Racine Stripe Productions is in the final production of a feature length documentary on legendary SCORPIONS drummer James Kottak. A true rags to riches to rage then riches story. A true survivor, Kottak has fought to remain a force in the fickle world of rock and roll, and despite tragedies and more than a few pitfalls, has survived with his humor, talent, and rock edge fully in tact.

The documentary is slated for release this summer. Check out a trailer below:

James Kottak has put his KINGDOM COME-era drum kit from '88/'89 on the auction block. Killer Used Gear has issued the following information:

"Attention drummer's and collectors: Own a piece of rock and roll history today! This is James Kottak's actual touring Pearl Birch kit from the 1988/1989 Kingdom Come World Tour It is available at auction through Killer Used Gear, via eBay. We are LA-based gear-brokers who specialize in rock and roll collectibles and all kinds of used music equipment. See all of James' kits here ."

A video overview of the kit from Kottak is available below:

Earlier this year the Scorpions announced a string of North American "farewell" dates on their Final Sting World Tour 2012. Their schedule is as follows:

June

27 - Grand Prairie, TX - Verizon Theatre at Grand Prairie
29 - Chicago, IL - Charter One Pavilion
30 - Milwaukee, WI - Summerfest

July

2 - Toronto, ON - Molson Canadian Amphitheater
3 - Montreal, QC - Bell Centre
6 - Holmdel, NJ - PNC Bank Arts Center
7 - Wantagh, NY - Jones Beach Theater
9 - Uncasville, CT - Mohegan Sun Arena **
11 - Philadelphia, PA - Mann Center for Performing Arts
12 - Washington D.C. - Merriweather Post Pavilion

About the band's commitment to retirement, guitarist Rudolf Schenker told BraveWords.com earlier this year: "We told the fans, when we started the world tour, and we told the media, that this will be the last tour and the last studio album. And we will stick to it. Comeblack is a side-project. It’s something that we did, but there are no new songs on it. We have our library; in our warehouse, we have tons of bonus material. Remember from the vinyl days, there were only nine songs on an album, and we always recorded around 14, to find out of the 14 or 15, which songs we wanted to put on the album. So we have a lot of songs, and what we want to do, especially after we finish, we want to give the fans a box or something, maybe with bonus tracks from the Scorpions, and maybe another film on DVD or Blu-ray, with a live concert of The Scorpions, which will be happening the end of 2012, the beginning of 2013.”

Read the entire interview here.