ACCEPT WOLF HOFFMANN Interview-Teutonic Titans 1976–2026 Unboxing, Special Guests on Tour-Ex Members

Feel [music] the power, feel the feel. Turn it up on the metal voice. The metal voice. [music] Yeah. >> [screaming] >> All right, we're ready to go. Let's go. Three, two, one. Welcome back to the Metal Voice. It's been a while. >> Hey guys. Yeah, it's been a while. How long has it been? >> Since last album. >> Yeah, with the two years ago, I guess. [laughter] >> You know, Wolf, our interviews go back to uh I'm pretty sure the first Mark Tillo album, right? >> Wow. Really? >> Yeah. >> To the stone. back to the stone ages, man. >> That's it. When you we when you made your comeback, we were just starting this show. So, the timing, we've always had a special, >> you know, that's been like 17 years for us since we since we started with Mark, which is in itself crazy. And here we are talking about 50 years. So, 50 years is only three times that if you think about it. I mean, in retrospect, it's only [laughter] >> 50 years goes by so fast. It's unbelievable. >> Yeah. Tutonic Titans 1976 2026 gonna be released September 4th. >> Yes, sir. >> Yeah. This year. >> This year. Yeah. Wow. >> Just a few weeks from now. >> Yeah. >> I know. >> What's What's the thinking behind this? I mean, 50 years, like you said, how did you get 50 different artists >> to participate on this album? >> That sort of happened. That wasn't actually planned from the get-go. We just started with a small number of songs and a few friends and people that we wanted to ask and then it kind of exponentially grew and grew until all of a sudden it was 50 people and we thought, "Oh, that's a good that's a good fit for, you know, 50 years, 50 people." But it wasn't until way late in the process that we even realized. We never really made a did a count. And you know, at that point it was like, yeah, it turned out to be 50, which is crazy. Fine. When you're influential like accept, you must have people lining up to participate, right? >> I wouldn't say lining up, but I would say that anybody we asked said yes. There was a very very small amount of people who said, you know, this is not really my my thing ever and and I'm honored, but I don't do these things. So that's that's you know, you got to can't say anything against that. It's got to accept accept that. See, >> except except I I guess, you know, there's there's so many artists on this and singers and musicians. >> I mean, it's hard to put a press release together without have all that information, but there was a few gaps there. Maybe you could fill them in, right? It was produced by Zeus, correct? >> Yeah. Like, I'm not sure who sang on what song at some times. >> Oh, don't that's so I hope you don't reme want me to remember all of these things. That's that's a lot of details, my my friend, >> but I I'll try my best. Let's see what you have. >> Okay. Zeus produced it, right? The famous Zeus. He produced the album. So, we got that. Great. He did a great job. Sounds great. >> I mean, I think he did. He did a fantastic job. And he really did a fantastic job in pulling all these submissions together to make them sound like they were recorded at the same time, which they were not. You know, everybody sent in remote material for the most part. We we recorded some stuff together, but most of it was done remotely. >> Yeah. Okay. Aiming high. I It sounds like Chuck Billy to me. I kind of like Chuck Billy singing on that one. Correct. >> Aiming high. I knew it's Chuck Billy. You did an incredible job. It doesn't even sound like I mean the Chuck that I know sounds completely different. But this is like a pleasant surprise, you know. >> Yeah. Yeah. It was cool. I think he did a great job. And I I could tell actually it was Chuck Billy. His tone voice. Yeah, I could tell. >> Um but but just so everybody knows that Mark was singing alongside all the guest singers. Correct. >> Yeah. because we didn't want it to be a contra like a tribute album that we're you know we went and said do the song as a band complete and just send it back. We wanted it to be like accept inviting friends and so Mark is on every song and I'm on every song as well and then some of the other songs some of the other guys are on selected other songs but we definitely made a point that Mark is on just about every song. Okay. >> You know, we spoke in the past about the influence of the Scorpions. It would never be an accept if it wasn't for the Scorpions. And you got Matas playing on on Balls to the Wall, I believe. >> Um, talk about his guitar. I mean, this guy for me is one of the most underrated guitars. Nobody ever talks about him. And his playing is so fluid and melodic. >> I know. >> I mean, talk to about having him on this album, what it meant to you. >> That's an incredible honor. Uh, and it wasn't until pretty late in the game that I realized maybe we should ask the Scorpions, you know, >> because initially it was I thought they were probably out of reach and wouldn't wouldn't say yes. And I wasn't I didn't really I don't know. I didn't have the guts to actually ask him, [laughter] but in the end I did. And to my surprise, like I said, he