SCORPIONS To Celebrate 50th Anniversary In 2015 With New Studio Album, Tour

German hard rock veterans SCORPIONS will celebrate their 50th anniversary in 2015 with a special tour and new studio album. More information will be made available soon.

Asked in a December 2013 interview about the SCORPIONS' plans to release an album with some material that was written around the time of "Blackout" and "Love At First Sting", the band's lead guitarist, Matthias Jabs, said: "Yes, we started already. We have 12 songs. We found songs mainly from the early Eighties 'Blackout' and 'Love At First Sting' days, when many people consider our most creative and best time. The leftover tracks sound good, but they were never finished. They don't have lyrics or vocals, and they're not recorded to a click. So we have to do everything new. But it sounds quite good so far."

Added guitarist Rudolf Schenker, who launched the band in 1965: "Two of the new songs on [SCORPIONS' latest release] 'MTV Unplugged', 'Dancing With The Moonlight' and 'Rock & Roll Band', we had saved for bonus tracks. So we have those two songs, which are great, and we'll put them out as an electric version. I think we have a total of 15 songs from the Seventies and Eighties that we want to release. I think in 2014 we'll finish the places we haven't played yet on tour, and then get back to the record after that."

In a recent interview with Deutsche Welle, SCORPIONS singer Klaus Meine, Schenker and Jabs were asked what changed their minds about retiring after announcing in 2010 that they would end their career following a three-year farewell tour.

"When you start a three-year farewell tour, you know you've got a long time ahead of you," Meine said. "But that long period went by much faster than we imagined. The closer we got to the goal — Munich in December 2012 — the stronger the feeling was that we hadn't come to the end at all. There were so many images in our minds and so many emotions in our hearts. Everything we experienced between 2010 and 2012, the 200 concerts — it was all so powerful. You stand on stage, look down and see so many fans — including the younger generation, who are really getting into it and saying: 'Guys, this is so cool. We're seeing you for the first time. When will you be back?' It's so motivating and inspiring to play for three generations. We're all having too much fun to put down the guitars."

"The success of the farewell tour bowled us over," Schenker added. "When you see you've got a whole new generation in front of you — lots of 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds — then you get a whole new kick out of it. Essentially, we announced the farewell tour because we didn't want to be standing on stage and not able to deliver what people expected from us."

"At first, there were plenty of arguments in favor of stopping," said Jabs. "But we were quickly overshadowed by the feeling of how much fun it all is. It doesn't matter where we went, the shows were packed — in South America, the U.S., throughout Europe. So, we just thought: This can't really be the end."

Meine told Classic Rock magazine in January 2013 that extending SCORPIONS' current tour was "a gradual decision," explaining, "It's one thing to say, 'This is going to be the end of the SCORPIONS' and another to do it." He went on to describe the band's 2010 album, "Sting In The Tail", as "such a success that a whole new generation of fans joined the party." Meine added: "It was amazing. And you know that with all the best parties it's sometimes hard to find the door?"

Jabs echoed those sentiments in a 2012 interview, telling AZCentral.com: "We called it the farewell tour thinking — believing — it would be the last time we would play the U.S.A., that wherever we played, that would be the last time. But the tour is still going, due to demand from the audience and promoters."

"MTV Unplugged" was made available in North America on January 21 via Sony International. Material for the set was taken from the band's first-ever "MTV Unplugged" show and features new acoustic versions of best-loved classic hits, as well as five brand new songs.