In the 50 years since their formation in Soligen, Germany, Accept have played a significant role in the birth and development of heavy metal. They’re still driven by guitarist Wolf Hoffmann, and Mark Tornillo (formerly of New Jersey’s TT Quick) has been their singer since 2009.
Below, Hoffmann previews a guest-strewn album of re-recordings, Teutonic Titans 1976-2026, and this week's three British dates.
Congratulations on a half-century of Accept.
Thanks. I wouldn’t even have thought we would last five years, to be honest, let alone fifty. We were just teenagers. We didn’t have a clue.
How did you choose the eighteen songs for Teutonic Titans?
It was complicated. The producer, Zeus, and I went through the whole catalogue and figured out which might be the most interesting ones to do. Some people say Fast As A Shark started the whole speed metal thing, but we also have some older tracks that got less attention over the years.
What a great selection of cameos appears on the rebooted Fast As A Shark – Metallica’s Kirk Hammett, Phil Anselmo from Pantera, ex-Motörhead and current Scorpions drummer Mickey D and Mr. Big bassist Billy Sheehan.
Pretty much the creme de la creme of the heavy metal genre. Kirk Hammett told me how much he loves that song, and how much it influenced him.
Are you friends with Phil Anselmo?
I wouldn’t say friends, but we met a few times over the years. He jumped on stage with us at Hellfest years ago, that surprised me a lot. He just walked on said: “Right, I’m joining in.” It might have been Fast As A Shark that he sang that day.
Judas Priest’s KK Downing and Rob Halford are both on the record, albeit on separate tracks.
Accept supported Priest on a UK tour in 1981, so that’s a nice reunion. Every time we run into those guys I mention that tour and all of us remember it fondly. I’m honoured to have both of them on this album.
Your fellow countryman Matthias Jabs from the Scorpions appears on another of Accept’s classic songs, Balls To The Wall.
I asked him, please make it sound authentic, like you would do it, and he put down this sort of very Scorpions or Matthias Jabs-sounding lead part. It’s just brilliant.
Few people will have had Billy Corgan from Smashing Pumpkins down as an Accept fan, but there he is on Love Child. Who would have thought it, huh?
I reached out to Billy via my guitar tech who knew him, and he did the song in his own style, which is fantastic. Billy told me that Accept was among the first metal shows he saw as a kid.
Which of the album’s songs would you say was transformed the most by a special guest?
That would be Save Us, because Tobias Forge from Ghost did that one. When he picked that song I couldn’t remember it, because it’s on I’m A Rebel [1980] and I hadn’t listened to it in years. He did it the style of Ghost, and it worked out really incredible.
The elephant in the room: did anybody suggest involving Accept’s estranged original singer Udo Dirkschneider in all of this?
We contacted him, and of course there was no response.
How would you describe your relationship with Udo these days?
It’s non-existent, and that’s a sad thing to me. And it’s not just Udo. Whoever leaves the band usually is never heard from again. To me, that’s weird. Why can’t we be friends, or at least remain in touch? But I hear it from a lot of other bands. It has a lot to do with bruised egos.
Bringing in Mark Tornillo is something that nobody saw coming, and few would have expected it to have lasted this long.
It’s worked out brilliantly because Mark’s voice really lends itself to the old material. He pulls it off night after night, but at the same time he puts his own spin on it. We are making albums together – six of them now – that are meaningful to fans, not just trying to live off the past. We’re having more success than we ever did in the eighties.
Are you familiar with Tailgunner, the young British band who will be opening for you in London and Wolverhampton?
I’m aware that KK Downing produced their album [Midnight Blitz], but although I don’t yet know their music I’ve heard great things about them.
Can you set the scene for the two upcoming gigs?
If you ever considered coming to an Accept show, this would be the year. In a special setlist we’ll play songs that we will never play again or haven’t played before. We will have a massive [stage] production with us, and possibly some special guests. It’s going to be amazing. Get your tickets while you still can.
What are you most proud of in the fifty-year Accept story?
This is pretty much the culmination of it; the celebration and the recognition from my peers. It feels better than it ever has done, to be honest.
Accept play Wolverhampton on August 27, London on August 28, and at the Stonedead Festival at Newark Showground on August 29. For tickets, check the Accept website. Teutonic Titans 1976-2026 is released on September 4.
