SCORPIONS And WHITESNAKE Announce Summer/Fall 2022 North American Tour

SCORPIONS, one of the most iconic and influential hard rock bands of all time, will return to North America on the "Rock Believer" world tour with special guests WHITESNAKE on the David Coverdale-fronted outfit's farewell tour.

Fresh off of their sold-out "Sin City Nights" Las Vegas residency, SCORPIONS will kick off a two-month-long Live Nation-produced run of dates on August 14 in Toronto, with additional concerts in Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago, Dallas, and Denver, among others. In addition to WHITESNAKE, Swedish band THUNDERMOTHER will be joining the tour.

Tickets go on sale to the public on Friday, May 13 at 10 a.m. local time on Ticketmaster.com. SCORPIONS Rock Zone fan club members will have exclusive, first access to tickets starting Tuesday, May 10 at 10 a.m. local time.

SCORPIONS frontman Klaus Meine said: "After the amazing start we've had with our residency in Las Vegas, it's about time to come back for a real tour to rock the U.S. like a hurricane again. We can't wait to see all you rock believers out there!"

Coverdale added: "Once again it's time to feel the sting of the SCORPIONS and the bite of the WHITESNAKE!!! Can't Wait!!!"

SCORPIONS North American tour dates with WHITESNAKE:

Aug. 21 - Toronto, ON - Budweiser Stage
Aug. 24 - Quebec City, QC - Centre Videotron
Aug. 27 - Montreal, QC - Bell Center
Aug. 30 - Detroit, MI - Pine Knob Music Theatre
Sep. 01 - Rosemont, IL - Allstate Arena
Sep. 05 - Atlantic City, NJ - Borgata Casino*
Sep. 07 - Belmont Park, NY - UBS Arena
Sep. 09 - Mashantucket, CT - Foxwoods Casino*
Sep. 12 - Hollywood, FL - Hard Rock Live
Sep. 14 - Tampa, FL - Amalie Arena
Sep. 17 - Houston, TX - Toyota Center
Sep. 19 - El Paso, TX - Don Haskins Center
Sep. 21 - Tulsa, OK - BOK Arena
Sep. 24 - San Antonio, TX - Freeman Coliseum
Sep. 27 - Dallas, TX - American Airlines Center
Sep. 29 - Denver, CO - Ball Arena
Oct. 01 - San Diego, CA - Viejas Arena
Oct. 04 - Los Angeles, CA - The Forum
Oct. 07 - Fresno, CA - Save Mart Center
Oct. 09 - Portland, OR - Moda Center
Oct. 13 - Spokane, WA - Spokane Arena
Oct. 15 - Tacoma, WA - Tacoma Dome
Oct. 18 - Oakland, CA - Oakland Coliseum
Oct. 21 - Las Vegas, NV - Mandalay Bay

* SCORPIONS only

SCORPIONS' latest album, "Rock Believer", was released on February 25. The album was recorded primarily at Peppermint Park Studios in Hannover, Germany and was mixed at the legendary Hansa Studios in Berlin, Germany with engineer Michael Ilbert, who has earned multiple Grammy nominations for his mix work with producer Max Martin on albums by Taylor Swift and Katy Perry.

SCORPIONS originally intended to record the new album in Los Angeles with producer Greg Fidelman, whose previous credits include SLIPKNOT and METALLICA. However, because of the pandemic, some of the initial work was done with Greg remotely, after which SCORPIONS opted to helm the recordings themselves with the help of their engineer Hans-Martin Buff.

SCORPIONS' new album marks their first release since 2017's "Born To Touch Your Feelings - Best Of Rock Ballads", which was an anthology of new and classic material.

Meine told Chile's Radio Futuro that "Rock Believer" is "dedicated to all the rock believers in the world. And we're very excited after all these years. We thought, when you think about all the touring we did the last 10 years, after the release of 'Return To Forever' in 2015, the time was right to go back into the studio, to write new material, to write new songs and check out if the creativity is still working. The big aim was, the goal was to make a rock album — to make an album with lots of attitude, power and focus on the good old times and really enjoy the music and have some fun with the music. And that feels really good."

SCORPIONS' previous full-length collection of new recordings was the aforementioned "Return To Forever", partially comprising songs the band had in the vault from the '80s. It was the final recorded appearance of SCORPIONS' longtime drummer James Kottak, who was dismissed from the band in September 2016. He has since been replaced by Mikkey Dee, formerly of MOTÖRHEAD.

Last July, WHITESNAKE announced that it had enlisted Croatian singer/multi-instrumentalist Dino Jelusick for its upcoming tour. Jelusick is a member of multi-platinum selling band TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA and was previously part of DIRTY SHIRLEY (with George Lynch),ANIMAL DRIVE and recorded with many others. The 29-year-old Dino has been singing, touring and recording since the age of five. Other than being a frontman, his main instrument are keyboards but he also plays bass, guitar and drums. He finished music academy and did theater work.

Coverdale, who turned 70 last September, recently confirmed that he plans to retire from touring after WHITESNAKE's next batch of concerts around the world.

Coverdale had both his knees replaced with titanium in 2017 after suffering from degenerative arthritis. He later explained that he was in so much pain with arthritis in his knees that it hampered his ability to perform live.

WHITESNAKE had been touring in support of its latest album, "Flesh & Blood", which was released in May 2019 via Frontiers Music Srl.