Heavymetal.lu: Please be welcome! It’s very nice to have you here at the Abbey Metal Show, mister James Kottak! Hello James how are you ?

James : Hey how are do you doing? I am doing great!

Heavymetal.lu: James, the first question: the Abbey Metal Show is made in Luxembourg, but worldwide live via internet, so, did you ever play in Luxembourg maybe also with another band? You played with Michael Schenker, I think, and the Kingdom Come, right?

James : Yeah I remember playing in Luxembourg with Kingdome Come, we opened up for Magnum, way back then , and I´m not sure, I don’t think that I´ve ever played there with Scorpions have we? Maybe I did on a Michael Schenker album, MSG recording in 1991, but I never toured with MIchael, which I always wanted to do, maybe someday I should do live shows with him.

Heavymetal.lu : What do you think about new mega-shows like this one? By the way, this is non commercial and made by enthousiasts is brought to hundreds of thousands of fans, what do you think about these new kind of shows made via internet ?

James: You know, anything that promotes rock music-hard rock, classic music- is a totally positive thing, because the important thing is to bring new music, any kind of music, classic music to the fans, so anything that promotes rock n’roll is ok with me

Heavymetal.lu : Yes that’s great! You come from Los Angeles.. Were you born there ?

James: No I was actually born in Kentucky.. that´s right, like "Kentucky Fried Chicken".. and I live in L.A. from 1987. I have been here about 22 years and I just love it here! I‘ve been all over the world, I have been fortunate to be everywhere and there´s something about Los Angeles: either you love it or you hate it , and I have heard a lot of people say: oh, I hate it there, but , I just love it here because we have everything here right in our backyard. We have Hollywood over here.. we got this, if you wanna go to the beach, or if you wanna go to the mountain.. I just love it in Los Angeles. And it’s really a cool music scene and Rock’n’Roll, too.

Heavymetal.lu : What did your parents say? You know I have done also music, but my parents said: just learn a good job, you know, like painter or plumber, or..

James: Right, fortunately my father played music, you know, like Hammond organ or piano and he was the guy going : "Listen, this music stuff is great and this Rock’n’Roll is great but you have to have something to fall back on." and I go: "Dad! I teach drums, I can give private lessons to make extra money!", and he goes: "But you need something else to fall back on!", and I go: "What else? I got a job playing music, and I fall back on, and I teach music!" He had a good point but….. My mother was actually the one who allowed me to quit school, when I was 15, to go on the road, which was totally cool! I thank God for her. My mom was great! She gave me all the support in the world, and you know, it just all came to a point where they were both supportive but I ended up doing my own thing and there is no turning back, there is no stopping at that point.

Heavymetal.lu : Ok, do you have a hobby? I don’t mean music.. something else ?

James: Well I really like to cook. I mean, when I have extra time during the day, I really spend the day in the kitchen. One thing I do is swim every single day.. of course with the beautiful sunny L.A. weather I am swimming everyday, and you know I have a family. I am really into the kids and being a father, being at home. When I am home, I am home! But of course, when I am at home, I am looking on my other band, my by-band, that’s like a REAL hobby.. you know, as Rudolf always says: "Rock n’Roll is a life style!"

Heavymetal.lu : That’s right, yeah that’s right! Ok, we go on... : Which professional direction would have you chosen if your music had not been successful ?

James: Well that’s a good question. In the college I was actually a Music major, and I was a Philosophy minor! Sure I could have become a philosopher, I would have tried living in a cardboard box under a bridge somewhere and talking to myself. You know, that’s really a good question! I have thought about it many times. If somebody said tomorrow: "You cannot do music!", I would have to say something like.. create a building, maybe not like construction but more like designing or so.

Heavymetal.lu: Which music direction, a singer or a band belong at the moment to your favourites ?

James: Well, I have been a fan of Green Day for years, even before they were popular, 15 years ago . I love the new Green Day. You know there is a singer over here called Chris Daughtry and his albums are just great, fantasic! And there´s a country singer called Keith Urbin, I like him very much. I listen to a lot of country music, mostly when I´m driving, in a car here. Country music is great! It´s going through it´s 80´s phase right now.

Heavymetal.lu: Listen, are you a songwriter, are you writing songs ?

James: Of course, that’s always been one of my passions. I was writing my first songs when I was 13-14-15 and recorded my first songs when I was 14-15. I have always been gathering ideas and kept on writing, writing, writing. Every band I have been in, even as early as I think the Montrose in the 1984, and even then I co-wrote two songs and from then on I made sure that I was just writing and getting some type of song writing in the albums. I feel that I have a lot to contribute, other than just drumming, which is a lot in itself.

Heavymetal.lu: Which song - not written by you -, would you like to have written ?

James: You know, like a song.. yeah, you know I could say: I wish I wrote that.. I´ll tell you one, it´s ...what´s the name of that Nickelback song,... but, I´ll tell you what, I would definitely go for something by George Harrison, if you want to go that department , or I´ll take New York New York by Frank Sinatra, I think Stairway to heaven could be the truth.

Heavymetal.lu : We have a nice question now, little bit of drum technique. You are using a special microphone system called SHU. Is it one of the components that you need for your special sound, or what is it?

James: That’s a really good question, honestly, the technical side I don´t pay a lot of attention to, and I´ll tell you the reason why : We have Achim Schwartz, who has been with Scorpions for over 25 years and he is expert, one of the very best in the entire world, so he is changing things around with me a lot of times, or with the microphone system, but that´s kind of like something that isn´t "my thing".

He is always experimenting....You know this is a funny question, because I could say: yeah, I use this drum head etc. but it always comes to : How you hit it!! I could hit a cardboard box and make it sound great, to tell you the truth. And it isn´t a matter of sticks, or the heads, or the type of drum, what company you are with.. it´s generally down to the drummer. This was also true with John Bonham of Led Zeppelin. There are stories regarding to him.. He would be in a club,, he would sit down and all of a sudden it just sounded like John Bonham, because it´s how you attack the drums! And my motto has always been: Play as hard as it´s humanly possible all the time, and: Play as if it was your last show ever !!! And with that philosophy.....then you get the drums out

... Wait wait wait, I have to say something - this is very important - I have to make a shout out to every single Scorpions fan out there, to every single one of Family of Spiders, to everyone to every fanclub, to every member, to every single one of you out there, on the count of three : ROCK ‘ N ‘ ROLL FOREVEEEEEER !!!!!!!

Thanks to James Kottak for this interview, thanks to the Glitterking for doing it for me, and to Elton and Lenita for the redaction of it...