Metal Contraband’s Chelsea recently spoke with Doro about her new album Warriors of the Sea, her Metal Queen Metal Cruises, and more. Check it out below:
A world star, the Metal Queen, Doro Pesch, thank you for joining me today.
Thank you for having me. It’s always great to connect and talk a little bit about metal and music. Oh God, that’s the best. I love it, I love it.
Absolutely. It’s the best, and I love your passion for it as well. You’ve always been an amazing metal star yourself, but also really supported your fellow metal icons and musicians as well. And I love that you just have always had such a passion that you kind of spread that joy and appreciation of metal throughout the world.
Yes, absolutely, absolutely. And when I was about 24, I was living in Manhattan, and one day I woke up, and I thought, “Today I want to decide what I want to do with my life”. Then I made the decision: I want to dedicate my life to metal, and to the die-hard metal fans. And ever since, I’m so glad that I made that decision, and I love music, and the fans, and that’s my world. Definitely, there’s nothing more important or nicer. I love it, I love it.
Oh, that’s wonderful, and we can feel that love coming from you as well. I mean, the fact that you are always, constantly, consistently writing and releasing new music – you can tell that the passion for it really fuels you, and it really comes through whenever you release something new. It’s a brand-new energy, but still the same kind of Doro spirit at the same time.
That’s good. And yeah, like, this new album, it was actually not planned, we did our first cruise, because I did many, many cruises, like the 70,000 Tons of Metal cruise, that was the first cruise I’ve ever done, and then I did many, many times the Monsters of Rock cruises, which are great, and the Full Metal Cruise that’s done by the Wacken people in Germany. And then one time I thought, “Oh, I would love to do my own cruise, maybe”. And it was a little bit tricky at the beginning to find a good ship to make it all work, but then it all got together so good, and then we had a nice ship, and I told our fans, and the first show was immediately sold out, and we thought, “Wow”. And then we did the second cruise, and that was packed, and then I thought, “Oh, man, I want to write a song for this special cruise. It was called “Metal Queen Metal Cruise”, and I thought, “man, I want to write a nice song, a nice anthem”. And then one day it just popped out, it just came out. The melody and the lyrics, they were all there for the chorus of “Warriors of the Sea”. And then I talked to my bass player, and I said, “Hey, I think I have a good idea. Let’s see if we can do something with it”. And I recorded the chorus on my cell phone. I sent it over to – actually, Stefan is his name, we have two bass players: Nick Douglas, who is with me since 1990, and Stefan Herkenhoff. And Stefan is a great engineer, he’s really good with that stuff. Yeah, I sent it to him, and then he said, “Okay, I think I got a nice idea for the bass line and some guitar chords. Check it out”. So yeah, we did it in a couple of days, and then it was done. And then I played it on our first cruise, and I could tell that the fans would really like it. And then I played it on the second cruise, and the people liked it even more. And then we played it at all the summer festivals this year, and then I thought I would like to do a little, maybe a single, to have, like, a physical thing. I’m still old-school, I love vinyl so much. So at first, the idea was a single, and then somebody said, “How about a maxi single, like a 12-inch? Or how about an old album?” And I thought, “Yes, I have enough rare tracks and stuff, which fits the theme of the cruise, and being like, a warrior, a pirate”. Yeah, that’s how this whole album came about, and there are cool songs on it, rare tracks. And the B-side is all live, which – that’s what I like the most, live stuff, and playing live; that’s always, for me, the ultimate. I love being in the studio, but playing live and making the fans happy and empowering them, ah, there’s nothing like it.
Aww, and you always do empower and inspire fans and fellow musicians as well, and I love that the new song really, because of your passion for playing live, it’s a new song born out of playing live. You wrote it with that same energy.
Yes, works out great, and I always have, like, a big flag, and then I wave the flag, it has such a good vibe, I love it, I love it, and I don’t know if you have seen the video, there’s a video for “Warriors of the Sea”. Did you check out the video?
Yes, it’s very cool and a great song, and such great energy!
