ENTREVISTA ORIGINAL DISPONIBLE EN ESPAÑOL EN LA REVISTA ARGENTINA

JEDBANGERS

MICHAEL WEIKATH INTERVIEW

JEDBANGERS MAGAZINE
OCTOBER 2018

PUMPKINS AND DRAGONS

After many interviews with Helloween's guitar player Michael Weikath, 2 things can be
inferred:

1) Michael Weikath is a very funny person to interview.

2) Michael Weikath is a very complicated person to interview.

The first statement is related to the good sense of humour and naturallity with which Weiki
takes on these conversations, he speaks practically about everything. The second sentence
has to do with the personality of the guitar player. The same attitude that Weiki has on the
stage is transferred to interviews: cigarette in his mouth, self-absorbed with ironic looks, and
a attitude that could be defined as a "little kid playing to be a rockstar". This is why it can
become difficult to get Michael into the conventional field of questions and answers about his
band.

During the almost 2 hours of the conversation, his almost constant evasive attempts to our
questions took our talk to such heterogenous fields as for example: * The difficult that it was
to pronounce the word "igreja" in Portuguese ("church" in English, "Iglesia" in Spanish),
* The inconvenience of movies such as "Hostel" and "Saw",
* The move of Gibson to avoid Westone from making guitars,
* Or the story of rapper Lil Xan of being hospitalized because of eating hot Chizitos (Google
that story!).

Among so many issues that had to be left out of the magazine you are currently holding in
your hands, there were some anecdotes that we found funny, like the one Wiki decided to
tell at the beginning of our conversation without being sure why he was telling it: "​I once
bought a Westone Les Paul from an idiot in Portugal​", headlines Michael to his adventure.
And he tells it like this: "​As the guitar did not arrive, I sent to him a lot of emails, I told him
that I didn't know if the guitar had been send back or what had happened and I also told him
that please send it again to my address in Tenerife, and he never answered me, shit. I don't
know why I was telling you this..."​
And what happened?
I called to the store several times and they never answered, and their Facebook page
disappeared. A year and a half later we were booked to play in a festival in Portugal. I did an
interview with a guy who also was arranging the show, and at the end he told me: "​If there is
something else I can help you, just tell me"​ , and I answered him, "​Yes, you can​". I told him
about the guitar and he sent somebody in a car to that city, it took to him nearly two hours to
locate the guy. He brought me the guitar to the festival, only then I could get the guitar. At
the end the guitar was so good that I ended up buying the other three models available in
that time.

I guess you won't have buyed it to the same guy in Portugal (laughs). Mike, now that
the biggest madness of the reunion tour already happened, can you remember a pair
of memorable moments and other bad ones?
No. But what was really very very sad was when we started the tour and the two singers
were infected with an infection in their throats. All the problem that we had with that was a
nightmare. A nightmare for the managers, for the people involved... We had to give a giant
show in Mexico city with almost 50.000 people filling that stadium that looked like a space
ship. Basically those places are the ones in which we feel comfortable, and we wanted to do
it right, shit, and we didn't want to come out and say: "​You know what? the singers are sick
and we can not play. Thank you​". That would have been a bad beginning. So we think a lot
what shit to do, but we ended up playing the fucking shows and that was incredible. (Note:
They used playback for some voices as it can be seen in videos). That was a bad point,
another one was that on the flight from Buenos Aires to Santiago I got infected with a fucking
flu that had me begging for my life. It did not go away until the end of the tour. I had to go out
every night with a fucking terrible flu. I was coughing all the time, I was half death. The rest
of the band got infected as well and I don't know how they got rid of it. I tried to heal myself
but every place we were to was cold as shit. After South America we went to Europe where
it was freeze, there were snow. That way you can not heal of a fucking dangerous flu like
that. That was a fucking nightmare.

It is not the first time that something happens to you in South America, years ago you
told me that you had to play without your instruments, I think it was in Chile.
Yes, they didn't let to pass the instruments in the airport or something like that. But luckily, a
local band borrows us a Les Paul and we could play.

