German metal queen DORO PESCH spoke with Sweden's Metal Shrine recently about a number of topics. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

Metal Shrine: What's it like celebrating 25 years?

Doro Pesch: "Oh man, I tell you... I can´t believe it. Time flew by. I still remember when I had my first band and times went so quickly. I definitely have great memories and I never thought it would get this exciting. We just celebrated my 25th anniversary in my home town, in Düsseldorf, Germany and we had many guests and many guests from the past and the 80´s. And actually one of the highlights, we did like a little reunion with my old Warlock band members and sometimes I turned around and looked at my drummer and remembering that he joined the band when he was like 15 and now he´s a grown man and his daughter is now 15. It was so amazing!"

Metal Shrine: I guess things turned out better than you thought when you started out?

Doro: "You know, when we started out we just wanted to do music. Actually, when I had my first band, the word heavy metal wasn´t even around. At least we didn´t know about it and there weren´t any magazines and then a couple of years later came the first fanzines. A couple of fans were always listening when we were rehearsing and some people said 'Are you a heavy metal band?' and we said 'Yeah, sounds cool!' I think we were really lucky to be at the right time and the right place and to me, metal always meant freedom. To do whatever you feel like with full power and energy. I love hardcore stuff and diehard stuff, but I love anthems and very melodic stuff, so it always meant freedom. I always tried to do my best and I didn´t think that we would survive that long. After we did the second album, Hellbound... it was so difficult to make and it took about a year and it was really painful and I was so exhausted I said I would never ever do a record again in my life and now it´s record number 17. I guess what doesn´t kill you makes you harder."

Metal Shrine: What was it from the beginning that turned you on to metal? Were there any special records you bought or discovered when you were younger? What really got you into the metal scene?

Doro: "I remember my first concert was WHITESNAKE in 1980 and it was amazing. David Coverdale was a god. He was so good! Then I thought that every concert would be like that but they weren´t. Next band I saw, I was still working and the only one with a car so I always had to pick up everybody and we were running late... I was a big Judas Priest fan and I had a Priest record at home, but back then there weren´t any magazines... so we walked into the concert and everybody was freaking out and it was great and the I turned to my guitar player and said 'It´s so unbelievable! I´m so blown away!" and he said 'Hey, that´s not Priest!' I said 'Really', and it was ACCEPT. They were like mind blowing and then came Priest and that was unbelievable too, but then I became an Accept fan too. I remember we had the first record out Burning The Witches and it had been out for just two or three weeks and some promoter asked us if we wanted to play and it was either Belgium or Holland and I don´t remember the club, but I remember the venue and it was pretty nice, maybe a couple of hundred people. He said 'Well, there´s another band playing and I think you guys would fit with them. Do you want to play?' We said 'Yeah!' and he said 'The other band is from America and they´re brand new.' So we did the gig and it was great and there was so much energy and it was crazy and stage-diving going on. After we played we said 'Let´s check out the other band!' Some people said they were from San Francisco and they just had first their record out and it was METALLICA! So I became a total Metallica fan and the beginning of metal was super exciting. And yeah... we had our first record out and we signed to Mausoleum Records in Belgium and to be honest, it was just because they had the coolest logo. That was the way to go. We had no idea and we just wanted to make music. We didn´t know anything about the business aspects and we didn´t care. We just thought 'Cool, we´re doing a record!' Then the record became very successful and we were totally surprised. W had no idea that so many people knew about the band and it was getting more and more exciting and then we got picked up by another label, Polygram, and then some people said that we could play the legendary Monsters Of Rock festival. It was in 86 and a great line-up with OZZY, SCORPIONS, MOTÖRHEAD, DEF LEPPARD, MICHAEL SCHENKER and us. Then we got on the Judas Priest tour in 86 and it was the first time I came to Sweden. It was like a dream come true and then I quit my job, when we got the Priest tour."

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