 to the metal voice once again Alan who do we have? The unbelievable Michael Kiske a return guest we always love having Michael on he's a dread gentleman and it's always a pleasure to speak to you Michael. Thank you thank you for inviting me to this interview. Okay South America Halloween is going pumpkins united going to South America April 15th to April 30th I think there's some festival dates there then they're coming back to the United States and North America from May 5th to June the 3rd but this is pretty there's a lot of jumping there's a lot of jumping between the time zones which is which is going to make that very tough I mean we we jumped on that tour with Kiske because they just asked us if you wanted to be part of it it wasn't the plan at first but since when you play with Kiske you play like big places with a lot of people that maybe didn't know you before so you just do it you know but then after the the the short kiss thing we will be like for two freaking shows we will be coming back to Germany and I think about five five days later we fly back to North America so it's it's going to be a jet lag as fuck I'm sorry how does that affect the voice how does that affect the voice jumping around like that older I get uh the more the voice gets a bitch I mean it functions but it is a bitch it wants sleep you know you need some good air I mean I'm I'm I'm it wasn't like when you're a teenager nothing matters you know you can you can do whatever you want you don't need sleep you don't need to eat the voices there the older you get the more you got to take care of it it's just the way it is you so okay last time we spoke you told us about the reunion how it happened how it all came together how you all work together you and Andy and the whole bad is one happy German family okay well we're past that now we're at round two for North America and that would pass that course hate each other now so so no no I know you're kidding sorry I wasn't brought to you no no um okay how is now there's a new album you haven't played the new album you're playing sort of the hits how is the set list going to be different this time around versus when you came back a few years ago and of course it was postponing but a few years ago you were in Montreal in North America how is that three hour set list going to be different than what could people expect in the set list how's that this time gonna be different in in in two ways um first of all because coming out of this pandemic situation I mean a lot of the bands were thinking about you know when you when you start touring again um nobody knew how the audience were come to the shows and stuff like that so there was this this element of insecurity without the pandemic we would have done another three hours show okay but since the situation has been the way it has we just decided to team up with the with Hammerfall just the case you know like some sort of a safety net and it turns out great works people show up and it works so great that we even continue to do this even though the the fear that we had of you know not not enough people might show up or something like that has not really come true people do show up thank god but we continue because it works great so because we're not on our own the set will be shorter so we we not we will not be playing three hours it'll be a little bit over two hours uh because it would be too long you know with another with another act and um and in addition to that of course we will be playing some new songs so it's not going to be like it was in 2017, 18, 19 where we basically shut down the hits and shut out the hits you know that you could do it it'll be a few hits but also a couple of new songs you know it's going to be it's going to be different and it's not going to be three hours and we actually extended on that it was very often three and a half hours and stuff like that depending on how much we were goofing around on stage and no more no more pre pre show hijinks everybody's older and more docile and and with with uh with kiss of course we I think we play 70 minutes or something like that so it's going to be even more a tight set but I don't know the set hasn't been decided yet on the on this festival tour uh but I I guess it makes sense because it's all about you know maybe attracting some some new people so we probably on that one we shoot out mainly the hits you know that's what I would do you know because it's just go in bang and go out again when you do a headline show you can do whatever you want in the end but on the show like that most people will be coming for kiss and then maybe the next load of people will be coming for the purple and you know down the down the line and probably just a few I'm going to show up for us so it's good to make a strong impression with some of the best songs we have you know very smart yes I agree uh it's been a while since this album was released now right right the last one yeah I'm assuming I'm assuming there's you know you guys must be bouncing ideas off each other thinking about the next album you know I'm sure there's some downtime now a bit uh oh yeah actually like uh 10 days ago or maybe a week ago um Kai actually has sent me a demo of the song that he was doing that I was very happy about because it's not what you would expect just it's a bit it's a bit uh the song was a bit outside of the box which I am always uh grateful for you know I I always thought that was uh exciting about Halloween you know when you when you check out the Keeper one and Keeper two record now they're classics but when they came out it was very different to to what the walls of Cherico record sounded like but we had the balls to do it and I think that's that's why I'm still here because those records had an impact because of being pretty fearless you know and and it