You will be playing in November in Buenos Aires with Kreator and Arch Enemy at the
Luna Park. What is you opinion of them? Do you like that kind of extreme metal?
Somebody came up with the idea of putting together that combo, and I guess it is because
there is a lot of interest for those bands in The United States as well as in the other places
where we will be playing. They are two very professional bands, whether you like them or
not. I'm a big fan of Arch Enemy, I think they are incredible. Particularly with the new singer.
The first time I saw them with her, it gave me the chills because of her growlings, she is
really impressive. And whether you like them or not, they are one of the best bands in terms
of composition and sound.

And they do not stop being melodic despite the extreme.

Yes, they are melodic in some way. It reminds me a little bit of old King Diamond, or his
other band. How is it called? Faithful...?

Mercyful Fate
Yes, Mercyful Fate! and not Fateful Mercy (laughs). Arch Enemy has a concept of not having
a vocalist actually, but the band sounds amazing. There are bands that doesn't have an
articulated super singer, but as a unit they are incredible.

And I think Fateful Mercy is a great name for a tribute band to Mercyful Fate (laughs)
And Kreator is a different stuff. They are pioneers of german thrash and german death
metal. It could be debated if they actually play what Metallica should have been doing for
some time. It occurs to me that there must be people who prefer a Kreator album over a
Metallica not-so-particularly-good album. So this tour is an extreme combo in which we are
the extravagant ones and they are the powerful ones. And that's fine because it seems that
we gather a lot of people wanting to listen to what we play. I can say that we are fortunate
that with the kind of music we do, we impress so many people that we can afford to go on
tour with bands like Arch Enemy and Kreator.

Are you going to have any change in the setlist for this return to Argentina?
No, I don't think so. As I understand it, they are additional shows for people who wanted us
back due to our continued success. It seems that the shows we did were not enough, or they
were so good that people told their friends "​You have to watch them, you can not miss them.
I was there screaming like a maniac and it was incredible​". There were people who asked us
"​Can you do more shows?​" and that was the way it happened. We do not understand it
either, but that's the way things are.

Now, you just played smaller shows in the United States, how was that? How was the
band accommodated to smaller venues?
It was very good but in a different kind of way. The last time we played in Chicago we put
6,000 people in a club, and now with Pumpkins United it was 10,500, which is good. These
shows in the United States are different because die-hard fans of Helloween attend to and
they enjoy a lot seeing the band.

I guess it is a wider audience in comparison to a different one in South America

Yes, and also there are many Latin fans from Mexico and other countries. For example, at
the previous tour, the God-Given Right one, we played at Play Station Theater in New York
and there would be about 60% of Mexicans.

How was the show doing in Las Vegas? Do you like the sin city?
Not my cup of tea. You cannot go anywhere without a taxi or an Uber. And it was hot and
wet from the fucking mother and that doesn't make me want to move or do things. You can
smoke everywhere there, in casinos, but I prefer a smoking room. So I spent my time going
to the entrance of the pool to smoke, smoking again, smoking once again, drinking coffee
and taking a cigar, and go back to smoke more (laughs). But these cities in which you need
to take a car in order to cross the street are not my cup of tea, I hate it. Furthermore, I do not
feel very safe, there is not the kind of security we have in Europe. You go to some place to
try to have fun and you find a group of dudes who don't like your face and you get into
trouble, I already know that story. No thank you. These kind of cities are not made for me,
they are for other kind of people.

Now that the organization of every show and every tour is a gigantic event, don't you
miss how simple it was a Helloween concert before?
No. What I would have preferred is that 30 years ago we would have kept the lineup we had
and that we would have stayed together, shit. This proves that, obviously, the situation we
were in and the band we were at that time were not sufficiently valued by each member, and
I'm not excluding myself from that. I did not value it as I should and the others did not either.
And we could have gone further, who knows where. But we, the egomaniacs in Helloween,
had different ideas. We have now corrected what was wrong, we are all great friends.
Everyone in the band knows how to appreciate this that we have, which is like a fucking
magical dream. And it was always like that, we couldn't see this even being in the middle of
the situation because we are fucking stupid. That's what we were: stupid shit, people at the
record company were stupid shit, at the management they were stupid shit. To spoil
something like this.. I don't even know how to rate that.