also said yes. and you know he submitted and I we we told everybody if you do this sort of be mindful of the original but do it in your style and and that's what he did also. It really sounds like a solo in a scorpion song only it's now in Except which is awesome. That's kind of what we wanted. You know, that's that's the charm of this album, I believe, that there's all these different elements coming together and yeah, they're accept songs, but they all have a have a new twist or a new I don't know, facelift. >> Yeah. >> Facelift. Yeah. >> Run if you can. Todd Lator. He's singing on that one. He was singing actually live as well, I believe, at Hell. It was at Hellfest. >> Yeah, at Hellfest. Uh-huh. Mhm. >> I loved it. I love that he came on stage. He played with you guys. He did a great job. He sounds kind of his own, but at the same time within the song. Are you planning on doing more of these sort of you're going on tour, so I would figure every time you hit a town, maybe those artists and those singers will be will they jump on? Are here's a question. Are you planning on bringing more uh guests? >> Yes. >> From the albums on on the album. How's that? We've done it a bunch of times this summer already during festival shows, but we will definitely do it a lot more during the fall tour that we're going to start uh in a couple of months. And that is the whole idea. We want to play a lot of the songs on this album. We want to play a lot of songs we've never played before or haven't played in forever and ever just to make it a very special year, a special tour, and with with, you know, a special guests as much as possible. and we also have a bigger production than ever. So, this is definitely a standout tour and a standout year for us. It's not sort of the run-of-the-mill, same as a couple years ago. Is this is definitely supposed to be quite different from what we've done in the past. >> And and like you said, 50 years of of Except I mean, you know, the song selection on this is is basically 82 to 89. But how how did what was the thinking behind this set list on this album? >> I can tell you. I mean, if you go back to why we started asking all these people is because I've heard the story from so many musicians over the years that they listen to Except early on in their career and they were influenced by the album Resters and Wild or Breaker. And I've heard that from so many people that we thought okay what if we ask all these people that who are now in like I don't know Metallica and Panta all these major you know what if we ask these guys to go back and interpret those songs in their style and that's why we thought well obviously we don't want to take new songs that they didn't grow up with. it makes much more sense to use the stuff from those early years if you want even if it's some deeper cuts and such. That is that was the thinking behind it. Uh just to sort of hammered on the fact how much of an influence except had on these musicians. >> Yeah. You know what song really stood out for me? Uh Hellhammer. >> Hell. >> Hell. Yeah. Well, that's that's one of the newer >> Yeah. We we we we stuck our toes in the water of Eat the Heat with that one, you know. >> Do do you find that there is more love? Look, me and Allan grew up at the time when Eat the Heat came out, right? Kind of [clears throat] we and we were disappointed because of the change of the sound, but do you find that today more fans are really uh you know loving the album over time than they did? >> Oh man, it's almost like they're coming out of the closet slowly one by one because they're I mean I've heard it so many times. You know, they secretly almost ape to tell you, but I really like this album. There's a lot of cool stuff on it. And I'm always thinking like, you don't need to apologize. If you like it, you like it. But, [laughter] you know what I mean? It's a very controversial album because we changed our sound and the look and all this kind of stuff and we know what happened. But at the same time, I always felt there's a lot of good ideas on this album and there's a couple of other songs we could have done, >> but we just stuck with one hellhammer just to see. I thought it turned out fantastic. Just it sounds like it could have been on any record really. It's not dated at all. >> And like you said, the deep cuts, I mean, Save Us. Where did Who pulled that one out of my hat? >> That was thanks to Tobias Forge. Uh he came backstage and and and sort of confessed that Save Us is his all-time except song. And at the time I I I told him, "Save us, man. I don't even remember that song. what what album is that? And blah. And and I had to go back and listen to it and thought like, really? That's your favorite song? That's so weird. But man, if that's the one you want to do, let's do it. And now that he's finished it and he sang on it, it turned out fantastic. And it makes total sense because now it sounds almost like a ghost type song in, you know, but it's an accept song. So those two >> elements joined really well together. But that's that was definitely not my selection. That was his. >> [laughter] >> That's great. >> Your jaw dropped when you