By Martin Popoff
But back to the present, with some sort of an infinite triple helix loop. Here's how Michael sums up the difference between Be Aware Of Scorpions and its predecessor, the thick lusty blues metal of Unforgiven. "Different singer, different musicians, different studio, different producer, lots of different things."
Are there really scorpions in your backyard?
"Yeah! I live in a desert-type environment, in Phoenix. I actually went to buy a... what do you call it, a black, ultraviolet light sensor, where you can detect them in the night. And I actually went out there, but I couldn't see one. But somebody said, be aware of scorpions, and I thought, that's a great album title. But we have everything there, snakes, wildcats, everything."
"Nothing very crazy," lies Michael when asked about the present tour. "Everybody is well organized and we're just trying to do the best we can. They're a very nice bunch of guys." That line "we're just trying to do the best we can" is delivered twice in our chat, both times with a sense of yearning, a sense of pain. The best often results in abject failure on the road for Schenker and whoever he's forced to interact with.
Here (eventually) is the second time he says it (when asked about learning to get along with UFO), and again, it seems to be one of the only times I hear emotion in his voice. "I think it's simply down to getting older. We are less the hooligans, so it makes it easier. At the same time, everybody is getting closer to their own vision of what life is all about, for each individual, so everybody is kind of... well, that's from my point of view anyway. I have my own little vision of what I need to accomplish to be independent, to be able to succeed without being part of a trend, keep doing my own music, the music that I love to play. Record companies are there to earn money, and if you're not hip anymore, they won't invest in you."
MICHAEL SCHENKER GROUP - Behind Locked Doors Page 6