Yeah, and that was actually filmed on the ship, the live things with the fans and us on stage. That was actually on the second cruise. And then we mixed it together with some other stuff, with some pirates, and the cool thing was when we did these cruises, everybody was getting dressed up, like, it wasn’t Halloween, but it felt like it, and everybody had like, a pirate hat on, and some girls, they got these beautiful dresses. It was so cool, and this one girl, she had this cool pirate hat. Her name is Julia, and I said, “Could I borrow it for the video shoot”? And she said, “Sure”, so that’s a hat, actually, of this die-hard fan, and she’s sometimes doing my stage clothes, and she really does great stuff. And then all the other girls, they were trying to get stuff from her, and she was sewing things, and it was really cool. It was different from a normal concert because it had this warrior pirate theme, and it was pretty good. We want to do it again next year in June, out of Cologne, Germany, but we’re thinking about doing something like this all over the world, who knows, maybe in the near future. And I would love to do it in America, but playing on, like, the Monsters of Rock cruise, that’s always cool, too, but our own cruise, we could play as long as we wanted, playing some deep cuts, and some fan favorites, which we would never play live on a festival or something. When you have only one hour to play, then usually I stick to the classics and to the highlights, so yeah, that was special.
That’s wonderful, you’re sailing on the Rhine and maybe bringing it around the world. Sailing wherever you want, playing your full set list and this whole Doro-themed cruise, but also, like you said, with all the dressing up, and the pirates, and this magical kind of feeling is something that could be a whole theme for the cruise internationally.
Yes, absolutely, absolutely, and the fans, we didn’t know it before, and I was a little…man, yeah, I was a little bit nervous. I was hoping that everybody would like it, and then I came on board, and everybody was cheering, and I thought, “oh, that’s great”, and I had such a great time. Even before I went on board, everybody was, you know, like, drinking and partying, and then we did the show, and oh man, it was so loud, the volume, it was like Manowar/Motörhead volume, you know, up to 11, and that was so cool. Because in some clubs, there’s so many restrictions with the sound, you always have to play, low volume, which, for me as a metalhead, that’s not right, you know, I understand they want to protect everybody’s ears, but I think metal, you need to listen to it loud. I mean, for a ballad, it’s cool, but the other stuff, you know, it needs to be loud, so I think that was the loudest ship I’ve ever played on, it was so cool.
That’s perfect, really, just setting your own stage and your own space to just be free and do whatever you want. I love it.
Yes, yes, and everybody felt the same, like, everybody felt really free, and we all felt that we’re all in it together, you know, fighting the good fight, and it was so cool. It felt, actually, like the early ’80s, when everybody was a little bit innocent. We just did what we want to do, from stage diving, and back in the days, there was no security, nothing, and sometimes the stage divers, they didn’t even leave the stage, so sometimes we had, like, 40 people on stage, and then I was singing my songs, and everybody was singing, it was so cool, it was like, going crazy, but in a great way, and, you know, there were no restrictions. It was really a cool feeling, and in Germany, especially on the river Rhine, there’s some beautiful ruins, really spooky, and it feels really vibey. There’s some castles, too, but the ruins, that’s the reason why I wrote the song “I Rule the Ruins”, because I love ruins, I love that kind of magic, spooky, creepy feelings, and ah, I love it. So if you were not watching the concert, you could go outside and check out all these nice ruins. Sometimes at night, it’s really, it’s nice. Even when the weather is not good, that feels even better, when it’s a little foggy or, like, even raining, it’s like, wow!
Perfect spooky vibes on the sea, I love it.
Yes, yes, absolutely.
Very cool. Well, I also love that Side B of the vinyl has a live version of “Raise Your Fist,” because I remember when that song came out, just absolutely loving the energy and the message of it, and that really feels like everything you were just describing, everybody just kind of being free, just hanging out, raise your fist in the air, hang out, listen to the metal, and I love that you are still keeping that one on the set list, too.
Yes, yes. Oh yeah, man, that’s usually always in our set list, and I love anthems, like, “All We Are” and “Burning the Witches,” but “Raise Your Fist” is always there. And, I always tell people, “Hey, let me see your fist,” and then everybody’s raising their fist in the air, and then we start the song, and it’s always really cool.
It’s great. I feel like that one’s kind of become almost a newer anthem for you, because, of course, like you said, “All We Are” was always there as a great anthem, but since this one came out over the last few years, that’s become a new form of an anthem for a Doro set.
Yes, yes, absolutely, absolutely, and I hear it so many times on the radio, which is always cool. Like, when I drive my car, wherever I am, then suddenly it’s “Raise Your Fist,” and then “Oh, nice”. Yeah, that’s, like, that’s good. In America, that’s so cool, there are so many great metal radio stations, and in Europe, that’s pretty rare. I think in Europe there are tons of great festivals, lots and lots and lots of great festivals, big and small, mid-sized, but there are not many radio stations, so when you hear something on the air, it’s like, “Wow, okay, that’s cool”.