mentioned it. >> Yeah, it really did. It was like really I thought >> I thought it sounded great. It sounds great, too. It does. It's It's like refreshed, you know? And uh how important were Gabby's lyrics? I know she's not part of the Except world anymore, but how important was at that time? Like it was so quirky and weird and at the same time so powerful her lyrics. Yeah, I guess lyrics were always important and that became part of who we are and and kind of songs that we write, you know. So all all that is is still there and we sort of continue that tradition even now that Mark is writing all the lyrics. I mean this has became I guess a standout. >> Let let me ask you like this question then. What what where was that point where you said look Gabby try doing the lyrics or did she say I want to do the lyrics give me how did that >> well it was basically all generally agreed upon producers engineers everybody said listen guys you need some help with your lyrics because I mean on the first album [laughter] there's some stuff on there that luckily isn't even printed on the album sleeve because it was just like dictionary English you know because I literally on the first album. I don't know if I told you this story, but we were supposed to go in the studio with our very first album. And we had always assume, everybody had assumed there's lyrics because Udo was singing kind of English, but we never nobody knew what he was saying to be honest. And we assumed there were lyrics, but it turned out there wasn't any. He was just sort of basically mimming English sounding words and probably remembered some of it, but at some point we had to write some words to whatever he was singing. So I remember sitting in my kitchen with my dictionary and York Fischer at the time and the two of us were just god damn it's we got to go have to do this tonight because we have to record tomorrow and so we did but it was like >> it was like hilarious man. It wasn't good at all. So at that point on the after the second album, somebody said, "I know a guy who speaks really well English. Maybe he can help you." And that guy, what was his name? Uh Diesel Smith. Um I think he was British and lived in Germany. And he helped us with some of the some of the lyrics. And then at some point after that, Gabby stepped in. >> Okay. >> I mean, that's it. Growing up in the 80s, buying, you know, All Restless and Wild all the way through. A lot of the lyrics are printed, but we we were lucky enough to get the lyric sheets for songs before that that uh you know, rereading some of those lyrics that you couldn't quite piece together maybe during the the recordings, listening to them now that now they make a little bit more sense having all those uh those lyrics provided. What's the packaging overall uh for this release? It looks quite impressive. >> Oh. Oh, actually I just got it today. Let me show you. >> Oh, there we go. Hey, take a look. That was my second question. >> Let's take a look. >> Always brings out surprises. We had the metal heart. We had that new guitar. >> Now, we're going to first look. >> There's the fancy. Look, there's >> a lunch box like look at >> lunchbox like with a CD. Look nice with a like >> nice little >> thingy here. You know, fold on stuff. And there's some other goodies in there. And then of course we have vinyls. Hold on. We have vinyls. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Bring out the vinyls. >> Got that liquid filled vinyl is is that's what I want to see. >> I like the lunch box. Put my sandwich in there, too. >> Of course. There's the fancy like >> Wow. >> You got a white vinyl. >> Whoops. Where is it? There it is. >> Yeah, there it is. Wow. >> Ah. See, it it it does a funny thing. Yeah. >> Yeah, it does. Cuz of the bleeding. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Bleeding. >> There it is. [laughter] >> Yeah. There it is. There it is. >> Why is it doing that? That's weird. >> Flip it around. Flip it around. Flip it around. >> You got the >> There you have all the names and all the people. >> Yeah. And then, >> right, that's really Let's do an unboxing. >> But But the other cool thing is, let me show you this guy. This is >> unboxing. I love this unboxing with uh Wolf. >> Look. Look. >> Wolf always has surprises for us every time. >> Look, he's ripping that plastic right off as it's What What's the smell? Does it smell like a vinyl album? >> Smells like plastic. It smells like except that's all I know. [laughter] >> So, look. There's like the nice little thingy there and like pictures everywhere. >> Like I don't know 40 pages of old pictures and such. >> Beautiful. Look at that. >> Yeah. Really cool there. >> Wow. >> Old stuff. >> Oh yeah. >> So So this is a CD vinyl version. Is that what it is? >> Uh this is a booklet with lots of fancy pictures and two CDs. Okay. So, it's a CD sort of booklet of some sort. >> I think they call it an ear book if I >> then it looks like there's a white vinyl release and a liquid fil liquid filled vinyl. >> Yeah, I don't think I have that here. They didn't send me that. >> What's it filled with? What's the liquid? Oh, it's in the vinyl. The liquid's in the