Former ACCEPT singer Udo Dirkschneider was recently asked if he has had any contact with the band’s current guitarist Wolf Hoffmann.
Speaking with Australia’s “Scars And Guitars” podcast, Udo responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Never. And I don’t wanna have any contact with him… I’m really good friends now again with [former ACCEPT bassist] Peter Baltes; he did all the bass guitars on [my new] cover album [‘My Way’], for example. I still have a good relationship with [ex-ACCEPT drummer] Stefan Kaufmann. Over the years, he was the guitar player in U.D.O. [and] he was producing U.D.O. and stuff like that. And the only guy I don’t wanna talk to — let’s say it this way — is Wolf. There’s a lot of reasons why. I wish him all the best. [He’s] a great guitar player anyway, but for me to work with him again — never.”
Udo was also asked if he has ever had an opportunity to meet current ACCEPT singer Mark Tornillo, to which he replied: “There was a festival, Masters Of Rock, happening in the Czech Republic, and I was a guest singer of LORDI — I did a song together with LORDI. And LORDI was headlining and ACCEPT was the special guest of this festival, not the headliner. And at the hotel, we [Mark and I] were waiting both for a driver, and he never said to me hello or something like that. Okay, I mean, what can I do? Why not say hello? I’m also really good friends with David Reece who did [ACCEPT’s] ‘Eat The Heat’ album. We are really, really good friends; we talk sometimes on the phone and blah blah blah. I don’t know… What I heard from Peter is that it was not allowed that he talk to me. Don’t ask me. Forget it…”
Udo added: “He’s a good singer, he’s doing a good job now with ACCEPT, and I wish him good luck. And maybe one day [we will meet and speak to each other]. You never know.”
Last year, Udo ruled out the possibility of a reunion with ACCEPT, saying in an interview with TNT Radio Rock: “I don’t wanna say anything bad. Wolf is a great guitar player. He’s a great guy — I know that. But one thing, and that’s why never ever can happen again a reunion or stuff like that, is he was stealing my name. A long time ago, in ’81, when we had to sign some papers. I was really young, and, ‘Yeah, okay,’ I signed my contracts. There was some paper in between [all the others], and he [got] the rights [to the ACCEPT name]. But it was not Wolf [who orchestrated it]; I think it was now his wife. She was the manager of ACCEPT, and she was clever to put the [ACCEPT] name on Wolf Hoffmann. And this is the thing that makes me still angry — he was really stealing the name. I mean, I was making ACCEPT in ’68.
“In the end, as a person, [he’s] definitely a great guitar player, a great guy,” Udo added. “It’s history. I think I’m quite successful with U.D.O. If I want, I can do anytime a tour under [the name] DIRKSCHNEIDER and play ACCEPT songs. If I really say, ‘Okay, I wanna do this again,’ no problems at all. But the rest, in a way, is history.
“For example, I was working with Peter Baltes and Stefan Kaufmann together on the single ‘Where The Angels Fly’, and everybody was, like, ‘Oh, what is this? This is more ACCEPT than ACCEPT is doing now at the moment.'”
You can check out the full talk with Udo Dirkschneider below courtesy of “Scars And Guitars”.