SCORPIONS Guitarist: 'At The Moment, Nobody Knows What We Will Do At The End Of Our Career'

Radio Metal recently conducted an interview with guitarist Matthias Jabs of German hard rock veterans SCORPIONS. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Radio Metal: I heard an "Humanity - Hour 2" album had been planned. Why did you dismiss the project? Did you realize that the compositions you wrote for the new album were too different from "Hour 1"? Did this take away the meaning for a sequel?

Matthias Jabs: There was never an "Hour 2" planned. This "hour one" is part of the concept, it does not mean "episode 1." Desmond's [Child, producer] idea was to say that the human species in its intelligent form went through the first part of its history, like the first 20 or 30,000 years. Right now there's a big change in history, and the human race is turning into something else, and we don't know what. You could call that "hour two," but there was never supposed to be a follow-up album.

Radio Metal: Tarja Turunen [ex-NIGHTWISH singer] appears on the song "The Good Die Young". However, her appearance is very discreet; was she not frustrated by this?

Matthias Jabs: It's nice that she's singing on the song. We met her in Brazil a few years ago, when she was doing one of her last concerts with NIGHTWISH. There were our support band at the Live And Louder festival in Sao Paulo, where we met briefly. We're not too keen on doing duets, even if the record companies always want bands to do duets, for marketing reasons more than musical reasons. This song wasn't written as a duet. If you do a duet, all of a sudden you depend on another artist and their management. So this song works with and without Tarja. We played it last night at the Taratata show. We cannot have a song where we depend on her, because she lives in Finland and Argentina. And why should we go on tour and have Tarja with us all the time? It's very nice that she sings on the track, and she adds a nice atmosphere to it. It's an improvement, it sounds better with her than without her, but we cannot depend on her. Imagine the song is a big hit: everywhere you go, you'll have to bring this other person along. Just no!

Radio Metal: Correct me if I'm wrong, but the album had already been composed when you decided to end your career. What were you thinking after you realized that this would be your last album?

Matthias Jabs: I still don't know. I've been in the band almost 32 years. It's been our life every day — and will be for the next two years. Try as I might, it's unimaginable at the moment, and that's why I give up. I'll just concentrate on the tour. Nobody really understands what life will be like when we don't do SCORPIONS anymore. It's impossible to imagine.

Radio Metal: Let's imagine that you had decided to quit before making the album. Would you have written it differently? I guess that there would have been a lot more pressure on you...

Matthias Jabs: I guess so, yes. If we had decided beforehand that this would be our last album, there would probably be songs where we would have mentioned it. I'm sure we would have written it differently. My colleagues will turn 62 this year — I'm a bit younger — and at the end of the tour they will be 65. After that, can you see them going back to the studio to record a new album, and then go on another long tour? The idea was to conclude our very long career with dignity and class. We want people to remember us as a great band, with fit and healthy musicians. We don't want the public to think: "They used to be great, but now they really look old."

Radio Metal: A band like KISS, at some point, had announced a farewell tour. But today they're still here and actually released a new album last year. Are you confident when you say that after this album and long tour, SCORPIONS will be gone for good? Will you resist the temptation to reform the band?

Matthias Jabs: I'm sure we will resist. Maybe we'll stretch the tour, make it as long as possible, but once it is over, it is over. The "KISS effect" started ten years ago. Now you have farewell tour one, farewell tour number two, number three… We don't want to make a joke of ourselves. We are serious.

Radio Metal: I mentioned KISS, and actually their album "Sonic Boom" was very well received by the critics and fans alike. Obviously it was a good thing for them and the fans that they didn't quit after all and took the "risk" to do another album. Have you thought to yourselves: "Maybe we're missing out on many more great records…?"

Matthias Jabs: At the moment, nobody knows what we will do at the end of our career. It is too early to really think about it. I think within the next two or three years, when we're on tour, things will come to us and become obvious. Maybe it will be a musical project with other people, maybe it will be something else. Everything is imaginable, but we have no concrete plans. All we have to take care of at the moment is the release of the new album and the tour. We're going to play all around the world. We're going to Frankfurt tomorrow to do some more promotion, next week we'll be going to Austria for a big TV show, then we go straight to New York and Los Angeles, and right after that we'll be playing shows in Belgium. We were playing in Moscow yesterday, and flew to Paris at 4 a.m.! This is going to take all our energy, and it's way too early to think about the rest. I mean, do you know what you'll be doing in three years?!

Radio Metal: We still have two or three years left with SCORPIONS. Are you dreading the moment it will all be over?

Matthias Jabs: No. For us, two and half years is not that long, the last tour for "Humanity - Hour 1" was just as long. That's normal if you want to play all around the world. We could play two months in South America, six months in the U.S. and three months in Asia if we wanted to. That's something normal for us, we've been doing this for more than 20 years now. And as I said before, I don't know how we'll feel at the very end of this tour. Touring makes you fit. The traveling part can be tiring, but playing on stage almost every night is almost like a sport. We will probably be fitter then that we are now!

Radio Metal: If you could keep one positive and one negative memory of your whole career with SCORPIONS, what would they be?

Matthias Jabs: It's probably not what you want to hear, but to me, the best thing is the fact that we're here today. We've had a long career, and now we can go on tour with our last album. That's the best moment, so to speak. The worst will probably be the day after the last concert.

Read the entire interview from Radio Metal.