vinyl. What kind of liquid? Okay. >> Liquid filled. What's it filled with? Liquid. I mean, [laughter] I don't know what kind of liquid. Going back to this from the names that I did get, uh, you have John Bush. He does an incredible job on Up to the Limit. >> Up to the Limit. Oh man, is it cool or what? I know. It's it's it's really cool. Yeah. I mean, everybody knocked it out. Hanzi Kur from like Blind. >> Losers and winners. Losers and write a lovely letter, you know? It's it's >> Write [laughter] a letter. You feel better. >> Um, what else I want? There's so many, man. There's so many great performances here. You had also, of course, Rob Halford on Balls to the Wall. Was that how did that come about? Did you go, "Hey, Rob, can you do this for us?" >> So, after you finished the Dolly Parton album, come and come and uh sing with us. [laughter] >> That happened with Andy's help because as you know, we know Andy Sneep quite well. He's our normal regular go-to producer. Um, but uh he made the connection to Rob and he actually recorded it kindly enough for us as well. So >> it was just a matter of finding Rob in a in a good mental space when he's off tour and and is is in a good mood and I guess he he managed to do all that. But I'm very very proud to have him on the album. You know, it's an amazing honor. I I know this is a touchy subject, but was there any sort of thoughts of let's get Udo on one track? >> Yeah, there was there was actually I invited everybody of the old members and >> Okay, that's cool. >> Unfortunately, no. Nobody participated, but that was the intention. >> Okay, well that's nice to hear. That's great. you know in the thank you notes I thanked everybody or we thanked everybody all the ex members because I mean they all contributed to what this is you know >> okay >> everybody at their time with their contributions you know long or short or whatever however long it was there was a lot of people involved in this and it's never just >> one guy or the just the band it's always multiple people who you know helped over the years >> many many go ahead sorry Alan Love Child with Billy Corgan. I mean uh he's he's a fan of so much of that music in the 80s. It's it's a it was >> you know that >> Yeah, that was a big surprise, too. I've heard his name. It came through a guitar tech of mine years ago. He just happened to be on a on a he did a Smashing Pumpkins tour or something and met Billy Corgan and told him that he's going to do Except Next. So Billy kind of said, "Hey, say hi to the guys from Except cuz I'm a fan." And I thought like, "Really? Oh, wow. How cool." And I remember that. So I contacted him for this album >> and said, "Would you perhaps would you could you please?" And he said, you know, [clears throat and laughter] we agreed on that song because that would probably work with this vocals vocal style better than some others. And lo and behold, it turned out fantastic. It's really different and really really interesting. I've actually got Billy on a Tony Iomi solo release he sang on as well. >> No kidding. Yeah. See, he's a fan of that music or he was at least. And I think he told me except was maybe his very first metal show that he ever went to as a kid. >> Oh wow. >> Yeah. >> Demons. Bobby Blitz. Oh my god. He kills it. Bobby Blitz on Demon Knights. He's what a what a voice from Overkill. Oh man. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then of course you had Joe Lynn Turner on TV War which is another song that's so underrated. I thought it one of the excepts best songs. >> That whole album is underrated. >> Yeah, >> it is a little bit and it would Yeah. And that's that to me was the sort of the [snorts] the charm to go back and see like what would who would be a good singer for that would have been a good singer for that song. And I thought always TV war is such a melodic. It almost reminded me a little bit of like Rainbow or some you know a band like that that was a big influence on Except and I thought well what if we get one of Jolen Turner to sing it and see what it's turns out and it lo and behold it sounds just like you would [laughter] have expected him to sound fantastic. >> Did you get a bigger fan base in Russia because of Russian roulette? >> Uh yes we did actually. That was a big big big thing in in Russia. Although at the time when we released it, it was still communist. Um, and >> when we played there or when we wanted to go to Russia, we were asked by some people to not call it Russian roulette because I don't know why, but it didn't didn't fit in the political world view of Can you please call it roulette of life, you know? [laughter] >> Okay. >> But of course, we still call it Russian roulette and it is what it is. But it I thought like why would they not like that? But I guess it it looked negative in their eyes or something, >> you know. >> The album cover is not negative. It's a great album cover. >> It is. >> Yeah, I thought so. But it's, you know, somebody handing another guy a gun, you know, Russian Roulette, you know, you all know what that is. But >> were you disappointed when Russian Roulette came out? It was such It's such a solid album. It was such