 Well actually, quite a big memory. It's not too long ago we were there with the old Scorps and we were the guys at the show. Absolutely. I've seen you quite a few times in town for the past 40 years. Right, right. At this time I was so nervous for a tennis elbow. I can tell you Montreal was the third show on our tour. We started in Toronto and then Quebec City and then Montreal. When I came off stage in Quebec City, I could not even hold a drumstick with my left hand. And I told the boys, I think it's over because I had a problem throughout the summer with my elbow a little bit. And nothing that was super bad, but in Quebec City and Toronto something happened. I could not even close my hand. And I went to a fantastic doctor in Montreal through a friend of mine. His name is Michael and he fixed me up. I was doing the show just with no problem at all and the rest of the tour. But it was a few nervous hours when we rolled into Montreal. Quarter zone shot, that's what you got right in your arm I guess, right? Absolutely. Absolutely. And I went to a specialist here in Sweden and it's much, much better now. But I've been dragging this around for almost a year now, you know? And I don't know where it came from. Montreal was the turning point right there. Alright, just before we start, is your father Greek? Yeah. And your mom, was she Greek? Swedish. You were born in Sweden, right? Yeah. My parents are both Greek from Greece, but I was born in Canada. Oh, where in Greece are they from? It's Macedonia, it's a small town, but it's north. My father was from Athens. Oh, Perios actually, between Athens and Perios, an area called Nikia. Oh, that's nice. Nicosia, very nice town there. So did you end up learning Greek or not, or Swedish? No, because I was stupid. Of course, in Swedish school, when you were in, I believe, third grade, second or third grade, which means you were about eight years old, eight, nine years old. You got offered to learn the second language of a parent, but they spoke Swedish at all. My father moved to Sweden, you know, and as a kid, I wasn't interested at all. Today, I regret it big time. I mean, I wish I learned it, you know, but you never know. Yeah, well, they forced me to go to Greek school, so it's... Oh, they did? Yeah, yeah. But that's a whole thing. Yeah, I understand more when I'm down there and they talk. I understand what they are talking about. Not specifics, but that's about it, you know. Do we have, how many minutes do we have, just to time it? We have 30, maximum. I have another one in 25 minutes, so... Okay, so let's go. Welcome to the Metal Voice today. First time on the show, Mickey D, Scorpion's fame, Motorhead fame, King Diamond fame. The exciting Bad Magic is now serious Bad Magic, which was released on February 24th on Silver Aligning Music from the original album that was released in 2015. This is a bonus. It's got bonus discs on vinyl, on CD, has two unreleased tracks, a live disc as well, and an interview with Lemmy. Thank you for being on the show, Mickey. Thank you for having me. Happy lovely Montreal. Happy Montreal, there we go. Lovely Montreal, it's a great city, and you guys have my favorite hockey team as well. Yes, of course. Formally great hockey team. Well, there we go. Can you tell us more about the reason behind this re-release of Bad Magic? I know that it's a trend now that when an album makes its mark after, you know, sometimes 10, 20, 30 years, it's time to re-release it with additional material. I understand there's probably a record company involved there, a decision, but tell me how you select, like, were you invited in the selection of the extra material? Well, of course, but there really is not a lot of extra material. We never ever had that. When we wrote a record, we wrote, if there was, oh, we won 12 songs, so 13 songs. 12, 13 songs, because as you remember, we gave out a record every other year, pretty much. It was 18 months or so between. I mean, we wrote a lot of material, but we were not a band that liked to do a lot of extra material and stay in the studio. We want to get back out on the road as soon as we could. So, yes. Can you tell us about Bull in Your Brain and Greedy Bastards for fans who may be curious about, you know, getting the reissue? Tell us about these tracks. Well, it is tracks that were supposed to be on the record, actually, but as you remember, we did a couple of covers that made the album, we did Bowie there, and a stone song, you know, and I remember there was a little bit of an argument about that, but when we choose to do a couple of covers, Lemmy did not want to do the Bowie song at all. He said, I don't want to destroy that song, and me and Phil insisted, actually, on doing this song, especially Phil, because he's the one that actually picked it, and then Lemmy gave it a shot, and it turned out to be one of his favorite tracks. And then there was an argument about that song or