But that is something human, Mike. You all were in your 20s, at that time we all do
stupid things in our relationships with friends, families, and bands. If you are lucky
you will begin to do things right as you grow older, so now it makes sense that all
those things are OK.
Yes, that could be right, but it doesn't stop being totally stupid. It is like there were a safe
deposit box with 20 million dollars inside of it, and you have its key and you can look after it,
and you have a life insurance, and you will be able to be well and calm until the end of your
life. Why not use the key, be creative with that money and entertain a little other people?
What's wrong with that? What is the fucking logic to not do it? I am not excluding myself from
all of this. So many things happened at that time... I was trying to do things right but
everybody were looking for something different. I didn't do everything right either, I always
appeared with super special ideas to compose, and that is not always necessary. Look at
bands like Judas Priest or Iron Maiden, they also made mistakes, but at least they were
always working and doing shows.

But you all were also working and doing shows although with different people.
Yes, you are right.

And nobody can say that you all made a mistake the way Iron Maiden made it by
bringing Blaze Bayley. For example, people could have complained about "Pink
Bubbles Go Ape" (1991), or "Chameleon" (1993), but there it was, however people still
continue discussing on how Maiden replaced Dickinson with Blaze.
Yes, and I don't understand the thing regarding "Pink Bubbles". They had their beloved
Michael Kiske, they had their beloved Ingo Schwichtenberg, they only didn't have their
beloved Kai Hansen. And Kai Hansen could have been there if he were not leave the band.

I didn't understand well either why fans destroyed that record. In my case, I became a
fan of Helloween in the "Master of the Rings" era (1994), and I had read all the
negative reviews toward "Pink Bubbles". Since there was no internet or any other way
to listen to a record I had to wait until get it, and I was expecting something horrible.
But it is far away of being bad, it has good as well as bad songs.
Yes, something happened and I don't know what it was. I neither love all songs by ABBA.
For example "Chiquitita", What an idiotic title that song has! (laughs). But the composition is
incredible. If they had named it "Raise the ass" it would have been better (he sings that title
in the melody of "Chiquitita") (laughs)... Why the fuck did they named it "Chiquitita"!? and it
was a worldwide hit, people didn't care.

It is like "Obladi Oblada" by The Beatles

Yes! And people started putting that phrase into their usual conversations. Like some
german housewives that I listened to in the 60's: "​and how you doing?"​ , "​Well, more or less,
obladi oblada"​ .

"Pink Bubbles..." was produced by chris Tsangarides. How was it feel to suddenly
work with such a prestigious guy?
I had always in my mind that Chris produced Gary Moore, and a can play a little bit like him,
but not as much as him really. It was like a different level. Chris had worked with Judas
Priest and Gary Moore and also with a lot of people. And who the fuck was I?

Did you want to work with him?

No, it was the management who proposed to hire a more professional producer, someone
who brings extra cool stuff. That's why we did it. The management did not understand how
was the way Helloween worked internally, otherwise they would have never proposed that.
Later we made peace with Chris. In a festival, he came up to me and told me: "​Mike, we had
issues but don't you think this is childish? let's be friends, it is better​". And I told him: "​Shit,
that's true, let's be friends"​ Last year he passed away and I felt very sad.

When we spoke with Kiske before the tour he told us how well he gets along with Andi
Deris, and on the other hand Andi says the same in the interviews, that they are
already very good friends. Does that new spontaneous friendship seem strange from
the outside?
No, no. And we have to thank both of them for that. They are two great personalities who
understand the magnitude of the event. Michael Kiske is a fucking king for his understanding
of this whole situation, and he has a lot of fun, he is very happy. And Deris never said: "​I'm
not going to have Michael Kiske in my band if I'm the singer and blah blah blah​" or any of
those things which someone could came out with. Instead of that, they are working together
and that's great.
It is the opposite situation when Dio left Black Sabbath because they wanted to bring
Ozzy to sing a couple of songs.
Yes, and Halford ended up singing at that show.

