German hard rock legends SCORPIONS will celebrate their 60th stage anniversary with a big concert in their hometown.
The “60th Anniversary – Coming Home” event will take place on July 5, 2025 at the Heinz Von Heiden Arena in Hannover and will feature a number of special guests, including JUDAS PRIEST.
This past July, SCORPIONS guitarist and founder Rudolf Schenker spoke about the band’s upcoming 60th anniversary in 2025 in a new interview with Spain’s Mariskal Rock. He said: “60 years of SCORPIONS. Sounds like very old band. Maybe on one hand it is, maybe. But on the other hand, we always kept our mind fresh, to be on the spot. That’s the very important point. Many bands came up and exploded and were so successful. But the problem is success is a very dangerous thing because the egos fighting in the band together. [THE] BEATLES, as an example. [THE ROLLING] STONES managed to stay together. So, and the same with the SCORPIONS. We started from Germany, very slowly. It was not easy for us to go in other countries then, but we managed it. By doing this, we made our personal SCORPIONS logo so strong that we, as people, Klaus [Meine, SCORPIONS singer] and me, and Matthias [Jabs, SCORPIONS guitarist], we became partners in crime, partners in friendship. And because we know how difficult it is to go around the world and make it, make success happening, but we made it with our own power, not make big managements or stuff like this in the first place. No — we did by our own. Out of that, we know what success is all about, and I think that’s the important point. And that’s the situation, is that when we celebrate next year’s 60 years of SCORPIONS, there will be some interesting things happening.”
Earlier that same month, Jabs told Graspop Metal Meeting about the secret to SCORPIONS’ longevity: “Uh, we don’t know when to finish. No, we tried. In 2010, we announced the final tour, which lasted only two and a half years. And then, you know, nobody wanted to let us go, which is nice. All the promoters from around the world said, ‘You can’t leave us now.’ And the fans especially said, ‘SCORPIONS, don’t stop.’ And that’s 12 years ago [since the completion of the ‘final’ tour]. And we have so much fun doing what we are doing. And this year is the ‘Love At First Sting’ anniversary tour, a great new show. And then we are looking forward to next year where we are planning a few things like the big birthday parties with SCORPIONS and friends, but nothing definite yet.”
Jabs also talked about the importance of making new music for a band like SCORPIONS, which released its latest studio album, “Rock Believer”, in 2022. He said: “It’s always to have good song material when you go out on the road, because, of course, we have to play the hits again and again and again; we couldn’t do it without it. But for us it’s nice, and I think for the fans too, to hear one or the other new songs. The ‘Rock Believer’ tour, we started with five or six new songs from that album. Now, since it’s the ‘Love At First Sting’ anniversary tour, 40 years of ‘Love At First Sting’, we concentrate more on those songs and cut out a few of the ‘Rock Believer’ ones. But it’s for us also — to keep being creative and play something that is new on stage.”
During an April 2024 appearance on SiriusXM’s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk”, Schenker confirmed that there was no more talk of retirement within SCORPIONS, as there was back in 2010 with what was purported to be a final album and a farewell tour that never quite took hold. He said: “You have to think about that what we didn’t know when we made [that] farewell tour [almost 15 years ago], it was exactly the time when WhatsApp came up, when all this new technology [on the] Internet came, that people watching the SCORPIONS on WhatsApp and seeing young kids between 16 and 24 or whatever, [they were] finding [out about] the SCORPIONS. So, and what was happening on the final tour, on the tour, kids were in front of the stage. We said, ‘What’s happening here?’ The older [fans] were up in the balcony or whatever, and we said, ‘Hey, it’s a complete new feeling on stage.’ So then ‘MTV Unplugged’ came and then we said, ‘Hey…’ The chemistry was right, no question about this. That’s a very important point, when the band has a great chemistry. And then you have fun when you go on the road.”
In September 2023, Rudolf also seemingly dismissed any talk of possible retirement but acknowledged that SCORPIONS would not be able to continue indefinitely. The 76-year-old guitarist told Vikram Chandrasekar of Tales From The Road: “It’s not a never-ending road. The road will be finished sooner or later; it’s up to you and to our gods. But in 2025, that could be a great time for our 60th anniversary. 2025, it’s the time when SCORPIONS is 60 years old. So, then, to celebrate 60 years of SCORPIONS could be a possibility, because I’m in contact with our very old drummer, who was playing on [SCORPIONS’ 1972 debut album] ‘Lonesome Crow’, and the bass player, and use them also on stage to see the different kind of states we went through. Because we are very much connected still in all the different musicians, and that shows again, when we can make it, that music is always there for making friendships.”
Back in May 2022, Meine told Jorge Botas of Portugal’s “Metal Global”: “We scratched that word [retirement] out of our [vocabulary]. It’s not there. We don’t think about it and we don’t talk about it and we take it as it comes.