BW&BK Exclusive: PRIMAL FEAR Vocalist RALF SCHEEPERS - Ex-Guitarist TOM NAUMANN "Turned His Back On Us In The Studio"
September 16, 2007, 17 years ago
BW&BK; recently spoke to PRIMAL FEAR frontman Ralf Scheepers about the band's new album, New Religion. The following is a brief excerpt from the interview, with Scheepers discussing the dismissal of founding guitarist Tom Naumann during the recordings. It's the second time Naumann has been given the boot.
"It was tough because Tom wasn’t only our guitarist, he was our friend, and he turned his back on us in the studio," says Scheepers. "For some reason he wasn’t happy, he just wasn’t satisfied. He now says he has some kind of a mental illness, but I really don’t know what to think of that because there were so many times in the past where it was like someone had thrown a switch in his head. He became a different person. When we were in Vancouver mixing the last album (Seventh Seal) there were two days where he didn’t speak to anyone. Same thing for this album when we were recording, and Charlie (Bauerfeind/producer) said he couldn’t work like that anymore, because Tom would just sit there and just didn’t want to play guitar. I don’t want to badmouth Tom but I have to tell the truth about it, otherwise no one understands what happened.""The last time it was a bit different when Tom left because there was a girl involved. We gave him a second chance but I guess he didn’t really want it. We remembered how good it was with Henny (Wolter/guitars) in the band and how positive he is as a person, which is why we asked him to come back. Of course, Henny left the band the last time because he was living in Hannover and had a girlfriend who couldn’t handle him being away all the time, but now his surroundings have changed. Henny says now that he missed the band a lot, and he’s live freak. He loves playing on stage and he’s 100% professional, so even when something goes wrong on stage he’s not the guy hiding behind his amp. He just goes out and gives everything he’s got no matter what.”
Watch for the full story in BW&BK; #107.