is always the benefit of the youth that you that you most of the time the the younger people are very fearless and that song and this is what I what I like about Waikii and Kai they they can't fool themselves they just write songs they they don't function in in any other way but just making a song and whatever it is that's what it is and that song was a bit queen like you had a lot of piano parts in it very operatic with big choirs and then it gets rocking again and stuff like that it's another Kai Hansen sort of symphony but I really liked it and I I'm glad that he does something like that I just hope hope the rest of the band has the balls to do it you know I would do it as the rest of the band writing that's my question are they all writing yeah I don't know about the others I know I know that uh I think Andy has some stuff what about you are you gonna are you gonna toss in some ideas this time around I don't know I'm not so much of a metal songwriter I was when I was a teenager but these days I just don't write metal songs I just write songs on acoustic guitar somehow and if I if I have something where I feel the band could make a Halloween song out of it of course I will you know present it to them and then if they get a kick out of it something's gonna happen but we have so many songwriters in this band now and they're all really capable of of of writing that sort of material that everybody loves and that's mainly Andy, Sasha, Waikiki and Hansen and I think I think that's more than enough you know if I have an idea I sneak it in but I don't really push myself you know and I cut you off before you were saying about the rest of the band exchanging ideas and such yeah I know that Andy has songs and I know that Kai has had a whole bunch of songs I mean he was a bit lazy last time he only had that one great song Skyfall which is good for these songs it's maybe good for three songs and that's why it's justified but I would have wished for even more from him you know and I think this time he will be presenting a whole bunch of songs more at least that's my impression the feeling that I have that might be more coming from him this time and Andy is always at the game Andy has this gift he can just sit down and write ten songs he can just do it I don't know how he does it well and what's the demographic when you look out there you know you were saying that you're hopefully fans will come to see you as well I thought that was a foregone conclusion but you know maybe maybe not maybe it's just the guys losing their hair like Jimmy and I that are showing up I hope that's not the case I'm hoping a whole other generations discovering the the genius of Halloween but it looks like it I mean when you when you watch from the stage you usually see the young ones because the young ones are always like first row same with me when I was a teenager when I was maybe shows I wasn't for first row now I'm in the back yeah where's the seeds yeah exactly it's like our generation they're more like in the back but and so it seems like you attract a lot of young people but in general it would say that this is this is a musical style you know this loud kind of kind of guitar music that attracts a lot of young ones you know some stick with it during the whole life but it is especially a music for the younger generation so that's what I always thought you know I don't listen to a lot of loud music these days I sometimes I throw in an old Judas Priest record or I listen to something where Ronnie James D it was laying vocals on like I listened to a number of the beats that happens but I'm not particularly interested in the metal scene when it comes to when it comes to music I mainly listen to classical music the whole time classical music it's like it's inspiring too but that could be inspiring for metal too right I mean absolutely yeah that's very true yeah yeah let me let me ask you about uh on your first solo album which I really do like all right you know there was a contribution by Adrian Smith right right have you kept that relationship with him I mean we've asked you about the art made in questions in the past you know everybody has but what about Adrian Smith I mean do you keep in touch actually I cuddled with him I cuddled with him when we played I think it was rocking you I think that was yeah yeah he was sweet and it was all lovely but I haven't had haven't been in touch with him since just very briefly shortly after that I just told him that I'm not going to do another solo record soon or whatever and then he was back into made and then it's not interesting anymore anyway you know it's like but we cuddled it was it was nice when I saw him after all these years I mean he's a very very sweet guy he's just a just a very um hard driven and straightforward person I like him a lot he's also my favorite guitar player in our name would you ever can did you ever have a talk saying you know what we should have a band together just at least a project or anything just just just with the um gas g because it was it was always this problem with Kai not getting his stuff together when we work working with unisonic it was always on Dennis's shoulder and he had to do everything and Kai when we wanted to do the third unisonic record Kai was kind of swarmed with work for Gummery the record company wanted to re-release all the Gummery stuff with extra tracks and he wasn't really caring much about about unisonic and it was no arguments or any negativity but we sat together we said you know what why don't you just do that stuff with Gummery and we do a record with with Gus G this time and we he was fine with it you know no problem it was it was not anyone being thrown out it was just a realistic look at the situation he just wasn't really in for it and then we actually uh Dennis started to write with Gus