Rock star deaths inspired Schenker

Michael Schenker says the deaths of some of his musical heroes made him want to work in a band environment again.

The guitar icon releases his third album with his Temple Of Rock project on March 23. Entitled Spirit On A Mission, the record features bassist Francis Buchholz, drummer Herman Rarebell, frontman Doogie White and keyboardist/guitarist Wayne Findlay.

After years of operating as a solo artist, former Scorpions and UFO man Schenker says he was moved by the deaths of Gary Moore and Ronnie James Dio to go back to his rock band roots.

He tells Metalholic he got all of his experimentation out of his system in his years as a solo artist and realised he was ready to work as part of a band again.

He adds: “I’m going backwards, I’m going upside down. I was focusing on becoming a great guitarist and more of a solo thing. I got all my things out of my system, all the things I wanted to do. All the musical experiments, because no touring band would have wanted to do that.

“People are passing away, like Gary Moore, Ronnie James Dio, Johnny Winter and so many people. It’s gonna be just a memory, this incredible era that has lasted 50 years now.

“I just wanna put this to the foreground one more time.”

The recording sessions for Spirit On A Mission were thrown into disarray last year when computers containing much of the recorded material were stolen from a studio in Germany.

But the songs are now ready to go and Schenker says he is thrilled with the results.

He says: “I’m very pleased with it, because I like the energy. I wanted to keep it very energetic and melodic and hard and then also even heavy. And I think we captured quite a bit of that.”

Earlier this month, Michael Schenker’s Temple Of Rock released a video for new track Live & Let Live.

Spirit On A Mission tracklist

Live And Let Live 2. Communion 3. Vigilante Man 4. Rock City 5. Saviour Machine 6. Something Of The Night 7. All Our Yesterdays 8. Bulletproof 9. Let The Devil Scream 10. Good Times 11. Restless Heart 12. Wicked 13. Searching For Freedom (bonus track)

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.