Gegers from Crazyscorps.com spoke to Klaus Meine recently about a number of topics including their new album, Humanity – Hour 1, due in Europe on May 25th as a regular CD, limited edition CD/DVD digipack and LP. Here are a few excerpts from the chat:

Crazyscorps.com: To which other album would you say that Humanity – Hour 1 is most close?

Meine: "Well I don’t know. I’ve just read an article from Rock Hard Germany (it’s great after so many months to have the first impressions from the journalists and the fans), and what it says is that even if you can not compare albums like Love At First Sting and Humanity, our new album makes a perfect connection with our best works we made in the 80’s, but with a modern and up-to-date sound. I think that’s an amazing compliment. So much time has passed between those two albums, the world has changed so much that we feel like we’re living on a different planet now. But here we are, with a new album! What we tried to do with this album is to come up with a record that will hopefully be another classic, and not just an average album. We don’t know what the future will bring, but this record is our 21st album and we cannot afford to come up with something that is cheap. We don’t want people to think that this album is cheap and that we better stop recording. Why to make an album? We've got such a strong back-catalogue, and when we go out and play live (year after year and all over the world), we have fun, we enjoy what we’re doing, and it’s very powerful energy. Wherever the Scorpions go, they deliver, which is good! And we’ve noticed that the fans are back, hopefully they are back in France as well, and we’re very happy about that, but why should we make another album, WHY? (laughs). The only legitimacy for recording a new album is to come up with something amazing, something that nobody expects from a band that is 35 years old and which released many albums that made rock history. The only way to record another album is to come up with a triumph and to have people go - wow! This is fantastic, we never expected this! That’s what we try to do with this new album, and I hope that people will enjoy it as much as we do (we are all very excited about this). We’re impatient to bring it on the road and play the songs live. For us recording a new album fuels the fire, we’re really impatient now to hit the road again."

Crazyscorps.com: Uli Jon Roth will play with you again for the French shows. We will be very happy to see him, but why did you decide to invite him again on stage?

Meine: "Because Uli also represents the perfect connection between the past and now. The fact is we played with Uli in Colmar and we saw all the excitement of the fans, and also the excitement on stage, as we really had a good time. And also Uli, who was really busy with his own career and had never showed any real excitement to play with the band again really changed after that concert in Colmar and so we decided to take it to the next level at the Wacken show last year. We didn’t know if this would work in front of so many metalheads but it worked fantastic. We had put 50 songs on the Internet for the Wacken audience to choose our setlist, and they just loved the show. This huge show, with also Michael Schenker and Herman Rarebell was a huge success, and it will be released on DVD, we are working on it right now. We will play with Uli in France, and Michael Schenker will join us in Britain. They are legendary guitar players, and we are happy to have them back in the Scorpions’ family for these shows."

To read the entire interview head to this location.

As previously reported, on August 3rd, 2006, the Scorpions reunited with former bandmates Uli Jon Roth (guitar), Michael Schenker (guitar) and Herman Rarebell (drums) on the True Metal Stage at the Wacken Open Air Festival in Wacken, Germany. BW&BK; was present for the historical event which was attended by over 40,000 raging metalheads from countries around the world. At the start of the show frontman Klaus Meine shouted "Family Reuinion at Wacken baby!"

Dubbed A Night to Remember - A Journey In Time, the band performed the following setlist: 'Coming Home' (edited version), 'Bad Boys Running Wild', 'The Zoo', 'Loving You Sunday Morning', 'Make It Real', 'Picture Life' (with Uli John Roth), 'Speedy's Coming' (with Uli John Roth), 'Dark Lady' (with Uli John Roth), 'We'll Burn The Sky' (with Uli John Roth), 'Love 'em Or Leave 'Em', 'Don't Believe Her', 'Tease Me Please Me', 'Coast To Coast' (with Michael Schenker), 'Holiday' (with Michael Schenker), 'Lovedrive' (with Michael Schenker), 'Another Piece Of Meat' (with Michael Schenker), 'James Kottak Drum Solo, 'Blackout' (with Herman Rarebell), 'No One Like You' (with Herman Rarebell), 'Matthias Jabs Guitar Solo, 'Big City Nights', 'Can't Get Enough'.

Encore 1: 'Still Loving You', 'In Trance' (with Uli John Roth, Michael Schenker), 'He's A Woman She's A Man' (with Uli John Roth, Michael Schenker), 'In Search Of The Peace Of Mind' (with Uli John Roth, Michael Schenker and Tyson Schenker).

Encore 2: 'Voodoo Child (Slight Return)' (JIMI HENDRIX cover/solo by Uli Jon Roth), 'Dynamite'

Encore 3: Jam Session (with Uli John Roth, Michael Schenker), 'Rock You Like A Hurricane'.