‘We now have three generations in front of the stage’

When a young Rudolf Schenker asked his father for a motorbike as a teenager, the answer was a firm no, as he thought it was too dangerous.

So Schenker asked for a guitar instead. “Okay, that’s fine,” his father told him.

It was a safer choice but not necessarily a quieter one. Six decades later, Schenker still plays the guitar, tours the world and leads Scorpions, the German rock band he founded in 1965.

Ahead of their concert in Malta on June 16, Schenker spoke to Times of Malta about the band’s 60-year career, the story behind their classic song Wind of Change, staying fit and healthy for the stage and why he believes live music still has a special power in an increasingly digital world.

Schenker says his love for music started with Elvis Presley and Little Richard before The Beatles and The Rolling Stones helped point him towards the idea of forming a band.

As a young boy, he remembers hearing other children talk about The Beatles playing at the Star-Club, in Hamburg. He liked them but they were “too poppy” for him. Then came The Rolling Stones. “I said, yes, that’s the way,” he recalls.

A team

Schenker also played football at the time and says that sense of being part of a team shaped the way he saw music. “Me alone on stage, that’s not the way I want to make music,” he says.  “I want to have friends around me and have fun.”

That became one of the guiding principles behind Scorpions. Schenker wanted not just good musicians but people with the right chemistry.

The band went through several line-up changes in its early years before Klaus Meine, whose voice would become central to the Scorpions sound, joined the group. Schenker’s younger brother, Michael, was also part of the band’s early development before later joining the band UFO.

From the start, Schenker wanted Scorpions to look beyond Germany. That was one of the reasons the band chose to sing in English. “We wanted to play worldwide,” he says. 

“We wanted to show people around the world that here is a new generation coming from Germany. They don’t make war with guns. They come with guitars, bringing love, peace and rock and roll.”

It was not always easy. Schenker says there were places where audiences were suspicious of a German band in the years after the war. But the band kept touring and gradually built an international following. By the 1980s, Scorpions had become one of the biggest rock bands in the world.

The 1980s

Schenker remembers that decade as one of the band’s most exciting periods. Songs like No One Like You, Rock You Like a Hurricane and Still Loving You took them to bigger stages, especially in the US.

“The 1980s, no question,” he says when asked which period he looks back on most fondly. He remembers the first Rock in Rio festival in Brazil as one of the standout moments as well as the band’s major American tours. 

But the song that would come to define Scorpions for many people came at the end of that decade. Wind of Change was inspired by the political shifts taking place in Eastern Europe and by the band’s experiences in the Soviet Union, including their performance at the Moscow Music Peace Festival in 1989.

When the Berlin Wall fell, Schenker was in Paris with Meine on a promotional trip. Meine saw the images on television. “He jumped up and said, ‘Is this the wall?’” Schenker says.

Scorpions - Wind of Change (Live at Hellfest 2022)

For Schenker, Wind of Change became the soundtrack to what he calls the most peaceful revolution in history. The song remains hugely popular, with more than a billion streams and views across platforms, but its message has taken on a different weight in today’s political climate.

The new generation of Germans didn’t make war with guns. They came with guitars

Enjoy life

“Why can’t we have this time now again,” Schenker asks. “We don’t need to be violent towards each other. Why can’t we live in peace and enjoy life?” He still believes music can help bring people together, even if the world feels very different from the early 1990s.

For Schenker, the power of music is in people singing and playing together. He points to the blues and to the way music has historically helped people endure difficult times. “Singing together is power,” he says.

Despite being 77, Schenker still performs with the energy of someone who has no intention of slowing down. He credits meditation and yoga with helping him stay healthy and focused.

He first became interested in meditation through The Beatles’ connection with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, while his father introduced him to yoga. “All these things give me a basis which helps me be healthy and powerful on stage,” he says.

Asked about the current state of the music industry, Schenker is less optimistic. He says it is much harder for young musicians today to earn a living or to develop properly.

Concerts

“For musicians, the changes are terrible,” he says. “It’s a lot harder to earn money from music.”

He is also sceptical about the shift from analogue sound to digital music and artificial intelligence.

For him, the warmth of music is still best experienced at a concert, with musicians playing real instruments in front of an audience. 

“That’s the reason why people go to live concerts. They have the warm feeling of the musician playing through the instrument.”

Schenker also rejects the idea that rock is dead. If anything, he says, Scorpions have seen younger fans coming to their shows in recent years, many of them discovering the band through YouTube. 

“We now have three generations in front of the stage,” he says.

The band’s current line-up includes Meine, guitarist Matthias Jabs, bassist Paweł Mąciwoda and drummer Mikkey Dee, formerly of Motörhead. Schenker says Dee’s arrival gave the band a new burst of energy. “We have now more power because Mikkey is a great drummer. He fits perfectly with the Scorpions.”

As for what Maltese fans can expect on June 16, Schenker keeps it simple. “A great concert evening. No question about this,” he says. “We are ready to rock.”

Tickets for Scorpions’ concert at the MFCC on June 16 are available at Eventworks.com