INTERVIEW: DORO PESCH – November 2023

Photo credit: Todd Jolicoeur @toddstarphoto

According to a recent press release: “Emerging from the explosion of heavy metal that began in the early ‘80s, Doro Pesch has been tireless in her devotion to the metal cause for four decades. In 2023, she celebrates 40 years of active service, with two special anniversary live shows and, most importantly, a brand-new studio album that looks certain to be regarded as one of her best. DORO will celebrate 40 years of heavy metal magic with the release of Conqueress – Forever Strong and Proud and two exclusive live shows: in Düsseldorf, DORO’s home town, and a top-of-the-bill spot at Wacken Open Air. As she and her loyal band have proved beyond doubt over the last few years, the stage is DORO’s natural habitat and the fans are the inspirational blood coursing through her veins. Armed with one of the most diverse and explosive records of her career, she arrives at this impressive milestone with the wind still in her sails. You can’t kill rock ‘n’ roll, and you definitely can’t stop the Conqueress. Forever strong and proud! Long live the Metal Queen!” I was lucky enough to score some time on the phone again with Doro to discuss the new album, touring, and once again a potential cover of “Lucille,” and more…

Toddstar: Doro, thank you so much for taking time out. Every time you drop a new album, I am always so honored to speak with you.

Doro: Oh, you’re the best. Thank you so much. Yeah, we have been talking, man, so many times. It’s great. So many records later.

Toddstar: Absolutely. Speaking of that, there’s a brand new one. It’s been out not even a month yet, Conqueress – Forever Strong and Proud. What can you tell us about this album that your fans might not catch when they listen through?

Doro: It has twenty songs. It has fifteen songs and five bonus tracks. And of course, I’m super happy to tell the people that I did three duets. One is with a German singer, Sammy Amara of the band The Broilers. They’re a huge band in Germany. American fans may not know them, but they’re more punk rock and I’m more metal rock. We met last year; they’re from my hometown Dusseldorf, and they invited me to be a guest at their two concerts. Y said, “Yes, I’d love to be a guest,” and we hit it off right away. We said, “Hey, we definitely have to do something for the new album.” That was the last song we had written for this album. It’s a little bit different. It’s more… I don’t want to say rock and roll, but it’s rock, and it’s a song about deep friendship that’s called “Bond Unending.” We did a video for that as well. You can see Wacken and all that good stuff. As you know, Wacken is one of my favorite festivals. Two other duets with Rob Halford, and I’m super, super grateful, happy, and proud. It’s so awesome. I had my very first tour in 1986 with Judas Priest. I was a big Priest fan. We got the chance to go on tour together, and we stayed friends all these years. Last year, we met at Hellfest in France. It’s a big festival, too. It’s like the size of Wacken, maybe even bigger, and we were both playing on the same day. We were hanging out backstage and talking. We always have a good vibe. There is always great energy. Rob was asking me what I’m doing at the moment. I said, “I’m just finishing a new album. It will be album number 20, and it’s my 40th anniversary coming up.” We both looked at each other and smiled and then I said, “Rob, are you thinking the same? Shall we do something together?” He said, “Absolutely. It’s about time. We have been friends for such a long time,” great memories, so he said, “What would you like to do? Do you have an idea or a song?” I said, “Yes. I would love to do something off the British Steel album because I loved it so much,” And I already did “Breaking The Law” as a cover version with Udo Dirkschneider. There’s another song on it, which I always loved to sing in the early eighties when we didn’t have “All We Are” yet. When we had the end of the tour with another band, we were always trying to come up with a song we would all sing together, all play together, and usually, it was “Living After Midnight.” I even had some old video cassettes of it, and it was always so much fun, good energy. I said, “I would love to do “Living After Midnight.” He said, “Okay, let’s do it.” I was so happy when he said yes, let’s do it. I said, “Oh man, that’s killer for this new album to end with Rob Halford. That’s so awesome.” And then he said, “And I want to do a song as well.” I said, “Really?” He said, “Yes, I want to do “Total Eclipse Of The Heart.” I couldn’t believe it. He said, “I love that song so much.” I said, “Oh yes, let’s do both.” And we did. I think “Total Eclipse Of The Heart” came out so great, so magical, and it’s a nice video as well. I don’t know if you’ve seen all the videos. Did you see the videos?

Toddstar: Absolutely.

