family man and nature lover and equality lover – you know, all those good things. Tell me about the song Don’t Wanna Go and the lyric “the road to ruin leads to darkness?” “I don’t want to go down that road anymore, the road to ruin leads to darkness, don’t want to go faster than the light.” It’s kind of an abstract thing. Imagine a spaceship going faster than light, which exists in like Star Wars. When they go through this dimension again it gets dark – obviously. So I kind of put this in the situation where a person is living life in the fast lane – he’s going so fast and he falls into the darkness – and it can be deadly and ruthless. Like we see the many victims of life on the road – or it could be other things – it could be life if you become addicted to alcohol or drugs, and you can’t get off it. It’s kind of symbolic whereas I put everything under one hat – and I take the situation and my experiences from life on the road – life in the fast lane with Krokus in the 80’s – and we were doing so many concerts and so much mileage on the road – and flying here and there – busing there and everywhere – night liner life. For us, stopping at a mall on a day off and having the time to go to a movie and enjoy a meal without any disturbances – no soundcheck before and no concert afterwards – just going in, sitting there together, and having a steak and being together and drinking beer or whatever – having fun without even having all the fans around. Instead of being a party it was more like a chill out for when the band and crew got together, and we could slow down a little bit. So this is really what the song is about. And there’s a bit of the fact of when I met my wife and now, I have been through a divorce – you already experience loneliness on the road even though you are with all these people – when you’re far away from the one you love. It’s a different thing flirting with a groupie – that’s just a flirt. And these things also lead to when you flirt around and get into that habit – it also lead into that other kind of darkness – you get kicked out of the house and end up with a divorce. So yeah, this is what it’s really all about. Let’s talk about the song Fly Again and the inspiration behind it. It’s also a song about – you go through certain mishaps or broken heart situations – and then you have to get to a point where you wake up and make the move and get tough again. So really, that’s what it’s about – the broken wings and the broken heart – and you get up again and you go for it – you get back into the normal life situation and start looking ahead. What made you decide that during a pandemic would be a perfect time to release a solo album? (Laughs) Well, I thought it was over now, but it looks like it’s coming back. The figures are rising incredibly here. It’s so scary. And I’ve got gigs in December and my fingers are crossed that we’re going to be able to do the gigs because the neighboring countries, like Austria – is extreme. They’re HIGHWIRE DAZE
December 2021
like locked down again and Germany is following suit very close. Switzerland is open and concerts are still opening – the only problem is now; people are starting to get scared again. And we’re not boostered yet – they only just started – and I’m over 65 and we get it first – but I still have to wait. The thing is, people are going to be scared to buy tickets – if everything is still open and we’re still allowed to play, people might show up. So right now, we’re still moving forward and hoping that things recede again by the beginning of December. We’ll see – that’s not in our hands, but it would help if everybody pulled on the same rope. Right now, there’s a bit of a tug of war between the people who are vaccinated and the ones who deny the whole thing and don’t want to be vaccinated. I compare it to the smokers and non-smokers. Why should you smoke in a room where people don’t want to smoke – they don’t smoke – and pollute the whole room with the smell of cigarette smoke and pollute people’s lungs if you can do that in a separate room. Just stink up air on your own and get lung cancer on your own. I mean, I’m being very straightforward about that. I see it in the same way. I got both my vaccines and I’m waiting for my booster – and that’s what I’m doing. You mentioned about playing live. Next year Storace has a pretty big show opening for the Scorpions in Zurich. What are you looking forward to the most about that particular show? Well, first of all, I’m looking forward to meeting the Scorpions again, because we knew each other way back in the 70’s when I sang with a Swiss progressive rock band called Tea – and we were produced by the same producer that produced the Scorpions – Dieter Dierks. And he had this studio in Cologne up in Germany – and we met the Scorps there – and 23