a great album, >> right? Was it was it just not enough for the the suits and the record label? >> Yeah, it wasn't enough for the suits because what the suits wanted and what everybody kind of wanted was a that million dollar million album sales kind of thing. Was a time when it was all about, you know, White Snake and Bon Joy and and all those bands or that was I mean there was a million of them, a lot of them that that their first album went like triple platinum and Russian roulette Yeah. Europe. Europe. >> And our album just I we were never that mainstream. So it was always uh underhandedly said, well, we need to do better, guys. What can we do? Kind of thing, you know? It was never like, oh, this is great. We're going to build on that and just stay how you are. Just it was always like, well, what can we do? You know, >> pretty much everything. >> Hey, but that's it. You have to realize this was before there was independent labels and before there was it was all about radio, MTV, major label deals and that was the only way to go or it seemed that way that it wasn't until the '9s and then alternative stuff and Napster and then everything changed after that but in the 80s it was like >> it was about the suits. [laughter] >> About the man the man. >> Yeah, about the man. >> What do you want to tell us about this album? you know, I know there's just a few minutes left. What do you want to tell everybody uh about this album? >> Um, well, it's a culmination of my life, basically. I'm really super proud of it and I'm glad it it turned out as well as it did and I'm really would like to thank everybody who contributed on this. Once again, I mean, this this is like an incredible honor to have your peers contribute stuff to this and and and turn it into a, you know, we couldn't have done it alone, obviously. So, it's I'm super thankful. This is like a group effort of acceptant friends and and it feels great. So, I can't wait for fans to actually hear it. I'm really curious to see what everybody thinks because there's so many different nuances on that and so many different flavors. It's it's really fun to listen to. >> Yeah. It must be, you know, certain pride goes with that being, you know, influencing all these people that were were happy to to participate, right? So that that's got a, you know, a little pat on the back to accept for for as the Scorpions influenced a lot of German bands. You had that influence uh worldwide. >> Right. Right. Right. Yeah. And there's a couple of people on there where I would say, you know, we have to say they influenced us like Rob Helford and KK Downing and obviously they were there before Except was even born or whatever. >> Yeah. >> And um but the vast majority is Yeah. I mean I can't say thanks enough to everybody, >> right? >> Well, congratulations. Yeah. >> Looking forward to the release date. The packaging looks fantastic. Uh, and we've listened to it and we we've enjoyed it thoroughly. So, it's and like you said that, you know, the we all know the songs, but there's a little there's a little change of flavor >> absolutely >> on this release. So, >> uh I'm just looking and you know, we we mentioned the singers, but there's a lot of artists and musicians, you know, like uh Kirk Hammet and >> uh Matias like we mentioned David Elson's on Gary Holt. Uh we should mention Yeah. So many Tommy Aldridge. Uh >> yeah, absolutely. >> Just not only are we getting these an all-star singing cast, but we're getting an all-star artist or musicians cast as well. >> Yeah, we made a point of having different drummers on every song, different bass players. You know, this like I said, 50 names. I could rattle them all down, but that would take too long. [laughter] >> All right, on that note, >> quickly, Wolf, is there one song that you just stands out? You said, I'm just so proud of this one on this release. >> Probably. I mean, like I said, there's so many cool stuff on there, but maybe Fast as a Shark because it's really got the >> absolute A-list on that track, just whoever contributed. And and also, we made this funny little new version of the intro with an Ario band. So, I think that song is really >> I'm super proud of. I mean, I'm proud of all of them, of course, but this like I I pick that one, maybe. >> Alan, what was your favorite song? Uh, I like Aiming High. I thought Aiming High was well done, too. But you got the classics on there. So, Starlight, I always loved that song. So, >> yeah, >> for me it was Hellhammer. I was there was sort of like because it was a twist there. There was a twist. You take an old song and you reinvent it >> and it just it just takes off, man. It was like, whoa, wait a second. This could have been >> this should be part of the set list moving forward. >> Well, it is now. It can be now. [laughter] Wolf, always a pleasure. 17 years on the Metal Voice. Oh, no, it's not 17 years. 15 years on the Metal Voice. Thank you very much for all the great chats. >> I'll talk to you at at your 50th. >> Yes, >> we'll do years from now. [laughter] 35 years. Just hold out, guys. We can do it. I know. >> Have a nice day. Thank you so much. >> Thank you very much, Wolf. A pleasure.