Exactly, see? Today we already defined that you did some things better than Iron
Maiden, Judas Priest, and now Black Sabbath. It is not a bad interview...
I think we are luckiest than those bands. Because if you consider everything they had to
work and suffer to be where they are, they had a worse time than us... We also worked and
suffered, but not as much as all of them. We are lucky to be where we are. It is a gift from
God and I thank him.

I also read Andi saying that he is tempting Kiske so that he also moves to Tenerife,
where you already live since several years ago. Do you plan to populate Tenerife with
Germans?
With your native Spanish you will surely have more chance to populate Tenerife than me.
But the truth is that normally Canarian women only meet with local people and the rest of us
are foreigners. This is a city, but basically it is like a town, everyone stays in their affairs.
There is a very big tourism move, about 3 or 4 million people visit the island every year, but
people who live here relate to each other. They let tourists and foreigners do what they want
to do and people living here do their own things.

Going back to music, at what point in the process is the new album?
None, we are on tour!

Yes, but are there ideas or riffs?

Yes, but no more than if you had asked me 6 years ago in the middle of another tour. There
are some ideas, some things I could not finished for "My God-Given Right". There is some
material there, but first I have to review it and work on it. And everyone has to bring
interesting material. The big question is always if the idea is good for this Super Helloween
of 7 members of Pumpkins United or if you better invent something new. We will try to give
the best, to bring ideas that make people say "​wow!​ " and to not repeat things that we already
did. Or maybe we do exactly that, I don't know.

Did you listen the album "Union" by Yes?

No, I'm sorry.

I mentioned it to you because at that time Yes was going through something similar to
the Helloween of now. The lineup of that moment came together with their classic
lineup and they recorded an album all together. But instead of playing all at once,
according to the song Steve Howe or Trevor Rabin appeared on the guitar, and the
same thing happened with keyboards, they took turns between Rick Wakeman and
Tony Kaye. Do you think that alternative way of working would work for Helloween's
record?
No, no, no. Precisely what I love about this format is that, with the exception of the singers,
everyone is always playing. It would be weird if Kai Hansen did not play a song. I just love
that Kai Hansen plays "Why", or that he does the riff of "Kids of the Century" because he is
not Roland Grapow. He has nothing to do with " Kids of the Century", at that time Kai was
recording the first Gamma Ray album, there's nothing further away than Kai Hansen playing
that riff and that's why it is so cool that he does it. I could have said: "​You were not in that
era, let me play the riff"​ , but no, it is better: "​you play that fucking riff because you have no
relationship with him​" It is funny, you know? (he kills himself with laughter).

What is your perception about this Helloween? Do you imagine it as something

long-term or do you have the feeling that this is just temporary?
I hope it is not temporary. We're going to keep doing that as much as we can. We can do it
as long as nobody acts stupid enough to not realize the relevance or the magic, and as long
as we treasure what we have. But it is to be expected that someone pop up to say: "​You
know what? I got tired of this"​ .

Likewise, we see you all are having fun. It is quite different of what we see when Led
Zeppelin gets reunited, for example.
When I watched that "Celebration Day" (Note: Celebration Day is 2012 reunion show of Led
Zeppelin) everyone seemed happy to leave the stage quickly. Jimmy Page probably had to
call the other musicians on the phone: "​I just went back to the dressing room, where are you
all?​" (laughs). It was spectacular and massive, I almost got a stroke with "Kashmir" (laughs).
But despite of the brilliant show, it was noticeable that each musician was like: "​Oh God!, I
hope he doesn't speak to me more than necessary... Oh no, I gotta go, bye!"​ (Laughs).

