming out right. I was totally bummed out. I was really nervous. Gene said, "Just go to your room and wait there!" I was in L.A. At 9 o'clock in the morning the receptionist called me and said there was a gentleman here and let the tape for you. I couldn't believe it was nine o'clock, and I said "Okay." I listened to it and Gene makes the call. It was the song "Mirage" and it was so good. It moved me to tears when I wrote it. It came out so good. He definitely made sure the mix was perfect. He was there for us in so many ways. I think he was the best producer we ever had!

Read the entire interview at Glam-Metal.com.