That’s funny, you get more festivals, we get more radio.
Yeah, absolutely. I have my own radio show on this one rock station. There are actually only two or three bigger ones, but it’s called Rock Antenne, and I’m doing my show once a month, and then every week I have a little diary, so I can always talk about what happened, you know, some stories, and people always request “Raise Your Fist,” so “Raise Your Fist in the Air” – that’s a motto, so I’m glad you mentioned that.
You’ve also been doing a few guest appearances – I mean, that’s something you’ve pretty much always done – but this year in particular I know you worked on the Dirkschneider track “Winter Dreams,” and you also did a music video for “Valhalla” with Feuerschwanz, which was very cinematic. They seem like a fun band to work with, too. So tell me about these guest appearances this year.
Yes, actually, I did three guest appearances. I—I sang the Wacken anthem for this big metal festival in Europe, like in Germany. I think it’s one of the biggest heavy metal festivals.
Yes!
And, we did the “Wacken” anthem with a band called the Butcher Sisters, and they are pretty new and totally crazy, totally out there, but it was so much fun, and we did a really cool, fun video. It’s, like, pretty dark humor, but it’s hilarious, so I did that, and we performed it live in Wacken, and it was awesome. It was awesome. And then Udo Dirkschneider, he re-recorded the big album Balls to the Wall, and he had many guests on his album, and he asked me if I want to sing “Winter Dreams”, and I love that song so much, and we did a very nice video in another castle in Italy, actually, and it was so cold. I think that was the coldest day in my life, and inside the castle it was even colder than outside. No joke, it was freezing, but it came out really nice. And then I did this video and the song with Feuerschwanz. I think there are almost 10 people in this band. They have dancers as well, great dancers, beautiful-looking women, they’re, like, half-naked, dancing, spinning fire, it’s, like, really cool. They have swords and weapons, it’s awesome. And, yeah, they asked me if I want to sing the song “Valhalla,” and I went into the studio, and I thought, “Oh, yeah, man, I like singing it; I think it will come out really good”. and I think it came out really good. Then we did this video for “Valhalla” with the same guy who did, actually, our first singles on my last record, Conquerors. The first single was called “Time for Justice”, and he did this video, and “Children of the Dawn”, there was another video, and he did the duet with Udo Dirkschneider. I sang two duets with Udo Dirkschneider on the Conquerors album: one is “Living After Midnight”, great Priest classic, and one song he wanted to do, it’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart”, and then we did a nice video of the song as well. And, yeah, the same guy did this video to “Valhalla,” and he’s, I think, the best in Europe; his name is Mirko Witzki. You guys probably don’t know him, but he’s always doing great work and great videos, and it’s always great fun. And especially that one with Feuerschwanz, it was so cool and wild, you know, lots of pyrotechnics and fire, ah, it was…I loved it, I loved it, and I had a different outfit on, and that was pretty cool. And I felt like a real warrior, and, yeah, it was cool, it was cool.
Very cool, very fun, yes! It’s a very cinematic video, it feels like a whole movie in, like, four or five minutes, so it’s great.
Right, right, and there were like, oh, man, there were so many people on the set, probably 60 people, and horses, and eagles, and all kinds of animals. You know, and I love animals, and I always watch out for the animals, that nothing is weird or nobody gets hurt and stuff, so I’m always the one who’s saying, “Ah, you know, like, let’s try to make a cool video, but the animals, they have to enjoy it as well, you know, right?” That’s always a fine line, because, yeah. Sometimes people say, “Oh, why do you use at all animals in the video?” And sometimes I brought animals on stage. When we did the Calling the Wild album, I had this beautiful snake, she was a python, and it was so cool. And then, a couple of years later, I thought, “Oh, no, no, it’s not right to have animals on tour”, so I didn’t do that anymore. But it sure was fun, you know, for the time being, and—yeah.
Definitely a little reminiscent of Alice Cooper there, of course, with the snake.
