A brief chat with Michael Schenker

Yellow Scene: Tell us about the Temple of Rock – this is different to an MSG show, right?

Michael Schenker: Absolutely. MSG is basically everything I did with Gary Barden plus some other stuff – it was my mid years to do whatever I wanted and to experiment with music, and to be in that rhythm of tour-album-tour-album. I was just doing my stuff. The Temple of Rock is my third stage. The first stage was developing as a guitarist, to focus on self-expression and to make my music a contribution. After I rejoined the Scorpions and helped them out, opening the doors for America, they went ahead and I withdrew and did MSG. With Temple of Rock, I felt that I needed to be back in the loop of rock ‘n’ roll. I was having a lot of fun on stage. I used to have stage-fright, but all of a sudden I was feeling good on stage and that was a result, I guess, of living, learning, and developing. I feel I’ve been preserved for this time. With Temple of Rock, I do a summit. It’s based on the most popular music that I’ve been involved with, plus the original music of Temple of Rock. The idea is to have Temple of Rock develop into it’s own entity.

YS: There are three Scorpions in the band with you?

MS: Its the original “Rock You Like a Hurricane” rhythm section of the Scorpions, Herman Rarebell and Francis Buchholz, then Doogie White from Rainbow, Wayne Findlay from MSG, and myself.

YS: Do you like playing Colorado?

MS: I like going everywhere. Anywhere that there’s people who want to hear what we do, that’s where I want to be.

YS: What can we expect from the set?

MS: We play the most popular music of my involvement, from Scorpions to UFO to MSG, and then of course we play highlights from Temple of Rock.

YS: When the tour’s over, what’s next?

MS: I’m going to carry on having fun touring. That’s what I love doing now. I love to be creative, touring, doing festivals. We’ll play Europe, Japan, Australia, South America, Asia, etc. This going to be a long tour.