G and they had some great ideas and then Gus G kind of pulled out again he was like ah I love unisonic and I would love to do but I don't want to be you know that replacement guitarist again you know so it didn't happen and then he got out of Aussie and of course the situation was different but then I already started with Eloy so he kind of missed that window where we could have made a third uh unisonic record which would have been interesting yeah that's very interesting with Gus G I'm still regretting and I'm sure he regrets it you should have done that you know he had he's a friend of the show he's a friend of the show I'm sure he's gonna watch this I understand his concerns I understand his concerns you know you join a band you don't want to be seen as a replacement guitarist you know but I think you should have done it because we would have done it a sweet record I'm sure would have been a great record well since you brought him up when it didn't happen you know actually what happened was Kai stayed in the band and we finished with the last couple of shows with Kai we had some great shows with unisonic and then we did the Halloween reunion that's how went down without a third record you know which is a bit of a shame so so now that you brought up a few that's one of my questions all you have to say is this is a closed subject or still open so we go back to visit revisit some of your project Plas Von Dome a Plas Von Dome I loved it was always very easy I always liked the material I'm kind of you know I I've always been a big David Coverdale fan I just love his voice you know especially I grew up with him with white sneak and stuff it was great to meet him actually when we jumped on the on the tour in 2019 it was the same situation it was a bit different because it happened because Dave mustain that sick that's why Megadeth couldn't be on the scorpions tour and then their scorpions white snake white snake scorpion sorry and so they asked us if we wanted to do it and I'm glad we did it I mean otherwise we would not have played in 2019 at all we were in the face of making the album but since they offered us this thing we thought yeah why not let's do it so we jumped on the tour and that was the last thing we did so the last show we did before the pandemic was rocking Rio before Iron Maiden and it like I I always like to tell the story because it's such a funny story how I how I actually got to talk to to David Coverdale who's actually very sweet he was like the opposite to what you would expect by the image you know he was very down to earth very natural and very sweet heart I mean it's all I can say I was at the toilet in the backstage area and there was no toilet paper so I didn't do my business dude I was just in there looking is there any toilet paper because it's good to watch before you do that yes always before and I heard there was someone in the toilet too so I was I was shouting is there any toilet paper somewhere and then that guy said yeah and some toilets it is and others it isn't so I just went out and it was covered you know so and I went I went with a fist bump and he returned that fist bump then we walked back to the to the dressing room and talked a little bit and I thought it was funny that my first conversation with David Coverdale was about toilet paper and that was nice that was nice that was really good I don't even know where that came from I mean he was he was they were always starting first and and Unisonic was was supposed to get on second out before the Scorpions and that's what we did every show and it's like so we were waiting fully addressed and everything and then the Weissner came off the stage you know it was like very often fist bumping with him again you know I was just very very sweet for me when you when you admire someone you know when you grow up with someone and he turns out to be very okay makes you happy I mean if he didn't hand you the toilet paper then you would have had a completely different vision he just said that there's in some time it's again so it's like it's like we had that starting conversation we'll never forget that amazing okay so that's always your influence on the Plasmondome albums I take it oh that's how I came to it right Plasmondome Plasmondome I mean when you're not in a band uh you do projects you know and and Plasmondome was great but I don't I don't really think that I will continue that I think the thing that I would be personally interested in is is another is still that record with Gus G a unisonic record with Gus G but but that's really up to Dennis because he is it has been the driving force behind it I mean there shouldn't be any doubt about he is the working horse behind it he writes most of the songs he was producing it Dennis is the light of unisonic it was him and if he would be up for it and the rest of the helving guys wouldn't be against it which probably would be the case because it's from the music it's not far away enough from what we're doing right that's probably not going to happen that I personally would be open to something like that because I thought I thought unisonic is nothing to be ashamed of you know I think I think we did two pretty nice records or instead of kiske summerville or summerville kiske can be as jake kiske the thing well again that would be kind of I don't know being not I would I would think the band wouldn't like me to do that but some of those different story again you know it's it's singing duet with a girl and the songs were very often almost folk-like or like an irish touch to it you know it had a very different quality to it um I don't know that I mean I love Amanda I think she's amazing and and a lot of people like that stuff I mean that's that's one of the things that I probably would be open to but still it would all be up to the to the