Oh, yes, yes, he’s still bringing the snake. We did a nice tour with Alice Cooper a couple of months ago. That was awesome, and he was the sweetest guy. And the cool part was, my old bass player, Tommy Henriksen, he is now the guitar player of Alice Cooper, and he’s such a great guy, and I think producing the Hollywood Vampires as well. And, yeah, and Tommy Henriksen, my bass player of the Triumph and Agony, Warlock times, he’s doing really good, so it was great to do this tour together. We played many festivals this summer together, and Alice Cooper, wow, what a star, what a great, great performer, and sweet, really nice, very soulful, intelligent, and it was super cool, super cool. And when I was a little kid, I was growing up in the glam rock times with Sweet, Slade, T-Rex, Alice Cooper, Suzi Quatro, and now being on tour with Alice Cooper – boy, that was mind-blowing; it was really cool.
That’s wonderful, and it’s great, because I feel like that cycle just kind of always continues, because you had all these people that you grew up loving and appreciating, and now you’re touring with them, and vice versa, newer bands also grew up, you know, listening to Warlock, and now they get to make music with you, since you do so many guest appearances. So I love that kind of keeps on playing it forward, celebrating your heroes and the music that inspired you.
Absolutely, absolutely. I love doing duets or collaborations. Actually, my very, very first duet was with the legendary Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead, which I loved so much. That was my first duet, we did actually two duets on my album Calling the Wild; it was in the year 2000, and then I took it from there, and now I think I have about 45 duets, so maybe eventually I will, you know, put out an album with all our duets, like, so many great people, like Pete Steele of Type O Negative, and, you know, Udo Dirkschneider, and Rob Halford, and, oh man, so many great duets from great bands. So eventually, I’m doing something like this because, yeah, sometimes you do something and then not many people know about it. Some great songs, or great collaborations, I think, might be another idea for another picture disc or a double album.
That would be so much fun, a compilation. Because you’re right, sometimes they’re album tracks and they might get a little bit lost in the mix, and it’s not something you’re playing live all the time. But, yeah, kind of bringing it back and being like, “Look, here’s all the people I’ve collaborated with, all the guest spots I’ve done in one place”. People would absolutely love that. I would love to hear that.
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, and there are tons, and there’s so many people who are actually in rock and roll heaven, who are not anymore with us, so I always want to keep, yeah, their legacy alive and tell young fans about them, you know. It’s like, I had the great honor to get to know Ronnie James Dio, and Lemmy, and Pete Steele, working together or going on tour together, and when young bands are just starting out, you know, when you’re 15, 16, maybe you never had the chance to see the real deal, and actually, on Warriors of the Sea, there’s one cover version on it: it’s “Touch Too Much” by AC/DC, and it was actually my favorite song, and it was the third single of the Highway to Hell AC/DC album, and it was the last single of Bon Scott, and I never had the chance to see Bon Scott, and I would have loved to. I loved him so much, but I never saw him live, just videos, but yeah, so, you know. But to be honest, I really – I still feel like 25.
You look it and act it, too!
Good, good. And you know what? I think I’m still naive, you know? I still believe everybody. When somebody says, “hey, I will do this and this for you”, and I go, “Oh, okay, that’s good”. You know, I think I didn’t learn my lesson yet. It’s like, in the beginning, we were very – you know, I love to trust people. And then suddenly, sometimes you think, oh, man, I should have been a little bit more careful. And if I could give advice for young bands, I would say it’s very important: if you sign a contract or if you want to sign a contract, always get some advice from a good lawyer. Because, you know, we are musicians, we like to take care of the fans and perform and write songs. And I think an expert who knows about what’s good, what’s bad in a contract, I think that’s very good. Because when we started out in the beginning, we signed all kinds of contracts, and we had no idea.
Well, even if there were some rough times, you definitely got through them and triumphed over them. I mean, you are still going strong, and, of course, your debut solo album, Force Majeure, actually went gold in Germany recently. So how does it feel to look back on where you were then, when you first started a solo career, to now, about 15 studio albums that you’ve created, and still continuing to go?
