Ex-Scorpions drummer, Herman Rarebell, express his disappointment and anger at his former band mates in a recent interview in Classic Rock magazine.
Talking about James Kottak getting fired in 2016 he said: “I’ll tell you how disappointed I am. I sent them a message offering my services, and never even got a reply. I thought that was very rude. Now I hear the Scorpions are claiming their new album will be a return to the glory days of the eighties. If they’re serious about that, they should get Francis (Ed, Buchholz – bassist) and me back, and also Dieter Dierks who produced all those classic albums. You know why they won’t do that? Greed. It would mean having to share everything five ways and not three.”
He also commented that he is never mentioned in interviews, neither getting any credit for their commercial success in the 1980s. “The band never mention me in interviews, which I find ridiculous”.
In another interview with Classic Rock Revisited, he said: “after the huge commercial success of “Blackout” (1982) Mercury Records was totally behind us and they believed in us. They wanted us to keep making albums. They wanted us to grow and do better each time out. ‘Lovedrive’ went gold. ‘Animal Magnetism’ went gold and then ‘Blackout’ was the first one to go platinum. Schenker/ Meine /Rarebell was a great songwriting team. You can see that from how many successful albums we had. After I left the band, they didn’t have any more hits.”
The drummer also talked about the inspiration for the lyrics to “Rock You Like A Hurricane”, which he wrote: “I woke up early in the morning after fucking and doing cocaine all night and I opened up the curtains. ‘It’s early morning, the sun comes out. Last night was shaking and pretty loud. My cat is purring and she scratches my skin.’ She had scratched my back during our lovemaking. I just sat down and wrote it right then and there. It was five in the morning and the girl was still in bed as I was sitting there writing it. The next day, I said to Rudolf, ‘I have some great lyrics for that riff you have.'”
