#MICHAEL APPERMAN DOMAINER PLUS#

“I had my own problems with communication but the music spoke for us.” “Herr Schenker was very clean at the time, but he didn’t speak much English,” recalls Barden today. The chemistry between guitarist and the swiftly hired singer was instantaneous enough to bestride a couple of giant hurdles: “He produced all of Mensch’s bands and I didn’t want to be the same.”įortuitously for all concerned, a demo by unknown singer Gary Barden happened to be playing just as Michael walked past the Head of A&R’s office at Chrysalis Records. “Peter Mensch offered ‘Mutt Lange’ for my first album but I refused,” Michael casually reveals.

#MICHAEL APPERMAN DOMAINER PLUS#

It was a tough withdrawal.”Īrriving from Jeff Beck’s band, drummer Simon Phillips and bassist Mo Foster plus current Deep Purple keyboardist Don Airey all played on MSG’s self-titled debut, which was produced by Rainbow’s Roger Glover.

“I’d been taking tablets for stage fright – the same ones that killed Keith Moon – and they were highly addictive. “I hospitalised myself,” Michael explains. “He was playing the best I’d ever heard him, but mentally he was in terrible shape.” “He was caught between heaven and hell,” says brother Rudolf. Working in London with the first Michael Schenker Group line-up of ex-Montrose drummer Denny Carmassi and future Mr Big bassist Billy Sheehan, Michael buckled under problems with alcohol and drugs, going AWOL again. “Have I ever thought of where such a line-up might’ve taken me? No. “It wasn’t really where I wanted to be,” he says now. While in Boston, Michael bumped into Geddy Lee and Neil Peart from Rush, with whom he’d toured in UFO, and there was talk of forming a group.

We all write our own book the way we remember it.” “Steven Tyler is a big fan of mine but it was a weird situation and everybody was pretty drunk and, of course, Steven ended up in hospital. “No, no, no… it wasn’t like that at all,” he protests. Michael’s eyes narrow like it’s the first time he’s heard this quote. Before I join your band, I want it clear I’m taking over right now. According to Steven Tyler, in the official Aerosmith book Walk This Way, Michael breezed into the rehearsal room with the words “Hello, I’m taking over. He explains walking out on the Scorpions during the Lovedrive tour by saying, “I kept forgetting that I didn’t like being in bands” – but the very next thing Michael did was to follow manager Peter Mensch’s advice and audition to replace Joe Perry in Aerosmith. But, as becomes obvious while retracing the Michael Schenker Group’s trajectory, little in the blond axeman’s world ever goes to plan. In typically erratic style, Michael has just released Tales Of Rock’n’Roll, a quarter-of-a-century commemoration of a solo career that, were we to nitpick, actually began 26 years ago. The best that they can do is do better than I did.” They know very well that I’ve been ripped off many times in my career. “I had very little to do with their upbringing, and the man who was their father figure did a much better job than I could’ve done. “They’re smart enough to figure things out for themselves,” he decides. Given his chequered experiences, does Schenker Snr have any practical advice for the Flying V-wielding offspring that seem set to follow in their father’s footsteps? Tonight’s show is opened by a band called Faster Inferno that feature his 22-year-old, Tyson, and a third Schenker – 18- year-old Taro – joins MSG for an encore of UFO’s Doctor Doctor. Michael is now based in Germany again after a frustrating time in America that prevented him from getting to know his two sons.

Michael apperman domainer