UDO DIRKSCHNEIDER Admits He Was 'A Little Bit Too Quick To Say' He Wouldn't Perform ACCEPT Songs Anymore

In a new interview with Metal Hammer Greece‘s TV show TV War, former ACCEPT and current U.D.O. and DIRKSCHNEIDER frontman Udo Dirkschneider was asked what keeps him motivated to still record new albums and tour at the age of 73. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Let’s say this: the most important thing is that I still have fun to do this. I mean, that’s the most important thing. I also like to create a new album. Normally you can say, okay, I don’t need to do a new album. I mean, we have so many stuff — you can change every year the setlist, if you want. No, it’s still fun to do this.

“I always say, when people ask me, ‘Oh, when do you wanna retire?’ I say, ‘I don’t know. As long my voice is working, as long we can tour worldwide, why stop?'” he explained. “[So I can] sit home and drink coffee? No. For what? No. It makes no sense.

“I really like to do this,” Udo added. “I have a really good band with me, especially now with [former ACCEPT bassist] Peter [Baltes]. And it’s a lot of fun to do this. And as long everything works — I don’t know — maybe [I can keep doing this for] another 10 years. I don’t know. [Laughs]”

Udo, who recently released a reimagining of ACCEPT‘s iconic album “Balls To The Wall” to celebrate the LP’s 40th anniversary, was also asked if he has had any thoughts of celebrating other ACCEPT albums, such as perhaps 1985’s “Metal Heart”. He responded: “Yeah. I know already that some people came up and said, ‘Oh, maybe in five years [in 2030] you can do that with 45 years of ‘Metal Heart’. I don’t know. At the moment, we are so busy with DIRKSCHNEIDER 40-years-of-‘Balls [To The Wall]’ tour — it goes until the end of summer next year. And in between we have to work on the new U.D.O. album. And then after the summer next year, we wanna make a little break. And then I don’t know when the U.D.O. album is coming out — maybe the end of ’26 or maybe in the beginning of ’27. And then touring again.”

He continued:  ”I don’t know. Maybe [we can do something with] ‘Metal Heart’. We will see. But I always say never say never. I mean, it was the same when I did [a] three-years-long [tour with DIRKSCHNEIDER]. We played only ACCEPT songs. I think I was a little bit too quick to say, ‘No, I have enough of [playing] ACCEPT songs. I have enough of my own [U.D.O.] songs [to perform live].’ But then it’s a history, that people wanna hear that.

“I had, a long time ago, with Ronnie James Dio, a conversation, and he said to me, ‘Udo, normally it makes no sense to make new albums. We always play the same stuff that they wanna hear. But we are entertaining people. And give the people what they want.’ And that’s also why we said, ‘Okay, then we do DIRKSCHNEIDER again [playing only ACCEPT songs].”

DIRKSCHNEIDER, the band featuring former ACCEPT members Dirkschneider (vocals) and Baltes (bass),along with drummer Sven Dirkschneider and the talented guitar duo of Andrey Smirnov and Fabian “Dee” Dammers, celebrated the 40th anniversary of “Balls To The Wall”, which was originally released in late 1983 and is the most commercially successful and best-known album by ACCEPT, by performing the LP in its entirety on recent tours of South America and Europe.

Ten years ago — in 2015 — Udo announced that he would embark on a special tour during which he would perform ACCEPT songs one last time under the DIRKSCHNEIDER banner before closing that chapter for good. Since then, the former ACCEPT frontman has continued to play ACCEPT material at select shows, including at the September 18, 2020 U.D.O. concert in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, which was released on DVD and Blu-ray.

When he first announced the original DIRKSCHNEIDER tour in 2015, Udo said that he had “to make a clear break for myself — close the book and this is it. And I have the problem that people come to me and ask me to play more ACCEPT songs,” he explained. “Other people ask me why I play ACCEPT songs at all, because there are [more than] fifteen U.D.O. records. I want to avoid such things and avoid the repeating questions concerning ACCEPT. I just can’t stand that anymore. There is nothing more to be said. U.D.O. exists longer than ACCEPT. We have more records than ACCEPT.”

While acknowledging that some ACCEPT fans want to hear the band’s classic songs performed by the group’s original singer, Dirkschneider explained that “you always have these comparisons [between how these songs are played by ACCEPT and U.D.O.]. I don’t want this anymore either. [The current lineup of ACCEPT] also play ‘Metal Heart’, they play ‘Balls To The Wall’ and ‘Princess Of The Dawn’. And then some people tell me, ‘Oh, [current ACCEPT singer Mark Tornillo] is doing it better than you.’ And I go, ‘That’s fine. Enjoy yourself.’ But I don’t want this anymore. And to avoid all of this in the future, I said, ‘We are doing this one more time.'”

Dirkschneider said that his vow to never play ACCEPT material again came with one caveat. “If the band ACCEPT dissolves one day in the near future and I am still around with U.D.O., then there is a chance that I put ACCEPT songs back in the setlist,” he said. “But currently there is ACCEPT, so go see them [if you want to see those songs performed live]. They are playing these songs.”

Udo previously said the original plan was for DIRKSCHNEIDER to only “a few shows,” and “then [the tour] got bigger and bigger [due to demand].” But, he added, “I don’t want to complain about that.”