management to agree with it you know because now I'm exclusive with helloween so everything that I do I of course I have to I have to sort it out with you know so if tobey from avatasia calls you're taking the call I did I did yeah I mean yeah yeah I'm not so much live uh because it's getting too much you know I wouldn't I wouldn't survive that if I if I also tour with with avatasia now but of course I mean tobey calls I sing the song because when we interviewed him he says he's very happy with the core nucleus that he has of which of course you're part of forever and he's not looking to necessarily add any any new new people so uh I'm glad that you would answer that I was an avatazian of the first hour you know I was I was on the first record I mean I didn't tour on the first tour but I was part of the second one and the third one and yeah avatasia like I always say that they will always have a piece in my heart as you say you know avatasia has been great absolutely are there any more allons any more of those bands any projects no that's they covered them all that's all the projects that I can't I have done a whole bunch of stuff but it's oh yeah you see that's what you do when you're not in a band but but now I'm in a band I'll actually do in a solo record which is plain acoustic music you know I I cover a whole bunch of songs that you wouldn't even believe that that I would do them is a completely different world I'm doing a song of Billy Joel I'm doing one police track I do a song of you too and it's all just very simple on the acoustic guitar you know and and and I do stuff of my own I have like it's probably going to be half and half I cannot tell you when that's done but that's so off anything we do with hello I think you spoke about that last time we spoke a year ago so very oh yeah yeah yeah I stopped working on it I stopped working on it at the end of 21 because somehow my energy was gone I got into a fight with a person that I really love and that took away all the energy and since then I haven't picked it up I went a little bit I actually mixed a little bit yesterday I was kind of fooling around with uh with the sound a bit Michael is it true that when you were first asked to be the singer of Halloween on the walls of Jericho album well after the walls of Jericho album you didn't like it like you turned him down the first time around yeah it was Marcus showed up at the rehearsal of my school band which which which I was the driving force in like it often is you know it's like you have the the driving forces of various bands and they come together and then they make a really good band you know it's like I was in my own school band and one day Marcus showed up uh pretty much the same way he is today it's the same kind of kind of attitude and and he was looking for a tumor and I was thinking I doesn't want to sing anymore you know he wants to concentrate on playing guitar and maybe he would like to do it somehow the the rumors about me were kind of you know going around in in in Hamburg and uh I think Waikey was the one who was actually sending Marcus you know to check me out he gave me a whole to Jericho he gave me a whole to Jericho and it wasn't my cup of tea I was I'm not I was never a fresh musician I was into I made Judas Priest Queen's right I like Metallica the first three records but I didn't want to do that type of music the music that I wanted to do was more in the main of Queen's right well I made you know that sort of thing very melodic and and uh musical and the threshy part of the walls and church it wasn't my cup of tea so I never called I never called I was just I was just uh not interested but then a couple of weeks later Waikey called me up I was still living with my mother I was in the bath actually I was taking a bath when she was bringing me the phone and then Waikey was actually saying yeah I know Waikey was very punky you know we did that for fun but we're looking for someone like you to do something completely different why don't you show up at the rehearsal room and we show you the songs that we have written for your voice and I got to the to the to the rehearsal room and they had already songs like Twilight of the Gods I even think Future World in March of Time and there were elements from Waikey had elements already from Keeper and I was doing that stuff and that was it and we didn't even talk about it we didn't even say it was never mentioned you are in the band now I was there and it was clear we just did it and that was it it was funny I recognized that later there was never a moment where anyone said you're in the band it was it was just it just happened fine singer check and Waikey talked me into it by by his vision you know saying we wanted more than that you know and for that we need to sing like you and that's how it came together Waikey he's just he is a visionary he's you know he's a great he's an excellent interview too he's he's a great he's great he doesn't live on planet earth yeah he doesn't live on planet earth but that has benefits is he still chain smoking that's what I want to know the thing with him is he's so much in his own world so that that everything he does is different you know everything he does his thinking is different you can you can sit together with the band and something happens and then he says something where you're like what has only in his head something like this has happened right now he sees everything in a completely different way which is interesting you know he's very unique person I mean just at least he he told us he told us that the band after I don't know if it was I guess it was chameleon it was like in a two million dutchmark debt is that what it was or something almost yeah we were like completely fucked by the record company it was it was it was it was actually after keeper