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What are you up to now? (besides answering these stupid questions)
Professional Photography
Yeah, I noticed your name as photo credit for the Country band "The
Oak Ridge Boys" etc. Is that your "full time" occupation now?
Yes - full time profession
Is it true that you're living in Nashville? Will there be a country
album in the future? :-)
Yes - I do live in Nashville and there will be no country album - I
assure you...
As you may have noticed, my songwriting with ACCEPT reflected my love
for classical music very early. As touring band for over 20 years, I
never had the opportunity to record an album like this.
Will there be a "Metal" solo album in the future? You did some work
with Sebastian Bach a couple of years back.
I am not planning to record any thing right now and yes, I enjoyed
working with my longtime friend Sebastian
Who(m) or what inspired you to pick up the guitar in the first place?
House music in my family
Let's talk guitars for a while. Do you have a favorite old 'axe'
that you always play. Or do you switch guitar whenever a new model is
out on the market?
Flying V and no - I love the ones I am used to
No - I did not look somewhere else. ACCEPT has always been a very secluded
group of friends and we rehearsed day and night and that lead to my
ability to come up with riffs.
You married your own (Accept's) manager Gaby Hauke. Who also wrote
the lyrics for many of the songs. Does she work as a manager for any
bands today?
Yes - I did and no - she is not managing any other bands - ACCEPT has
been her greatest love and still is.... and she refused to write for
any other artists.
Which year did you join "Accept" anyway? And what was your opinion
about Udo, When you met him for the first time.
End of 70's and Udo is Udo until today - VERY unique
When did you at first understand that Accept may have a good thing
going on here?
The minute we started rehearsing!
Who's the frontcover girl from Breaker? :-)
A model :-)
How come that Peter Baltes always sang a couple of songs here and
there? Udo's voice was maybe too 'brutal' for them or ?
Udo did not favor to have 2 vocalists in the band and that was it...
It is an English expression for being in a hopeless, desperate situation
- about oppression and slavery and you should perhaps try to understand
the lyrics - very heavy and has been an important statement in 1984
and still is - because the world has not changed yet.....
Which Accept album are you most pleased with and why?
At the time we wrote any album we always gave the best - I can not
really single one album out, each of them has something special.
With Udo gone, the rest of you became even more melodic. And recorded
"Eat The Heat" mostly intended for the US Market? Who's idea was that?
Yours or the label?
That was a logical step to avoid competition against ourselves and
we had a great time with our producer Dieter Dierks who has been very
influencial.
Did you try out any other vocalists than David Reese & Rob Armitage
when Udo left?
I guess, we did.... [Urban - in other words - No comments?]
From your point of view! What was the problem with David Reese anyway?
David Reese's problems have been very complex. The management had iron
rules set up for behavior between the musicians and the musicins and
the outside world. There was a Zero tolerance politic, which made us
all grind - but, we understood the principal of "respect" - David didn't.
Do you have contact with any of the Accept members today?
Yes - of course.
What ever happened to Frank Friedrich?
He chose another profession
When Accept got back together in 1992, you became the only guitarist.
How come? Since the twin-guitar play has always been your trade mark.
(The double Flying V force). I guess you didn't get along with either
Jörg Fischer or Hermann Frank at the time?
Any musician who had endured the twin-guitar torture knows, how difficult
that is. It has very little to do with liking, understanding or what
so ever. The most fun and the easiest way to get the hottest groove
is a 3 man band - believe me. We wanted to fulfill a desire to get down
to the basics and just let go. Unfortunately the media is not encouraging
musicians to live out their desires - they are always requested to live
out other peoples wishes. Well, we did not do this and did it our way.
It was most enjoyable
Didn't John Norum play with you guys for a little while?
No, never....
What's your opinion about the albums "Death Row" and "Predator"
today? In retrospective, You don't think they turned out to be "too
brutal" sounding? I know that many fans believe so.
If Udo would have given it a bit more time and effort I believe, we
could have succeeded with a mixture of this and the past ACCEPT compositions
- but - that was the past. I am in a wonderful place in my life and
do not look back with regrets or hard feelings. We have seen the world,
we had the best of fans and perhaps it was just time to move on.....
There are, mostly uncompleted - but there will be no future releases.
The only finished production we have, is the live recordings from our
last world tour in 1996 with Michael Cartellone on drums. It remains
to be seen, if this will ever be released, because I think, that there
are plenty ACCEPT re-mixes, compilations, tributes and I don't know
what out there.
OK! Here it is! I know you've been waiting for this one.... Will
there ever be another Accept reunion, tour or new CD ?
I do not think so. If you look at all the endless re-unions and the
actual success behind it of other bands, who have done that - it is
not very encouraging. Gaby, who has launched ACCEPT's career so thoughtful
believes, that this would be very difficult. Sometimes I wished, I could
just jam with my old buddy's - but let's face it - we live in different
worlds and I am on to other adventures.
So... What are your future plans?
I am very dedicated to everything I do and I always give 100% - let's
wait and see.... I enjoy my life very much!
If YOU have anything you'd like to say, add or plug ! Please do:
Yes - since you have not warned me, that you are conducting the interview
of the century, I am sending you an invoice for my time... just kiddin'.....
I am surprised that there is still so much interest about my person
and I try to keep up with the fan's demands - but I am very busy and
so it is sometimes hard to do... So - that's it! You take care and all
the best.
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Urban
cornered the living legend of metal, Wolf Hoffmann of Accept and found
out what is happening in his life at the moment!
You
recorded a instrumental, classical album recently. Do tell us a little
bit about it.
I
would say that your a master of Power Riffs! What inspired you to come
up with new one's for each Accept album? Did you look anything at guitarists
such as Rudolf Schenker (Scorpions) or Tipton/Downing (Judas Priest)
at the time?
What
the heck is "Balls To The Wall" (the song) about anyway?
Are
there any old Accept songs (demos) left in the vault? Waiting to be
released in the future?