PODCAST: Episode 133: Wolf Hoffman of Accept Talks “Too Mean To Die” and Longevity


Ghost Cult was honored to catch up with legendary axeman and leader of Accept, Wolf Hoffman. The band will release their 16th studio album, Too Mean To Die via Nuclear Blast Records on January 15th, 2021. Wolf talked about his long career in the music business, the creation of the new album, the PMA aspect of the band, adding new members to the band, working with producer Andy Sneap for the last decade, his views on the many anniversaries the band has coming up, their working-class roots, the resurgence of media such as vinyl and cassettes, thoughts on live streaming and more! Pre-order Too Mean To Die here and check out our chat! Continue reading


Peter Baltes Quits Accept After 50 Years


In a message from the bands’ Facebook account last night, bassist of Peter Baltes has quit Accept. He was positive and thankful in his message, but the sudden departure was a surprise for sure. The band followed up sharing a message from leader Wolf Hoffmann with a message a short time later thanking Peter, and expressing sadness that he had left the band he helped found fifty years ago. The heavy metal band has enjoyed a resurgence in the last decade and Peter was a part of that success. The band recently released their excellent symphonic album, Accept: Symphonic Terror At Wacken 2017, via Nuclear Blast Records.Continue reading


Accept Release The Artwork For New Album – The Rise Of Chaos


Accept is dropping a new album this summer, their fourth since their comeback in 2010. The Rise Of Chaos, will drop on August 4th, 2017 from their longtime label, Nuclear Blast. The cover artwork of the new record was created by the Hungarian artist Gyula Havancsák, and you can see it below. Continue reading


My Favorite Tour Ever… Wolf Hoffman of Accept


 Wolf Hoffman of Accept, photo credit by Alan Hess

Wolf Hoffman of Accept, photo credit by Alan Hess


“We’ve been doing it so long, I would say the best year, if I were to think back on my whole career, is probably like in 1984 when we were all innocent little kids from Germany and we came to America for the first time. We discovered this huge market and the country of the United States. We met all these people that were our heroes. That was really a big world that opened up for us for the first time. That was pretty spectacular back then. The year, 1984, the first tour we ever did in the states was opening up for KISS. So that was huge! That was amazing. We came from playing small clubs and community halls, things like that in Europe. Then we toured arenas every night with KISS. Quite a change, there.“

Gene Simmons of KISS, by Rick Triana Photography

Gene Simmons of KISS, by Rick Triana Photography

 

Of course we learned (a lot from KISS)! We learned how big business is conducted in that world and what a great show they put on. To give you a funny little example of what we learned from them – Back in those days we had massive equipment on stage. Massive backline, huge Marshall stacks but we had no idea that KISS were using dummies. There were no speakers in any of their cabinets. When we saw that for the first time we were like, “Wow, they are cheating!” We can’t believe it. We didn’t know you could do that actually. That’s what we learned. Wow, they get away with that. Being on stage you realize there is nothing in these things. They look cool.”

 

AS TOLD TO VICTORIA ANDERSON

 

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Grand Masters – Wolf Hoffmman of Accept


Accept Blind Rage US tour 2016 ghostcultmag

I had the pleasure of sitting down with Wolf Hoffman, the guitar legend behind long running metal band Accept. After taking a sabbatical, they reemerged with three heavy hitting albums. The last of which was Blind Rage (Nuclear Blast) for which they are still on tour. The band starts a brief leg of US tour dates at the legendary Badlands Club, in Sioux Falls SD this week, on March 3rd.

Wolf, you are on part 5 of the Blind Rage tour. Why so many parts?

Just because that’s just how life goes sometimes. We came to an end just before Christmas and everybody took a little break. It’s sort of dictated by the world we live in I guess. Nobody really tours through Christmas. We surely didn’t, so we all went home and here we go again.”

 

Are you playing any cities for the first time this tour?

No, we did some dates when we first started the tour for Blind Rage about a year and a half ago we did a few shows in California and New York.”

 Wolf Hoffman of Accept, photo credit by Alan Hess

Wolf Hoffman of Accept, photo credit by Alan Hess

For you, what is the appeal of touring so much?

That’s what it’s all about at the end of the day, you know. You make records for people to enjoy them. But, at the end of the day you want to go out there and play those songs and get the experience of being in front of people. That’s really the end goal always you know. If you want to take this a step further, the record is just a necessary thing we have to do to make this happen. It’s just a means. It’s never the end goal to me, anyhow. Really, just make records to go on tour.”

 

Would you prefer being on tour all the time to making records?

No, that would be a little too extreme I think. There are artists that do that. They only make a record every, I don’t know, five or ten years. But that’s a little extreme. I enjoy making records; don’t get me wrong. It’s just at the end of the day the fun is always on the road.”

 

You are touring on Blind Rage but you also have a new solo album out this year. Tell us about that.

This has been in the works forever and ever. I’ve always been busy with Accept I always go into the studio for a week here or there for years and years that I’ve been working on this. It’s finally now over Christmas I had the time to put it all together and put it in the can, so to say, to get it out of my system. It’s a follow up album to one I did in 1987 where I took some classical pieces and metalled them up for guitar. I did the same thing again. This time I took well- known classical pieces and rearranged them completely for rock instruments. This time around I worked with an orchestra from Prague, the Czech Republic. That was an amazing experience just to go over there and work with these guys. It’s going to come out soon, late spring.”

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How has writing and rearranging a classical album expanded your writing for Accept?

“I think it all helps. It’s actually quite mind blowing to see the details of what these grand masters from two hundred years ago what they’ve actually written. You see how timeless the melodies and pieces. They are so good, so well written. They are mind blowing. You think, hopefully a little bit of that rubs off on you. At the end of the day you can’t compete with that at all. I’m a metal guitar player doing my thing. It pales in comparison to what Beethoven or Mozart did before. But, I do it for fun because I love it. It’s a passion.”

 

Was the arranging and writing on your own easier or harder than the process writing with Peter (Baltes, Accept bass player)?

I was lucky enough to work with a guy from Italy. He’s a good friend. He plays piano. He’s really good at string arrangements. He and I pretty much work together like I work with Peter. Where the two of us sit in a room and we just hash out these ideas and bounce the ball back and forth. It was kind of similar in that respect. Only obviously the medium was way different because he was the guy writing all the string arrangements. I would just sort of tell him how I was hearing things in my mind and he was translating it to orchestra speak. To me it’s interesting to see how not so different it is even though it is a totally different medium. There’s an orchestra and nobody is singing obviously. And these are old time compositions but at the same time, a lot of times there are segments that sounds like Accept somehow just because of the guitars and drums and all that.”

 

VICTORIA ANDERSON

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