Ready or not, here they come! After a far too long absence from these here American shores, the Teutonic metal powerhouse known as U.D.O. will be bulldozing their way through the US of A for the next month. Armed and ready with a brand new album in Touchdown, the band is eager to reconnect with their American fanbase, treating them to some brand new bangers, as well as the classics of yesteryear, with perhaps a surprise or two thrown in for good measure. We sat down with father-son duo, Udo and Sven Dirkschneider, to discuss this much anticipated trek, balancing work and family life, and Udo’s favorite album (the answer will shock you).
Greetings Udo and Sven! Welcome to Defenders of the Faith! How are you doing today?
Udo Dirkschneider: I’m doing fine! Thank you very much! Everything’s good.
Sven Dirkschneider: Good, fine! Thank you very much! Thanks for having us.
Thank you for taking the time to talk. I know the band has been doing their run of the European festivals and Udo, you had a bit of a health scare about a month back. How have those shows been and Udo, how are you feeling?
UD: Yeah, I’m fine, but I had a bacterial infection. Nobody knows where it came from. I don’t know. I couldn’t move! That was something else. I was in the hospital for a week, but now everything is fine. Still, they cannot tell me where it was coming from. Everything is okay. Everything is acceptable and everything is fine. There’s no problem at all. Sometimes, what can you say? Shit happens! You never know, but I think it was the first time we cancelled a show over a health problem, right?
SD: Yeah, that’s true. We were very shocked. I woke up at 6 AM and I was about to set off for the airport. We were about to fly to Czech Republic and I saw the message that my dad sent me during the night and I was like, “Uh oh. There’s something. That’s not good.” Then, I found out he had to go to the hospital and we had to cancel on very short notice. Health comes first, that’s the most important thing. I’m very, very happy that he’s back at strength. I don’t know how he does it, but it was a week later and then we flew to the next festival and he’s standing onstage doing a show. I was like, “How is that possible?” *laughs*
UD: I’m German! *laughs*
Well we’re thrilled you’re all in top shape because we are now days away from the kickoff of U.D.O.’s first American trek in many years, the Touchdown Tour. The band will be making two Chicagoland area stops, Friday, September 27 at The Vixen in McHenry and Saturday, September 28 at The Forge in Joliet. What can fans expect from these upcoming shows?
UD: We are playing four songs off the Touchdown album. Then, of course, we try to make a good mix up of 19 U.D.O. albums. It’s not so easy, but I think we choose the right songs. Maybe there’ll be some surprises that, of course, people are always asking for. What do you have written on your shirt?
*shows Accept Restless and Wild shirt* Oh, just a little band you might’ve heard of.
UD: *laughs* Yeah! We will see. We are playing over 90 minutes. I think that’s enough time to play enough songs.
Looking at U.D.O. alone, between 19 albums and nearly 40 years of history, is it hard to come up with a setlist that’ll satisfy everyone?
SD: Yes!
UD: *laughs* This is not easy. We always try to put some different songs in there, sometimes songs we haven’t played in a long time. Or we try to play a song we never played! It’s not easy. Is it really nearing 40 years?
SD: It’s getting close. ’87.
UD: Oh, Jesus Christ! Okay!
SD: It is a nightmare to get a setlist together, but if you can say that, then you did something right. We do sit down before a tour cycle and we try to decide on what songs we’re gonna do. There are so many songs that we would love to play live, but you can’t play them all. That’s fact *laughs*. It’s just not possible. We tried to come up with surprises here and there and play something that the people maybe never heard from U.D.O. Then, you find out if it’s working or not once you get into tour mode and play it night by night. Then, you have to decide if you keep it or not. I think we managed to write down a very good U.D.O. setlist with everything that a U.D.O. fan and an Udo Dirkschneider fan needs to have in the setlist.
Udo, it’s been 40 years since you first played Chicago. It was March 18, 1984 at the Metro. Do you have any particular memories of that show or Accept’s first run of the United States in general?
UD: Oh, that first run of the United States, we were touring with KISS, and then with Iron Maiden, Ozzy Osbourne, Mötley Crüe. Everybody! We were nearly living in America for three years. We also had big headline shows in America, so it was always a good market for us. Of course, I split up with Accept. I came over with U.D.O. In ’87, I was playing with Lita Ford and Guns N’ Roses, stuff like that. It was a great tour. But then the offers, really to be honest, were not so interesting to come back to America. It took a while before we came back in 2017. Then, it started working, and then we had COVID *laughs*. That was the thing. Also, the last tour that was planned for 2023 did not happen because of some visa stuff and other problems. We pushed the whole tour a year later and now finally, we are coming. I’m really looking forward to this.
