DATE OF INTERVIEW:
DORO
18th September 2012
DORO PESCH
METAL DISCOVERY: Four years ago, you hit a big landmark with twenty five years in music and you have your thirtieth anniversary coming up next year, of course. Do you have any special plans to celebrate the thirtieth like you did four years ago with another big show maybe?
DORO: Yeah, to be honest, I wouldn’t even know how to top the last show! And we had such great guests like the Scorpions, my Warlock band members, Bobby Blitz, all the great ladies of metal…it was so great. And, on the twentieth anniversary, Lemmy and Mikkey Dee from Motörhead were there and Saxon played. So I have to see that we get something really great. We want to celebrate first at Wacken Open Air next year and it will be a great show with many guests – I don’t know who it will be but I will work my ass off to get great people, and pyrotechnics, and lights. And then I want to do two shows in Düsseldorf, my home town, and then maybe worldwide.
(Doro Pesch on planning to carry on rocking long into the future)
"I want to do it until the day I die and I promise I never want to do a goodbye tour or farewell tour. As long as fans love it and as long as the body keeps up with me, I want to do it until the very last day..."
Doro Pesch - promo shot
Photograph copyright © 2012 Frank Dursthoff
Interview by Mark Holmes
RELATED LINKS
Doro Official Website:
DORO DISCOGRAPHY
Force Majeure (1989)
Albums
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to Markus Jakob at Nuclear Blast for arranging the interview
Doro (1990)
Rare Diamonds (1991)
Doro Official Facebook:
True At Heart (1991)
Machine II Machine (1995)
A Whiter Shade of Pale (1995)
Love Me In Black (1998)
Best Of (1998)
Fight (2002)
Classic Diamonds (2004)
Fear No Evil (2009)
25 Years in Rock... and Still Going Strong (2010)
Doro - Live (1993)
Calling The Wild (2000)
Raise Your Fist (2012)
The Ballads (1998)
Warrior Soul (2006)
Angels Never Die (1993)
It’s hard to get all the guests to tour but maybe every show I’ll have different guests and surprises. Maybe I want to do a little bit with an orchestra again in Düsseldorf. Three and a half hours is not enough to play all the songs…on the twenty fifth anniversary it was a three and a half hour set and then some people came up and said, “you didn’t play my favourite song.” I said, “oh god, three and a half hours isn’t enough?”…“No”, and I was like, “okay then, next time I’ll play each day for three hours”, and they say, “okay”! So I will do two shows, two nights in a row in Düsseldorf and maybe one with an orchestra and the other night with great guests. So, yeah, I definitely want to celebrate it, and worldwide too, doing more shows.
MD: Yeah, that’d be fantastic. What happened to that giant warlock because that was made especially for the twenty fifth anniversary I believe and isn’t it a pretty massive thing?
DORO: Yeah, it’s actually so huge I can never use it again because it will not fit any other venue! And, now, it had to be cut down so it’s only a head because we told another festival we would bring the warlock but it was impossible to put it on stage. So, at the moment, it’s just a head and it’s laying around in Wacken and I hope that I can maybe bring it back in Wacken. But if you want to know where all my fortunes went, I didn’t buy a house, didn’t buy a car, I bought a warlock! For thirty seconds, just to have people say, “ahhh, great”! And my manager thought I was crazy but I thought at least let me have thirty seconds of a big surprise and he said, “no, I can’t believe it”, but I said, “I’ll do it no matter what.”
Actually, I contacted the people who did Eddie of Iron Maiden as I thought I wanted the best people working on the warlock because we always had a tiny little backdrop and I thought I want to have the real deal. And I actually wrote the song for the warlock on the ‘Fear No Evil’ album, that was the first song, ‘The Night of the Warlock’… so I thought I wanted to have the real deal and, yeah, contacted people all over the world, like in Japan and stuff, but then I thought maybe it’s too shaky because….actually, it was really done the night before the show took place so day and night they had to get the warlock to the venue and the guy who did it came from Germany and he did a lot of stuff for ‘Star Wars’ and some movies and he said, “hey, I could’ve used one more month!” So it was done at night and I’m so glad I didn’t go to Japan…but, yeah, the guy in Germany did it and said he’d guarantee it would be ready.