Doro: I think that’s extra special, for me, but I think for the metalheads as well. So, “Living After Midnight” and “Total Eclipse Of The Heart,” and then my favorite songs, they are “Children Of The Dawn,” and we did a nice video of it as well that came out a couple of weeks ago before “Total Eclipse Of The Heart,” and it was the same people in the video. They are called Wasteland Warriors and I met them in Wacken. These people, they built their own motorcycles, their own cars, and the outfits and all. They look like a Mad Max movie. And I thought, “Oh, I definitely want to have them in my first video.” The first single was “Time For Justice,” because of the message. With the record company, when I did the listening session, they said, “That’s the first single,” and I said, “Okay,” so I called the Wasteland Warriors. We did this first video together, and all the singers are special. I like “Lean Mean Rock Machine” a lot, too. That’s another comic video in the making. I saw the first two minutes, it’s so funny. It’s hilarious. It’s comic style, and I think that that would be really, really cool. This will come out in the next couple of weeks. On the bonus disc, there is another cover version of the Metallica song “The Four Horsemen.” I wanted to record it just to give thanks and honor for 40 years of Kill ‘Em All, Metallica’s first album. We are celebrating our 40-year anniversary, so I thought I want to just record it. And then I thought, “Man, it sounds great, so I definitely want to put it on the album.” There are some really fast songs on it, like fast, heavy. I think the one which is the heaviest is “I Will Prevail,” and it has some growl vocals from my bass player on it as well. “Higher in the Sky,” that’s another fast, heavy song. And then, many anthems and some soulful songs as well. I think with twenty songs you can pick whatever mood you are in.

Toddstar: Absolutely. I’ve got my favorites. You’ve mentioned so many of them.

Doro: Which ones are your favorite? I’m interested.

Toddstar: I love “Lean Mean Rock Machine.” There’s just something about it.

Doro: Oh, cool. Oh, that’s nice.

Toddstar: I really like “I Will Prevail.” I like the fact that you, like you said, stepped into a heavier vein for you. It’s a little heavier than what you would normally do, and I think you did it so well, because so many artists try to get heavy, and it sounds so fabricated. With you, it sounded so natural. I like it.

Doro: Yeah, that’s cool. It was natural. It just popped out. It just came out, not thinking about it, just doing it. And I thought, “Ooh, this is nice.”

Toddstar: As I have been able to listen to the music for a couple of months now, I have recently fallen in love with “Love Breaks Chains.”

Photo credit: Todd Jolicoeur @toddstarphoto

Doro: Oh, that’s nice and soulful, and I think nice melody and the nice message. I was talking to the record company people, I thought, “Man, this could be maybe a nice single as well.” So far, they haven’t heard what we heard.

Toddstar: You can’t go wrong with any of the songs on this release, Doro. It’s, to me, one of your best. Top to bottom. I’ve always enjoyed songs on your different CDs and albums, but this one, it’s hard to find one that I want to skip.

Doro: Oh, that’s so nice. That makes me so happy to hear.

Toddstar: Are there plans right now, Doro? You mentioned Wacken, Hellfest, and other things like that. You are so popular in Europe and on the festival circuit, and every once in a while, we get lucky, and you do dates here in the US. Especially, here in Michigan, I’ve been able to see at the Token in Westland, and one of my favorites at The Machine Shop in Flint.

Doro: Oh yeah. The Machine Shop. I have to write that down, because we changed the booking agency and they promised they would get us great festivals, and I should tell them which clubs I really like. So, Flint, Michigan, The Machine Shop, I have to write that down.

Toddstar: It’s a good one.

Doro: That’s always a good atmosphere. We played there with Metal Church, right? I think that was the first or one of the first gigs with Metal Church. So, we have plans to do all the great festivals. One festival is already confirmed, that’s Hell’s Heroes in Texas. We will play a Warlock song set. All old school metal and Warlock songs. The promoter asked and I said, “Yes, let’s do it.” Maybe we squeeze in one new song. We got that gig before the record was out. I’m happy. I love all the songs… all the records and all the songs.

Toddstar: Doro, you’ve got such a story, and we’ve talked about this – your fans, the metal community and all the rockers, they genuinely are your family, that this was your chosen path, and this is what you did. The rest of your story is so great. Have you thought about putting out, I don’t want to call it a tell-all, but put out a book of your life written from your view? Not a journalist or someone else’s view?

Doro: Yeah, actually, you know one time a few years ago I started, and then I had to not finish it, because… I don’t know, it was like I couldn’t sleep at night anymore. It was so nerve-wracking, because when you think of great things, that’s great, but there were a lot of things which you don’t even want to go back to in your memory, in your mind. It’s like writing a book about your ex-husband or ex-wife where you think, “Oh man, I never want to see that person again.” I don’t know. It was so… Yeah, man, I didn’t continue. First couple of days, I was talking to journalists, we wanted to do it together. I thought, “Yeah, it’s cool, it’s cool.” But then about talking about everything, and then I saw stuff written, I thought, “The books guys were mad, because there was a big publishing company and stuff, and the journalist, but I said, “No, I can’t do it. I want to look ahead. I want to only concentrate on positive good stuff, making more records, making more great songs, more festivals, great tours, and I don’t want to dwell on things.” Maybe I will do it, but not in the near future. It sounds weird, but I couldn’t sleep at night anymore. I had to cut it off and I thought, “No, no, I don’t want to. Don’t want to think of all these things.” Sometimes there were great things, but sometimes there were dark and evil things, and I’m glad I survived it. Let’s put it that way. I don’t want to dive into it too deep, but eventually. I have so many more records in me, so many more gigs and shows.

Photo credit: Todd Jolicoeur @toddstarphoto

Toddstar: I’m okay living in the present with Doro and the music you’ve been releasing over the last how many years now, especially the new music. It’s just so enlightening and heartwarming when you can see, and I urge anybody to see a Doro show or a Warlock show as long as you’re singing, because you can see the joy on your face no matter what’s happening.

