The new HERMAN RAREBELL & FRIENDS studio album, “What About Love?”, will be released on April 11 via Metalville Records.
On “What About Love?”, HERMAN RAREBELL & FRIENDS take you back to the ’80s and together we return to our very time with the greatest music of this powerful decade. Herman has chosen 12 songs to re-record with good friends and great musicians as a tribute to the greatest hits of a time that was a golden age for him personally. Former OZZY OSBOURNE bassist Bob Daisley can be heard on this album, as can Dann Huff, who was a studio musician on some of the greatest albums in pop history, as well as Howard Leese from the legendary U.S. rockers HEART and singer Michael Voss (CASANOVA, MAD MAX, MICHAEL SCHENKER).
Herman says about this time: “I think that more powerful music has never been created before or since. It was the golden age for me. I enjoyed it. We traveled the world with the SCORPIONS, we met people from all cultures. It was one big rush. Anything was possible at any time.
“With this album, I don’t just want to bring back memories of the great hits of the ’80s. It’s not just about the melodies and rhythms that I miss today. Above all, it’s about the feeling that these songs convey. The love, the courage, the optimism that is in them. I think a lot of that has been lost. The groove in ‘Here I Go Again’, the larger-than-life chorus of ‘I Love Rock’n’Roll’ and the unshakeable power of ‘Rock You Like A Hurricane’. The love and longing of ‘I Want To Know What Love Is’. It’s no wonder that these songs have held a place in people’s hearts for four decades.
“For me, the power, the special spirit of the ’80s is in every chord of these songs, every hit on the bass drum. Every take we recorded for this album was pure pleasure. Friends who play great music.
“We hope you feel what we’ve put into these new recordings: Love, power, optimism! For me, that’s the power of the ’80s! Anyone who was there will remember. And anyone who missed it deserves to relive it, at least in this way.
“With this in mind: Here I am – Rock you like a Hurricane!”
The album was produced by Herman Rarebell and Michael Voss at Kidwood Studios in Münstertal, Black Forest.
Track listing:
01. In The Air Tonight
02. I Want To Know What Love Is
03. Love Is A Battlefield
04. What About Love
05. Every Breath You Take
06. Sweet Child O’ Mine
07. Here I Go Again
08. Addicted To Love
09. Passion Rules The Game
10. Rock You Like A Hurricane
12. These Dreams
12. I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll
Recording lineup:
Herman Rarebell – Drums
Herman‘s friends:
Michael Voss – Vocals, Guitars
Van De Forst – Vocals, Acoustic Guitars, Keyboards
Dann Huff – Lead Guitars
Howard Leese – Lead Guitars
Bob Daisley – Bass
Neil Carter – Keyboards
Jim Vallance – Keyboards
Eva Von Der Forst – Backing Vocals
Lexus De La Foret – Backing Vocals
Back in September 2021, Rarebell blasted his former SCORPIONS bandmates, calling them “rude” and accusing them of “greed” over their apparent refusal to allow him to rejoin the band. Rarebell, who was a member of the SCORPIONS from 1977 to 1995, discussed the possibility of his return to the group in an interview for Classic Rock magazine. Asked if he was disappointed not to have been invited back into the fold following the 2016 dismissal of longtime drummer James Kottak, Herman 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 [former bassist] Francis [Buchholz] 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.”
Rarebell also criticized his former bandmates for seemingly not giving him enough credit for their commercial success in the 1980s. “The band never mention me in interviews, which I find ridiculous,” he stated. “But there’s a new documentary in the pipeline from ITV on the band. I am being interviewed for this, so I can finally set the record straight on my role.”
In an interview with Classic Rock Revisited, Herman stated about the huge commercial success of SCORPIONS‘ 1982 album “Blackout”: “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. [Rudolf] Schenker / [Klaus] 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.”
Rarebell also talked about the inspiration for the lyrics to “Rock You Like A Hurricane”, which was released as the lead single from SCORPIONS‘ ninth studio album, 1984’s “Love At First Sting”. “Those lyrics were very easy to write,” he said. “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.'”