sympathy for the devil, and it turned out the way he did, and not an argument, but we didn't really know what to do or what to release there. So these two tracks kind of got put behind, and I almost forgot about them until we opened this can of worm, you know. You say this can of worm, were you anticipating what repackaging meant, because you know that the diehards will want it. I personally wanted it just for the live tracks, and these two are great bonuses. Tell us about it when you get that call and say, let's get more. I think it's great. I think it's absolutely great. I see some comments about some fans or people out there. Lemmy's turning in his grave. It's all about money, shame on you, all this shit. I mean, it's really not about any money. We're making nothing on this. This is just to prolong. You know, we released these lost tapes, and we just prolong in the Motorhead era, keeping Motorhead in the loop kind of, and for the real fans, and now I mean the real fans, they still have not kind of let us go in a way. The band is not existing anymore physically, but we want to prolong the Motorhead legacy and release these things for fans that appreciate and collect and enjoy these kind of items, you know. But when we're talking money, like these idiots suggest like, you know, it really is not any fucking money. It costs more than it takes, you know what I mean? We're only doing this, as I said, to keep us in the loop. And look at this, here I am doing press day after press day about Motorhead, which is fantastic, you know, because the interest is still very high. I think it should be because I think it's one of the most respected bands in the world. And if we can prolong this and get a new generation to jump on it and listen to newer stuff and move back into the older stuff, it's just, it's a great win for everyone. I mean, why not? I mean, these people that have a problem with it, they just don't have to fucking go and buy it. That's the way to say it. Mickey, what about the fans? There are some fans that say, continue, continue, you know, continue the legacy of and go out and play the songs and we want to hear the music, even though Lemmy's not there. And then there's another group of fans that says, don't you dare go out and play? I mean, what are your thoughts on this? Do you think that, I mean, look, Foreigner doesn't even have any original members or kind of going out there. You guys have been on, I mean, how many albums have you been on? You've been on like 10, 12? 12 albums, right? If anybody could go out and play, it would be you guys, right? What are your thoughts? Well, I just don't get it. I just don't get it because all they have to do if they have such a problem with it, just stop listening and stop following. But there is people out there that still want to hear these songs. But with that said, it has to be done in a respectful and tasteful matter. And I won't mention any bands or names here, but everyone does not do that. And they kind of overstepping where it kind of becomes so obvious that there only is money that they're out for. And when it comes to our deal, it really isn't any money. But would you go out and tour the name Motorhead? You know, you and Phil? No, no, no. A lot of fans want that and other fans don't want that, right? No, I really don't think they want us to do that. That's to me is stepping over the line. We will never, ever, ever tour with Motorhead as a name ever and bring someone else in. That will never happen. But what we are doing is doing some shows here. I just did two shows Saturday and Sunday here in Sweden with two younger guys and did 10 Motorhead songs. And this show sold out in less than two weeks. I mean, bam, bam, we have to add that Sunday. And it's so great to play the old classics again and perform. But it has nothing to do with trying to be Motorhead. And this is not advertised as Motorhead. It's advertised Mickey D with France, for instance. So there's definitely a line there. But what I can't understand is a lot of people that have a problem with, let's say, the release of The Lost Tapes, which is great, great material, live record, live recordings around the world. Fantastic packaging, vinyl albums, and this new seriously bad magic, which was a great record. And we actually released two new songs. What's the problem? I don't get it. I don't get it at all. You released more than two songs. There's, of course, 14 live songs. Now, live material from Motorhead is nothing new. I was 14 years old when I bought No Sleep Till Hammersmith. But now you have 14 tracks from live at the Mount Fuji Rock Festival 2015. That was, of course, towards the end. 2015 was a tough year, I remember. I saw a couple of the shows during the tour. What are your memories of that Fuji Rock Festival and the reason why the show was recorded for posterity? I don't recall exactly what the deal is with a specific festival. More than it was a great