Doro: Yes, absolutely. You are absolutely right. I live for the fans; I live for the audience. It was always that way, and it will always be that way. Now I can appreciate it even more. In the beginning, you don’t even know what you’re doing, you’re just doing something, making a record, rehearsing, doing a show. In the beginning, I didn’t know that it could really mean something to other people, and that’s so excellent, so great that I can give out good energy. Especially in times like this right now, where everything is so crazy and so chaotic. I thought, with this album, I want to do extra, extra special, and good. I always give it my all, but this one was even more giving it my all somehow.

Toddstar: I agree. Doro, you’ve performed with some of your heroes, some of your idols, some of your best friends. Who’s out there that you would still like to perform with or record with that you haven’t had the chance yet?

Doro: Yeah, actually, David Coverdale. That would be awesome. I was a big David Coverdale fan. When I started out, my heroes were Ronnie James Dio, David Coverdale, James Hetfield, Lemmy, and Rob Halford. I had the chance with so many of these guys, with Lemmy doing duets. Unfortunately, that would be my wish, but it’s not possible anymore to do something together. David Coverdale would be awesome. I love his voice. He was my very first concert I’ve ever seen, it was 1980 and it was so mind-blowing; and my second concert was Judas Priest with Accept as support. And the third band was Dio, so you can imagine. I was inspired by so many great people. I had the chance to work with Lemmy on three duets. Many, many festivals and touring, so that dream already came true. But yeah, I would say David Coverdale. James Hetfield, it’s probably not possible. I remember, we did some little gigs together in the early eighties and some festivals, and we were all teenagers. I still remember Cliff Burton. He was super cool. It was always very relaxed and cool, but you could tell that Metallica would be big. Somehow, you could feel it. In the very beginning, when we were all just joking around and having some beers, and I think we were 16, 17 years old, I think my drummer was 15 or something. But David Coverdale and James Hetfield.

Toddstar: Those are two good ones for sure. I know you’re busy, and I want to give you time to rest your voice and rest yourself to get yourself well, so I’ve got one more question for you, and I’m revisiting something from the past. You probably don’t remember but maybe once I mention it. Every time I see a new album, Doro, the first thing I do, I don’t look at the cover, I don’t look at the title. I go to the songs. I want to see the track list, because I’m still waiting for that Little Richard cover, “Lucille.”

Doro: Lucille!

Toddstar: We talk about “Lucille” every time we talk, and I’ve been looking for that song.

Doro: Man. Yeah, I didn’t dare to touch it yet, man. I think that I did a couple of cover songs, but this one… maybe it could come close, which I doubt, but you couldn’t do it better. I think that’s so perfect in how he did it, so I didn’t try it out yet. I’m glad that we talked about it again, that you brought it up, but I didn’t dare to do it. One time, somebody asked me if I wanted to do a Tina Turner cover, and I thought, “Ooh, I don’t know,” and then I had one song which I wanted to do so bad, was “Nutbush City Limits,” and that came out really good. But it took quite a while. But “Lucille,” oh, this would be great, but that’s hard. That’s very difficult to do.

Toddstar: I think of you every time I hear that song. It came to mind after, like you said, I listened to “Love Breaks Chains,” and just the soul in your voice in that made me think of “Lucille.”

Doro: Oh, how nice. Thank you for sharing that. That’s so nice because I always thought “Love Breaks Chains,” that’s wonderful. That’s it. So far nobody mentioned it and I thought, “Oh, maybe they didn’t listen to the whole album.” The record company, or some journalists, that was never mentioned except now by you. I know you are a soulful person, so that means even more to me. That’s cool.

Toddstar: Well, maybe next time you’re out on tour, I’ll find you backstage and see if I can get you to sing me a bar or two of “Lucille.”

Doro: Yeah, yeah.

Toddstar: Doro, I appreciate the time so much, and I want you to rest, and I want you to feel better. You have a lot of promotion to do for this amazing album. We need you well rested for when you get out there. You can get something booked and you can get on the road.

Doro: Yes. Hell’s Heroes, that’s the first one, which is confirmed for March 2024. Next week, we go to Mexico and I’m sick. I have to get well in the next week. It’s a nice big festival, and W.A.S.P. is playing, Accept, Alice Cooper, Lita Ford, and everything. There’s not one tour where I haven’t been sick; that’s the curse of a singer. When you talk a lot, when you sing a lot, the doctor told me that’s easy to catch everything because everything is so raw in that throat. So, you catch stuff more than your drummer or guitar player.

Toddstar: You rest up and thank you so much for the time. You are always so sweet and gracious, and I appreciate it.

Doro: That’s great. It was super, super nice talking to you once again. You are such a great person. Keep it up and I hope we will see each other on tour or talk soon. All the best and have a great rest of the day.

Toddstar: You too, Doro. Thank you so much. We’ll talk to you soon.

Doro: Ciao.

DORO LINKS:

OFFICIAL SITE

FACEBOOK

TWITTER

INSTAGRAM

Tags: featured

Category: Interviews