message in all this. But that’s not something you think about when you’re young – or younger – and healthy – you don’t think about death and that life can suddenly change like a flash in the sky. But I learned that by experience, and that of course inspired me to do those lyrics. And not just for that song – a couple of the songs on the album are directly linked to my situation. Some of your Pretty Maids band mates appear on One Shot. What was it like working with them on your solo album this time around when you probably didn’t get to see them in person? Well it as great! I hadn’t played with Morten Sandager the keyboard player – I’ve always loved this guy and we always had so much fun together when he was in the band – and then suddenly he left for personal reasons. So it was good to have him on board again – he’s a great keyboard player and a great piano player – I’ve missed him since the day he left. I love Chris who now plays keyboards but that’s a different story. I always miss Morten and I always had a good relationship with Allan Sørensen as well – he’s a fucking awesome drummer and he did a great job on this album. So it was all cool. I felt it was like they knew me and I knew them – and Chris is still in the band. And he’s just a joyful guy – a happy guy – and he’s been there with me all the time through the illness and encouraged me. He said, “Go ahead man. Hit me! Send me your ideas and we’ll work it out.” It was a match made in heaven for me to work with some familiar faces anyways. Let’s talk about your and Pretty Maids’ previous album Undress Your Madness. Tell me how you Undress Your Madness? That’s a good question. That happens on the tour bus... (Much laughter) But I can’t go too much into detail about these stories. I’m sure there are other people that are better at telling them. Undress Your Madness – I guess I always did – when I leave home, I’ve got my family here – I’ve got a good wife whose taking care of things when I’m on the road – when I’ve been touring in the past. And then you go on the tour bus – you put on a different cap – and I guess that’s where I Undress My Madness – so to speak. Cuz that’s where all the fun is – that’s where all that I dream about since I was 10 years old is – that’s where all my dreams come true – and that’s where it hapHIGHWIRE DAZE
April/May 2021
pens if you catch my point – all the craziness! You and Ken Hammer have been working together in Pretty Maids since 1981. What do you think makes you both work so well together after all of this time? From day one, we shared the same dream. We shared the same goal. We wanted to do the same thing and I think we very quickly discovered that we could use each other – like two equally big egos. In fact, it’s quite crazy that our relationship would last for all these years. I mean, just look at it like these two alpha makes in the same gang for 38-39 years – that’s pretty crazy! We wanted to do the same thing and we shared the same sense of humor – besides that, we’re very different persons, you know. But I’m very happy for all the stuff we’ve accomplished together – in particularly of course stuff in the 80’s and what we did in the last 10-11 years I think has been on a very high level. We’ve been able to still write good songs and show that we had some sort of relevance to the scene still. And I’m very, very proud about that – since we did the Pandemonium album all the way to the last album. 2021 actually marks Pretty Maids 40th Anniversary as a band. What goes through your mind that you’ve actually done anything for 40 years? Well I see myself first of all as an old fart. (Much laughter.) Nah, I can’t believe it’s 40 years seriously, because for me – they say time flies when you’re having fun and fun we indeed had. It’s totally surreal to me that it’s 40 years ago. It doesn’t feel like it’s been 40 years. I can’t understand. But 40 fantastic years – we might have done some bad record deals and stuff like that, but I think we made our impact on the scene. And I know that a lot of younger bands were inspired by us and stuff like that. And I think that’s the ultimate gratitude you can get for 31