festival, obviously. And it was one of the better days, I suppose, for Lemmy. Because it went up and down. And there's no secret about that. I mean, we had shows where he was maybe more tired than normal. And other shows where he was on fire, basically. The main deal was that me and Phil, we had to put in 120% in the performance and Lemmy had to put in 200%. And we gave it everything that we absolutely could. What I would say is more important is maybe the quality of the recording. That we could actually do something with it. Some shows were probably even better. But with less good quality, I suppose, in the recordings for some reason. And that I really don't know too much about. Because I get to listen to certain live shows around the world that we've done. And some sounds really, really good. And some sounds terrible, of course. Because he was recorded crappy. So it's hard to say why. But I think it was a great choice to choose this one. Because, you know, we're not there too often. And it's a great little boot to our fans out there. No, it's good that we have different parts of the world taken part of this whole deal, you know? I gotta say that, first of all, I love the album in 2015. And I really like this repackaging. I think it's fabulous. And it's like you said, for the fans, for the completest, for all the Motorhead fans that love the hidden gems and the live recordings, I think it's great and fantastic. In the short time that we have, I just want to ask you a few other questions. Right. Me and Stefan, we saw you in Montreal playing with the Scorpions. And let me tell you, man. I'm so happy you're in the band. You reinvigorated that band live. The drumming was off the charts. And that was the takeaway at the end of the night. Like, oh my God, these guys, they're a new band with your drumming. I mean, can you just tell us a little bit about, you know, you've been playing now for a while, I guess, about four or five years in the Scorpions. It's more like six years. Six years. You know, just tell us about, you know, I guess even the new album or the 2020, I guess, last year's album, right? Right, right. Even that's being, that is probably one of the better Scorpions albums in the last 10 years. I guess, number one, are you working on new material? And tell us about your experience in the Scorpions in general. Well, you know, I had, when they called me about this and my first instinct, my first thought was, I want to motorize these guys, you know what I mean? I'm gonna, I like to make a difference in the band. When I joined them, I did the same thing with Motorhead because they were, they were leaning back in my opinion, a little too much into the comfortable couch. You know, I wanted to, I wanted them, I said to Lemmy or the boys, Versal and Phil, I said, you know, when we were going to rehearse, I said, they were, they weren't too happy about too much of the rehearsing part. And I said, well, we play these songs for so long, we don't need to do this. And I said, well, I think you sound shitty, shitty while we should sound good shitty, you know what I mean? And it's a difference there, you know? And the same thing with Scorpions, I like to make a difference. I wanted to bring heaviness and tightness and karma and feeling, I mean, we have a great, great vibe in the band. You know, they, they are happy now. What I understand more than ever, they enjoy the whole situation. So, and I do as well. So when that all comes together, you kind of create a good vibe and you're going to sound good out there. And I'm giving it my 120% in these songs to make them as hard as I can because Scorpions is a hard rock band, you know? And a lot of people might think they, the show is, it's kind of soft and stuff. I don't think so at all. I think it's, it's a very heavy show now. And great songs, great performance from a band that equally have so much experience. And I just feel great that I can make a difference in the band after so many years and add something to their, to their deal. So trust me, I'm, that's what I'm trying to do. And it feels like we, we're doing something right. Did you start recording any new material yet? Like for the next album? Anything? No, no, no. We have to finish touring on this one. Because of all the pandemic bullshit and it was, we really did not know exactly when we could get back up on the road, you know? We were planned to go on the road way earlier than we were. So we kind of only tore the halfway through this, this album, I would say, we still have plenty to play. But I do remember the show up at the, at the Bell Center has an amazing venue as always. And great show. The fans up in Canada is, is in general, Quebec, Toronto. I mean, now we haven't played on the West Coast at all, or Calgary, Edmonton or anything, but Canada in general rocks ass, you know? Yeah. It's really, really a pleasure to play up there. And it's been for me since the King Diamond days with Don Dawkins. And every time with Motahed we came by. Yeah, amazing. King Diamond, we played the old spectrum. Yes. And I saw you at the spectrum with King Diamond a few times. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was a good theater. And then with Motahed, we moved on to Metropolis there. You got a good memory, man. You got a great memory. Out of curiosity, Mickey, I know that we're nearing the end here. And you tell us if we were pushing it, but anecdote, I never knew about you. And I just found out you drive articulated trucks to the point where you did a commercial for Volvo electric car, electric truck. Okay, this is fascinating. Like, are you driving the band's gear truck while you're at it? No, I wish I was sometime. I mean, I've been driving a tour bus sometimes and I have been driving some trucks, but no, when we're touring, I have to focus on the drums and the sleep and the parting actually, especially up in your neck of the woods. Oh my God. You know, that's always a great party when we come up to your area. You know, so now I leave that to the professionals, but it was a great commercial. You know, I like doing it and it's a lot of fun. You know, why do you think you picked you because you're from Sweden? Well, no, not necessarily. I guess because and I hope that I have a good, decent reputation of being an okay guy. I'm fairly liked here, I have to say, you know, and they wanted to step out of the box a little bit from a suit and tie kind of fella showing off an electric truck. They want to reach the truckers, which are usually rock and rollers, you know, and what's better than a motorhead drummer that could, you know, or a scorpion drummer to reach a guy that sits around and listening to hard rock, you know, from coast to coast, it might help. I don't know. I think it's overall, I thought it was a great thing that they took that decision and stepped out of their own safe zone, if you will call it, you know, where you have more a traditional commercial or so, you know. And where your music is actually louder than an electric truck. Absolutely. But I enjoy that. I said, I think you guys should really work on the big difference from this noisy, and that's what we did in that commercial from slammering drums and into a very quiet truck. I mean, you know, you smell smell fucking Apple shampoo in there and, you know, fresh air to a dirty old sweaty, you know, rehearsing group, you know. Mickey, King Diamond era that you're in is considered, in my opinion, like the best era, like the classic area, the best era, any sort of one offs to play with the band or one recording or a guest appearance. Any sort of connection with King Diamond today? Yeah, we talk, we talk once in a while. I, I, he came and saw us with scorpions in Dallas where he lives and he could not come this last tour we did. Unfortunately, they were busy him and his wife. They had to set up for something. So he missed that show, but King is a big scorpion fan. And we talk and I'm in constant talk to Andy LaRocque and Hal and, and especially Andy as well. We live not far from each other. So we talk and, and I say what I've been saying, if they ever want to have me behind a drum kit for something I'm totally, totally there for that. That'd be great fun for me. But I also, with that said, no exactly where King is coming from. He's been playing with Matt Thompson for so long. Great drummer, Ted. Yeah. Great drummer, great guy. And it's not fair to him or to the rest of the band, maybe, you know, because we went through kind of the same thing with some people that kept talking about Fast Eddie Clark and and Filthy Animal Taylor. And, and Lemmy said, never, ever, ever will I play with these guys again. They are friends and we talk, but I'm playing with the best band I ever played with in my entire life. And we're doing better than ever. So he's, he didn't want to hear about it. So I see where King's coming from. It'll be unfair to a loyal guy like Matt. But I said, if they had an interest of doing something, I'm here. If I got the time, I still play drums and I feel that I play better than ever. And yeah. Tell us, tell us a bit more about what you do between tours and recording projects right now. I mean, we're all reaching a certain age. Jamie, myself and you, we're all pretty much born around the same time. As we get older, we just cannot stop doing the thing we love and the thing that makes us who we are. In your case, it's playing music. So you mentioned earlier in the interview that occasionally you'll do a pickup band where you play covers of Motorhead, for example. Is that something you do just to kill time or to remain active or is it because you cannot sit still? No, not really. I play a lot of ice hockey when I'm back here. I play two to three times a week. And I try to work out a lot. And I do a lot of television shows. I just recently got back from crossing the