Tony Webster of the “Metal Command” radio show recently conducted an interview with former HELLOWEEN and current MASTERPLAN guitarist Roland Grapow.
On sticking to his stance that he’s okay with not being part of the HELLOWEEN reunion:
Roland: “You see, I’m not really living in the past or analyzing what I did. But I think at the time, when we did the ‘PumpKings’ album [which featured re-recordings of HELLOWEEN songs that Grapow wrote], they all thought it was kind of a revenge or something… now I remember. To me, it’s just a relaxing situation. I took my songs and put it in a new costume with new band members. That’s it. I forgot about it already. The only difference is that we played ‘The Chance’ the last three or four years already. That was before we did the album. We played Moscow and it was the first time we played ‘The Oath’ and it was unbelievable. The fans loved it. The band loved it because it’s different than our MASTERPLAN style, but it still fits very well. For me, it was a bit of déjà vu. It was a great feeling. Somehow, you see this [HELLOWEEN] ‘High Live’ situation from the DVD from the ’90s and you have less people for the shoot, but you see happy people and they were acting the same kind of, raising their hands on the right rhythm and singing along with us. It was cool. That’s when they realized we did the album and they were talking too much about ‘revenge’ and I was sad that I did just to give them bad feelings. I never had this in my mind. It’s just a bit coincidental because I delayed this album for two years and it came out at the same time when the reunion tour came.”