So are we. Sven, correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe I attended your first Chicago show on January 13, 2017 at Concord Music Hall when the band did the Back to the Roots setlist. How was your first tour of America and did you notice any differences playing here as opposed to Europe?
SD: Of course, I do remember. It was not too long ago at my dad was talking about *laughs*. I had a great time over there. Of course, it’s a different experience. Audiences are different in different countries. We even have that here in Europe. If you go from Poland to Spain, they are different, so of course it’s a different story if you come to the United States. I had the feeling that the people were really into it and they were all friendly. I had a really, really good time over there. We went back in 2018 as well and did it all over again. I’m really looking forward to coming back finally after six years. It should’ve been way earlier, but as my dad said, we had a small virus leading the world. Therefore, I’m really looking forward to being back and playing the first show on Friday, meet some people again, meet some friends again that we made during the tour in 2017 and ’18. It’s something very special to be over there.
Considering U.D.O. is such a global band in terms of an audience, are there certain songs that audiences react to differently from country to country?
UD: Yeah, for example in South America, they like faster songs. America is a little bit, I hate this word, but a little bit more commercial. Of course, they also like “Fast as a Shark”, “Breaker”, and all that stuff, but it’s a little bit different in America. Of course, you can play hard, but it’s more with melodies and stuff like that.
SD: I think in America, there are a lot of people who…you have such a big music scene over there. It depends on where you go. There’s also a lot of people who just enjoy to watch a musician play his instrument and see what he’s doing. You don’t have that in some countries. They just wanna go wild and party and do mosh pits and whatever. In America, maybe there are some people who just enjoy to watch a concert and are not crazy into it, going nuts and banging their head all night, but they really enjoy to watch you play the instrument and all of that. That becomes a difference.
That’s an interesting point you make, Udo, about the melodic and commercial aspect of music here in the States. An U.D.O. song that fits that bill is “Heart of Gold”. I imagine that will be in the setlist?
UD: Yes, it is *laughs*! That’s definitely in the setlist. It’s also an interesting thing. We have songs like “Never Cross My Way”, “Forever Free”, and maybe two or three other songs, and we always say, “Are those the right songs to put on the setlist?” You know what? These songs are working so well. It’s unbelievable. We are really surprised like, “What?! Okay!” Especially in Germany, on the last tour, we were like, “What?! They must really like it.” It’s great! Very good.
Udo, there is a questionnaire you filled out in the early ’80s that occasionally makes the rounds on social media. At the time, you said that your favorite album was 1999 by Prince. Is that still the case?
UD: Yeah! I’m a huge fan of Prince. I’m also, somebody kill me, but I’m also a huge fan of ANYMEN. I don’t only listen to metal music. As a musician, you listen to so many different genres. Of course, in Germany, you have Scorpions, Rammstein, so many bands all through Germany. You also have some stuff in America, but you have to be, in a way…it’s important to listen to that. Ask yourself, “What kind of production are they doing?” and this and this, not only in metal, but some different stuff. For example, Linkin Park, Slipknot, Disturbed, it’s interesting stuff!
Sven, last year I spoke to your father about Peter Baltes joining the U.D.O. fold. For you as a drummer, what’s it like playing alongside Peter as a rhythm section?
SD: It sounds so cliché, but when he entered the stage and I played with him for the first time in Berlin, I can remember it and picture it like it was yesterday, it felt very natural. The way he looked at me, smiled, that was the trigger of, “Okay, he’s enjoying it too.” Of course, it’s a big honor for me because he’s an amazing musician and one of the best bass players in the scene, no doubt about that. We found our foundation and our rhythm very, very quickly. I was super surprised by that. You could say that he knows me from being a little kid and stuff like that, so there had been a chemistry even though we haven’t seen each other for years.
When he joined the band, it felt very much like a homecoming. He’s feeling super comfortable and he was very well accepted as a family member. He’s enjoying that and I think, from what he told us and what he was going through, he kind of felt himself newborn in the music industry, and he has fun doing it again. That’s very important for us as well to see that. It’s so cool because he’s such a good musician and such a good person. You can have a lot of fun with him on the tour bus and he’s a showman. He knows how to handle his instrument. We had a really easygoing first approach of what we wanted to do. Now, we started doing these little things here and there as the rhythm section of the band which becomes unique. That’s really, really cool to see.