Atlantic. Or a big TV show here in Sweden. So I spend 19 days on a sailboat. It's six celebrities leaving Camarie Islands to St. Martin. And we crossed in the Atlantic. And this was the fifth season. There'll be 11 episodes starting from the end of August. And they've been asking me this for three years in a row. But normally I cannot be away for a month. So this time we did it. And it was great fun. It was tougher than I thought. And we were in five days of storm in the middle of the Atlantic. And it's going to be a great season for that TV show. And it's called Crossing the Atlantic. I'd love to see that. It's a discovery. Is there anything you don't do? No, not really. I was in the jungle for a month. Survival thing there on 2010 or 2011 was it. We're actually left the tour when Matt Sorum from Gansarosa's played three and a half week for me. When I was in Malaysia in the jungle with no food and eating fucking insects and shit, you know. And it was funny. That's before I left. Well, that summer we did festivals. And let me and Phil, every time I came to my dressing room, there was little jars with insects. And I said, you should stop practicing now. And there was ants and crickets and worms and all kinds of shit. I actually came back to Calgary in Canada there from the jungle. That's where I took over from Matt Sorum again. So I missed three weeks in U.S. and then I joined Motorhead again in Calgary. What a crew. I love doing these adventure television stuff. And they asked me to do another TV show, which I had to turn down, which is called The Island. It's a month on an island outside Panama, but it's in the month of August. So I had to turn them down last year. We'll see what happens. It's not often I can get away and stay away from playing that long, but I try to stay active. I play hockey. I do sports. I'm just starting to stock home now. And I'm in Gothenburg. So me and my girl Mia, wife, we travel up there a lot. And then I do guest appearances. I'm going to play this upcoming Friday, Ace of Spades and Overkill for a pirate rock radio stations, huge party and a big place here in Gothenburg. So there's always something going on, you know, and then I'm calling and bothering the Scorps all the time, saying, when are we getting the hell out of here? And we are now in April. We start in South America a month in April. So it's always something going on. And that note, Serious Bad Magic, was released February 24th on Silver Aligning Music. It's the box set with a live disc to when release tracks. An interview with Lemmy from that era. I thank you so much, Mickey. Hope to talk to you again in the future, other projects. Thank you for your time. Yeah, thank you very much. Oh, yeah. That was much better now. Can I use that bit that we when we first started for the tennis elbow? Oh, absolutely. With a Canadian and this, this Dr. Michael Stern. I got to say hi to him. He saved my Swedish ass on that tour. So I'm very grateful for that. And with that said, with a seriously bad magic. I really hope people get this one because I think it's a great packaging. It has nothing to do with money. It has to do to prolong the moded legend and era. And I think we had a great record. And we also offer a lot with this package, I think. So there's nothing wrong with that. And if they don't want to buy it, go and buy Britney Spears and shut the hell up. Well said. But I think it's fair to say that in the age of streaming and owning physical copy with a cover, a package. For me, the record collector, the music collector, vinyl collector, CD collector, I can only thank you for it. I never got into the streaming thing. Yeah, sure. I have to subscribe if I want to travel and listen to music at the same time. But I think most metal, most serious music fan will agree that nothing beats physical support. Of course not. No, it doesn't. And if it's meant, and this I mean from my heart, if it's meant to be a positive thing for our fans and not an economical winning for us, which it's not, then I think it's fine. And I said, we are being very, very careful from this part of from this side to not disrespect and overstep the respect that motorhead have and always have had. So we try to make this as tasteful and respectful as possible. And I finished with those words. Beautiful. All right. Have yourself. And I can't wait to come back to Canada. I love Canada. And you cannot wait to shake your hand again. Useless and pointless for me to say it, but in 1986 at the Montreal Spectrum during King Diamond Tour, I went backstage and met you. But that was 35 years ago. So no, you don't remember me. No, not really, because that was a hell of a tour. That was the beginning of it all. So and it was great up there in Canada again. I loved it. The only thing I don't love with Canada is when you beat us in hockey, but we beat you once in a while. So I'm happy with that. All right. Take care, guys. And see you up there.