MD: Fantastic.
DORO: Yeah, but for the next show I don’t know to make it even more special.
MD: An even bigger warlock! Twice the size!
DORO: Yeah! [laughs]
MD: Just make the whole stage a giant warlock!
DORO: Yeah, yeah, that’s a good idea but I’d probably have to discuss that with my manager! [laughs]
MD: And the venue!
DORO: [laughs] But I love doing some stuff and whatever makes the fans happy, that’s my happiness.
MD: Aww, that’s a very nice attitude to have. The final thing I was going to ask – there’s a song on the new album called ‘Rock Till Death’ so is that a personal statement that you intend to carry on rocking until you drop?!
DORO: Yes! Yes, Mark! I want to do it until the day I die and I promise I never want to do a goodbye tour or farewell tour. As long as fans love it and as long as the body keeps up with me, I want to do it until the very last day, and always give it my all and give it my best and try to give the people lots of positive energy and power…as long as I live, yeah.
MD: Fantastic. And when you reach your fortieth anniversary, you’ll need gargantuan warlock!
DORO: Yeah, I have to sell many records and then I can afford one ten times bigger! Yeah, but we’ll see if I can maybe come up with something else or a big surprise. I wanted to put the movie set on stage too because it’s great, it looks really cool and it’s the traditional story of evil against the good guys. But the evil guys, they look pretty good! But I’ve asked Luke already – “Can I get all the costumes and all the other stuff on stage?”, and he said, “okay”, for the thirtieth one. But, yeah, I definitely want to come up with something the fans will love and will be unforgettable.
Oh, and I forgot to say when I told you the story about the warlock…there was always a big dream of mine for nearly thirty years because my first time when I got such a big sensational feeling was actually when I saw Ronnie James Dio playing in ’85 and I went with all my band members and my friends. We went to see him and I was standing on the sound desk because I’m pretty small so people say, “okay you little girl, you can jump up!”…I was standing there and some other people were standing there and then the show started, the curtain opened up and the I saw the most amazing, fantastic stage show and it was the beginning of the Ronnie James Dio stage show and I almost fainted because I thought, how come somebody could do something so great? Tears were rolling down my cheeks, my legs were getting really shaky and I could almost not stand up, I was so taken by it. Then I thought, yeah, for my anniversary, I always remembered that moment and want to give people something what it’s really like that’s so touching where they go, “wow”, and that’s magic and…
MD: Yeah, something that takes your breath away.
DORO: Yes, yes, and the Dio show, before we even played together, that did it for me and it was an unforgettable moment. So that was actually the idea behind the big warlock.
MD: Marvellous! Well, thank you so much for your time, it’s been a great pleasure speaking to you.
DORO: The same back at you. Thank you for having me and it was great talking to you. And we are coming to the UK in November.
MD: Yeah, I noticed you’re touring Europe November/December. Isn’t it around the 20th of November you’re in London?
DORO: Yeah, we’re playing at…
MD: It’s at the Garage I think.
DORO: Yes, yes, the Garage on the 20th November and the 21st November in Bristol at The Fleece.
MD: It’s a busy month of gigs for me in November but I’ll definitely try and make it to one of those shows.
DORO: Super, that would be awesome, I would love that. I love the English fans and I learnt from the best, the New Wave of British Heavy Metal was definitely where I got all my inspiration from and I love the English crowd. And I heard the London show’s almost sold out.
MD: Oh wow, really?
DORO: Yeah, yeah, it’s going well and I can’t wait to come back. That’s actually where we started, in England, from the Monsters of Rock festivals at Castle Doninigton to all these great other shows. Yeah, England was always super important.
MD: Marvellous, good to get back here in November then.
DORO: Yeah.
MD: Best of luck with the album as well and best of luck with all the touring for the rest of the year and I’ll be keeping an eye out for the thirtieth anniversary shows with the huge stage!
DORO: Yeah, yeah, yes! See if we can top the warlock and the moment he came up!
MD: Absolutely, I’ll be expecting something massive!
DORO: Okay, now the pressure is on! Okay, I will try! [laughs]
MD: Okay, thank you so much for your time.
DORO: Okay, Mark, have a good one.