The final show of Pumpkins United tour is going to be in Hamburg, does it make you
feel something special to you? to finish the tour where the band began?
(he grumbles) That thing of going back to the roots by playing again in Hamburg, pfff. That
city has nothing to do with the city that was back in 1984 when we founded the band. It
changed so much that I do not recognize it. What does it have to do with our fucking roots? I
don't know. It would be necessary to put everything back as it was in 1982 so that it has a
connection. I can not speak on behalf of the rest of the boys because they are happy there,
they adapted to the changes. Hamburg was an incredible city back in the 60's and 70's until
everything changed. The 70's obviously ended, but in no city are they more dead than in
Hamburg. They do there everything that is trending. When Nu Metal was trending then
Hamburg was all Nu Metal, and when it was Techno then Hamburg was all Techno. Where it
does come from? and if you find out what was the worst Techno band in the world it was
from Hamburg, and the most famous one too. It is the mecca of some genres but not of rock
n roll. There was a wonderful scene back in the 50's, 60's and 70's. We had amazing bands
that were the best in the fucking world, like Lake, Atlantis, Frumpy, or Lucifer's Friend, they
were the best fucking bands in the world.

Did you move to Tenerife because of those changes?

Yes. I was a relic there. They came to me to tell me: "​Don't you want to cut your hair like
Metallica did? You can not walk like this anymore in this place​" (laughs). Then I said: "​ok,
then I'm not going to walk around here anymore​" (laughs). "​Stay with your bald spots, your
short hairs, your ecstasy pills or whatever drugs they invent, I'm leaving.​" I do not know if the
same thing will happen here in Spain in a few years, but at least I'm not part of that anymore.
Mike, I wanted to ask you...
(he interrupts) Justin Bieber just got married. Something like this is possible in these times.

Er... yes, why are you surprised?

I'm not going to criticize him in what he does because he does it well, but he wanted to go
against the establishment. He drives cars on the beach, they arrest him for being drugged...
and then he get married?

Yes, it is inconsistent, but in addition to his rebellious image, I suppose he has to

please his fans' moms. Don't you think so?
Yes...

Mike, I wanted to ask you some questions about your classic records...
It is a good idea, but the thing is that here are 10:00 pm, and if I want to go and order a
calzone pizza I should get dressed right now and go out, because otherwise they get mad at
me and they tell me: "​You know that the kitchen closes at 11"​

Doesn't the pizza shop has delivery service?

No, because the pizza would come here crushed. The calzone is very large and can not be
put in a cardboard box, the calzone is like 5 times the size of the box, I also have to go there
to have my coffee and to smoke and to eat.

Do you go alone?
Yes, I could meet some people, but after 1 hour of speaking Spanish I get a fucking
headache that I better not even tell you. They also do not understand my jokes even though
I tell them in perfect Spanish.

I heard you speak Spanish many times and it is far from perfect...
(Note: He speaks in Spanish). That's why I have the biography of Perón, you know?
because it contains perfect Spanish, almost like Latin.

OK... Perón...
I want you to thank our fans from Argentina for all their support and interest.

Sure, we'll let them know. Do you remember the first time Helloween played in Buenos
Aires? You opened for Iron Maiden on Obras in 1996.
Yes, I remember. The hotel was full of fans and everyone thought we were Iron Maiden.
They didn't want to believe us, they thought Markus was Steve Harris. I said: "​Ok, if we are
Iron Maiden, who am I? I don't look like Adrian Smith or Janick, so who am I in the band?​"

You don't look like Nicko either...

No, and people wanted to take pictures with us without even know who the fuck we were
(laughs). It was quite crazy. We were at the Hilton and everyone was screaming like
crazy:"​It's Iron Maiden!, It's Iron Maiden!". "No, we aren't"​ (laughs). Then the singer came to
the reception and didn't want to pay for the porn he had watched that night.
Blaze Bayley didn't want to pay for his porn?
Exactly. The lady at the reception had a bad time with him. She told him: "​You watched the
movie and you have to pay for it.​". And he replied to her: (Note: He screams in a low voice)
"​Do you know who I am?​" (laughs). That was a little bit pathetic.

That was his idea of seizing fame, not paying for porn.
Yes, something like this happened to me in a hotel in the United States, like back in '88 or
something like that. The movie was crap and they wanted me to pay $ 8 dollars. I told them:
"​I watched the movie but it was very bad, I didn't even finish"​ (laughs). And the girl at the
front desk canceled the $ 8 debt because maybe she knew how bad the movies that they
had were. So I didn't pay for my porn but at least I did not scream like Blaze: "​Do you know
who I am?​" (Final laughs).