ACCEPT guitarist Wolf Hoffmann is featured in a new interview with SleazeRoxx.com. An excerpt is available below.

Sleaze Roxx: Call me crazy, but there were some good songs on the 1989 album Eat The Heat. I liked David Reece's voice on that CD, but obviously the consensus from most of the fans was very critical of the music and choice in vocalist. Thinking back now, would you say that you were invested with David for the long haul as the permanent singer in the band?

Wolf Hoffmann: "Well, the plan was to take things as far as we could. To be honest, the thing was just doomed from the beginning. It was just something that we were so committed to that once we got going it spiraled and we couldn't pull the plug on it... it was just too late. We were so far into it that there was no turning back. We realized in the process that our personalities and David's personality just didn't mesh, yet we moved forward. I was hoping that the songs would be strong enough to make it work, but they simply weren't there. It was a different time -- that was over twenty years ago and things were just so different then."

Sleaze Roxx: Right. One more question about the David Reece era if I could and then I'll let it go. As a fan, I have to ask... would Eat The Heat fared better if you had not placed the Accept name on it?

Wolf Hoffmann: "(long pause) I would say probably not because we were Accept then. The way I see it is that we were still the same guys in the band who wrote all the previous material, we just had a different singer. I think it just wasn't meant to be and there is no other way to put it. That leads into the present with the way things have gone with how Peter Baltes and I met Mark Tornillo, how Andy Sneap got involved, or how the crew that shot our music video for 'Teutonic Terror' got involved, makes me think that this is meant to be. Everyone just crossed our path and it worked out, like it was meant to be. This was the complete opposite of working with David Reece... we tried and tried and nothing happened."

Sleaze Roxx: At what point after Udo decided he didn't want to come back did you begin to work on new music, and was it going to be Accept from the start

Wolf Hoffmann: "I'll tell you, there's a neat little story behind how this whole thing began. I was visiting Peter Baltes in Philadelphia where he lives. We just wanted to blow off a little steam so we went into a studio with a local drummer and played some old Accept tunes. It was at that time that someone mentioned that there was a singer nearby that would probably be happy to join us for the day if we were interested. The guys said his name was Mark Tornillo and that he was very familiar with the classic stuff and that he was an incredible singer. Peter and I looked at each other and said, 'Hey, why not?' Mark arrived and when he started to sing we knew we had something there. To be honest, before we heard Mark we had no intentions to ever, ever get Accept back together again. We didn't know a guy like Mark existed, we weren't looking for a guy to replace Udo but when we heard Mark he was just so perfect for the job."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

As previously reported, Accept will be co-headlining their upcoming tour with KING'S X. Confirmed tour dates are:

September

23 - The Chance - Poughkeepsie, NY
24 - Ram's Head Live - Baltimore, MD
25 - The Starland Ballroom – Sayreville, NJ
26 - Vintage Vinyl - Fords, NJ (In-store signing session)
27 - B. B. King's – New York, NY
29 - Showcase Live - Foxboro, MA

October

1 - The Silo – Reading, PA
2 - The Emerald Theatre – Mt. Clemens, MI
8 - The Agora Ballroom – Cleveland, OH
9 - The Arcada Theatre - St. Charles, IL
12 - House Of Blues – Dallas, TX
13 - House Of Blues - Houston TX

Additional dates for October and November will be announced soon.

Blood Of The Nations was recorded at Backstage Studio in England with famed producer Andy Sneap and will be released in North America on September 14th. Exclusive pre-sale bundles can be purchased at the Nuclear Blast Web Store.

Accept’s 2010 line-up includes Wolf Hoffmann on guitar, Peter Baltes on bass, Stefan Schwarzmann on drums, Herman Frank on guitar and Mark Tornillo on vocals.

Below you can view footage of Wolf Hoffman and Mark Tornillo on VH1’s That Metal Show, the video for Teutonic Terror – directed and produced by Dave Blass for Grid 41, and the 2-minute behind-the-scenes video.