Yes, actually it was never the plan. We recorded the Triumph and Agony album, and that was actually our big break, especially in America. And that was so cool. “All We Are” got played by MTV non-stop and it was unbelievable. It was such a great time. Then we were ready to do another album, and actually we were songwriting, and everything went really well. And that was actually the follow-up for the Triumph and Agony album; it was a Warlock album. Then I found out – that’s what I talked about before – I found out that our European manager had suddenly left. I had two managers, I had one American manager and one European manager, and he suddenly left. We were on tour with Ronnie James Dio in Europe. It was supporting our Triumph and Agony album, and everything was super and you could feel that it was maybe becoming a hit, and then the video and all. So everything went really well. And then my American manager – he was from Switzerland, but he had American citizenship – said, “Doro, I have to talk to you.” I said, “okay, what is it”? And I was on top of, like, yeah, it was so great. And he said, “oh, I have some bad news. It’s with the European manager”. And I said, “yeah, everything’s going so well”. He said, “no, he left”. And I said, “what do you mean he left”? Yeah, he split. And back in the day, you couldn’t track anybody down because there weren’t any cell phones, there were no computers, and nothing. And he split, and I’d never seen him again, and we could never talk about it, and he did some shady stuff. But the worst part was he took our name Warlock, and we went to court. I started yelling and screaming in the courtroom, and then they removed me from the courtroom. I was getting, like, so stressed out, and I thought, no, it’s our name, it’s not my name. And then the manager, somehow, he was there in a suit and tie. I’d never seen him in a suit and tie before, but when he went to court, he looked all proper and real conservative. And yeah, we lost the name Warlock. And then I thought, then we will name this record, Force Majeure, Doro. It was not actually my choice, but people said, call it Doro because fans may know who it is. And the record company said, we are not interested in supporting another band’s name, we supported you guys in what was Warlock, we built you guys up, and now it’s a big mess. So we said, okay, let’s do it, this album will be called Doro and Force Majeure, and the next album will be called Warlock again, of course. But it took 20 years to get the rights to the name back, so after 20 years, I got the name back, so I can now perform under Warlock or do whatever I want. But it took 20 long years, and, you know sometimes, when there’s a lot of light, there’s a lot of shadow. That’s just probably the nature of the game, the nature of the beast. But yeah, it was never my plan. I was very happy when we got this gold record, it meant a lot to me. That was so, so cool. And it’s very hard to get a gold record these days with only streaming and stuff. And this was just because of vinyl and a couple of CDs. I think it came out in ’89. Vinyl was still going really strong, and, yeah, that changed later on, but it’s gold, and it’s here, and it means a lot, yeah.
Well, good for you. I mean, you said the phrase “fighting the good fight” before, and I think you really did that when it came to Warlock, and it’s a shame that it took so long. But, like you said, just, like that free energy on the cruise, you have the free spirit to use Warlock, to be Doro, to be anything you want to be, and that power, I love that.
Yes, and we want to bring the Warlock back on stage. There’s something in the making that we can use the same idea as Eddie of Iron Maiden, he can go on stage, maybe talk, maybe move. So we’re just figuring it out, and I have this one song, it’s called “Night of the Warlock”, and the Warlock is talking before the song starts. So I want to definitely bring the Warlock back on stage, because, yeah, the fans always loved it. I think it was such a great symbol, such a great idea.
Definitely. There’s some wonderful stories and great energy, I’d just like to ask what’s coming up on the horizon for you right now?
Doing more live shows, and then we have some festivals confirmed in America. And one festival I can announce, it’s the Hell’s Heroes Festival in March in Houston, Texas. And I played there before, two years ago, and it was a great festival, Hell’s Heroes is awesome, and I’m so excited. So that’s actually, yeah, the next year starting already good, and then many more festivals to follow, maybe a small tour, and then writing new songs. I just did this movie, I’m doing the soundtrack for this western movie and I played this character, Calamity Jane, and it was actually so cool. And we just filmed it, and this movie will come out probably next year. It is in English, and my great friend Luke Gasser, he’s the producer. I did three movies with him, and now it’s a western movie. He filmed already all kinds of stuff in America, and it’s almost done, but I think it will come out next year, so many many more adventures to come.
Yes, I love it, and I love that you take all your fans on every single adventure with you. We appreciate that, and we appreciate you and your wonderful music. Thank you so much for your time today.
Thanks so much, too, and I hope I see you maybe on tour, or a festival, and we want to do some release parties for the record that’s just in the making. So, yeah, listeners, watch out for it or check our socials, and we will party hard to celebrate this new, special release. We’re just figuring out where we want to do it. But that’s probably in November.
Very cool. Well, best of luck with the release. It’s very exciting to have this new album out from you and to know that there’s plenty more on the way.
Yes, absolutely. I want to do it till the day I die, like Lemmy, you know? We learn from the best.
Perfect, and you are part of that best, so thank you for everything you do.
Thank you so much for your sweet words, and yeah, it was great talking to you, and everybody, stay metal, keep on rocking, all the best, and I hope I will see you on tour, or on any festival, I hope I see you, guys and girls.