Scorpions: Final tour was too much fun to quit

The Scorpions say they have had too much fun on their three-year long ‘farewell tour’ to actually call it a day.

The band had planned to retire at the end of their mammoth global trek but singer Klaus Meine admits the temptation to keep going has been too strong.

He tells Deutsche Welle: “When you start a three-year farewell tour, you know you’ve got a long time ahead of you. 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.”

Lead guitarist Matthias Jabs explains the decision to keep going caused some internal bickering before they all agreed to keep on rocking.

He explains: “At first, there were plenty of arguments in favour of stopping.

“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 US, throughout Europe. So, we just thought this can’t really be the end.”

The band’s drummer James Kottak was jailed in Dubai earlier this year for a drunken incident at the UAE city’s airport. He was replaced by Swedish drummer Johan Franzon and there has been no news on whether Kottack will return.