It is because I’ve watched the videos of U.D.O. performing live this year and last year. It seems like, echoing what you said, he’s having a fun time onstage and he’s a great rhythm player, but he’s also a very melodic player as well. He can do a little bit of everything and fits that U.D.O. mold live. I can’t wait to hear what he does in the studio on the next album in a songwriting capacity.
SD: Us too!
UD: Oh yeah, it’ll be very interesting, I think.
Outside of U.D.O., you’ve both worked together on the Dirkschneider & the Old Gang project. Could we perhaps see a full length album from the Old Gang in the future or was that a one off?
UD: *laughs*
SD: The project was started doing COVID times and was to help the musicians and the crew of U.D.O. during these hard times. It was so much fun that we don’t wanna say no, I guess *laughs*.
UD: Wait and see *laughs*!
We’ll leave it at that. It’s been nearly a decade since Sven joined U.D.O. As a father and son team, what lessons have you learned from each other by touring and recording together?
UD: For me, it’s very interesting having around young people. They listen to different kinds of bands and stuff like that. When we started the tour with Game Over, things picked up. We started writing lyrics together and Sven came up with melodies. I’m always open minded. I don’t want to say, “Oh no, no, no. This is nothing for me. I always do it like this.” No, it was very interesting. I always say I’m still learning. Also, with the two guitar players (Andrey Smirnov and Dee Dammers). In a way, they are also young musicians. They’re coming up with different ideas and that’s very interesting. It keeps the whole thing interesting for me. It’s not like, “Okay, another album, ugh.” No, it keeps it going and it’s a lot of fun.
SD: When we first started out in 2015, it was, of course…we had to see how it was to be on tour together. Of course, I travelled a lot with my dad when I was younger. I was the drum tech with the band before I joined, so I knew how it was to be with the guys and everyone knew me. We had to figure out our way of working together and keep the balance between a family thing and being musicians onstage doing that for a living. That’s also something you have to approach in the right way, otherwise it can go horribly wrong. I think that over the last 9 years, we managed to become a very, very strong team. Not only onstage, but also in the studio and when it comes to the business part, we work together very, very close as well.
As my dad said, for me, it’s very fascinating for me to go into the studio with him because he’s not one of those guys who says, “Oh no, I know it better. I have the experience and I know what I need to do.” Of course, he HAS the experience, and whenever I come up with a crazy idea, he goes, “Oh, do you really think I can do that?” I’m like, “Just try it! If it works, that’s great. If not, then not.” Then, he comes in with his experience and makes it his own. That’s so interesting and so cool that he keeps himself open minded when it comes to new ideas and doesn’t shut the door and go, “No, I know how to do it.” I think that’s very, very important. On the other hand, I can learn a lot, and that’s what I’m doing day by day.
It just occurred to me that in the years since U.D.O. last toured America, Udo, you released a covers album entitled My Way. Can we expect any of those songs in the setlist on this go-around?
UD: No, we don’t do anything from that album. That was all because of the COVID thing. We had nothing to do. Then, I was in the studio and just for fun, we said, “Oh, maybe we could do a song like this.” I don’t know which song it was. Then, someone said, “Maybe you can do a covers album.” I said, “Oh guys, please no.” Cover albums can be really dangerous if you do them wrong. Then, they said, “Yeah, just make a list of songs you like!” “Okay, I can make a list.” We started working on it and I think we sent five songs to the record company. They said, “Yeah, that’s great!”, so it kept me busy during COVID, but in the end it went #5 or #7 in Germany on the charts.
I was really nervous when the interview started about this album. I had a big Zoom meeting with 40 journalists and they had to listen to the whole album. I was sitting there thinking, “Oh my God. Hopefully we will see what’s coming up.” I think they were surprised. I think the most important thing for me with the covers album was that I can put my own style on there. I’m not singing like Klaus Meine or Rob Halford or whatever. I put my own style on there and I think it worked very well.
In closing, although the band is still out promoting their excellent 2023 album, Touchdown, is it too early to ask about a new U.D.O. album?
UD: At the moment, let’s say some ideas have already happened. I think next year we’ll be going on tour with the Balls to the Wall 40th anniversary. We start it in South America in November and that will be all of next year. Hopefully, we can also come to America with this thing where we play all of Accept’s Balls to the Wall album and some classic stuff around. Then, next year, we start working on the U.D.O. album, and then in 2026, the album will be out, and then, another U.D.O. tour!
U.D.O. will be playing The Vixen in McHenry, Illinois on Friday, September 27 and The Forge in Joliet, Illinois on Saturday, July 28. Tickets for the McHenry show can be ordered here. Tickets for the Joliet show can be ordered here. For more information on U.D.O., visit www.udo-online.de.