too when we when we realized that the how shitty the contracts were you know and and in addition to 80 percent record company 20 percent band we also had to pay all the costs from the 20 percent so it's like so it's like when you tour on the level we toured we sold out like we had like successful tours we sold millions of records and lost money that's the reason why we knew something must be wrong I mean they cheated on us so stupidly we had to realize it and even then you know rot smallwood was actually trying to help us he was like getting to the band he was he was using the lawyers from EMI records in England but he was kind of miscalculating the german law because the german law in those days I don't know if it's different today but in those days they didn't know what was going on in the business they had no experience with these sort of ways of cheating on musicians in England they knew if we would have been in England we would have won right away over here he was even able to injure they didn't even look at the numbers we could prove where he was kind of you know Walter Bach who he was kind of cheating with the numbers they didn't even look at it and that was the situation they kind of over-judged the capabilities of the of the german courts when it comes to how musicians get screwed so yes we ended up with lots of money in the debts because of because of the way we have been cheated yeah but it doesn't only happen it happened doesn't only happen to us it happened to so many bands another band is the scorpions they had the same crap in the whole 70s after they're they're first started to make some money after blackout a uh still later you know it wouldn't have changed yeah that was oh my gosh because that happened swoop by pretty much the same kind of people I talked even to Klaus Maynard about this in the 80s when the late 80s when it happened and another example is the Aerosmith they didn't make anything until the beginning of the 80s selling millions of records setting out stadiums and renas you know and um Stephen Tyler was sleeping on the couch in New York at RCA because because there was no more money you know it's like but after that they they got smarter and they figured it out like us we learned a lot and now everything is a lot better so our time's almost up I just want to go with this Canadian tour it's basically Toronto we're disappointed just see it's one date what's the logistics how hard is it to travel to a different country in North America the North America thing is going to be especially difficult for me because I don't sleep in buses and somehow they actually made that tour with a nightliner which I will I will be flying wherever it's possible but I don't sleep a nightliner so that that will add to the to the stress you know but I uh I will try to mentally adjust to it it's it's going to be a little bit over three weeks there where I will not get a lot of sleep it's you know we we tried to play North America for the first time with this Halloween concert in 2018 we only did maybe about five shows four or five shows and it went down really well it was really nice it's like everywhere we played it was sold out the audience was amazing so we took that and and this time we try to make it a little bigger little more places we just see where we get with this and from there we see what we do next you know that's just the way you do it but it was very successful 2018 when we were there it was really good so we just thought we'd try it again this time it's going to be tough on the ones who can't sleep in the bus like me all right can't either if that makes you feel any better uh horrible horrible all right so there you go thank you so much Michael we could talk to you for like three hours straight uh Halloween going on tour North America and of course in South America in April and in May in the US and one day in Canada but it's okay we'll see you the next time around it's all good yeah yeah yeah Canada I think did we play in Canada you paid in Montreal was there yes we played yeah yeah yeah right yes you played in Montreal yeah yeah I don't know what the market is there like for bands I met you at the hotel I met you at the hotel yeah I remember your face I remember your face actually I got a very Robert De Niro remembered Robert De Niro I'm not good with names I I hardly remember my own but I'm good with faces Michael Michael and the conversation went like this I go Michael I'm not going to shake your hands because I have a cold and then you just that's the antichrist that's the antichrist but it's okay you were very polite and you from a distance you were very polite and everything went well this is like the worst if you on tour getting sick that's why I'm so excited and we all had corona like last year in the summer everybody had it we like like everybody in the band including the management had it vaccinated or not didn't make any difference but it's like it's like uh we all had it when the when the short tour was was over and then we had like like over three months of a break so we could like recover and then we've been touring for about something like six weeks or something like over Europe like the the the um like the whole area Europe and South America and I'm we were meeting people like hundreds of people every day nobody was wearing protections there was no mouth protection anything I'm 100 percent sure we got in contact with the virus but it nothing happened it seems like it seems like we were once you got it you kind of probably yeah yeah yeah I agree I agree on that note thank you so much Michael looking forward to seeing you in in in person uh sorry I have to show again as well as next time on an interview it's always a pleasure yeah my pleasure success and we can't wait to hear some new music too yeah all right man all the best