The Scorpions will release their final studio album, "Sting In The Tail," in North America on March 23rd through Universal Music Enterprises. The CD was recorded at a studio in Hannover, Germany with Swedish producers Mikael "Nord" Andersson and Martin Hansen.
The track listing for "Sting In The Tail" is as follows:
1. Raised On Rock (3:57) 2. Sting In The Tail (3:12) 3. Slave Me (2:44) 4. The Good Die Young (feat. Tarja Turunen) (5:14) 5. No Limit (3:24) 6. Rock Zone (3:17) 7. Lorelei (4:31) 8. Turn You On (4:25) 9. Let's Rock (3:21) 10. SLY (5:15) 11. Spirit Of Rock (3:43) 12. The Best Is Yet To Come (4:34)
After the release of the album and a three-year mammoth tour, which will take the Scorpions across five continents, the band will end its career. The group broke the news on its web site last month.
Guitarist Rudolf Schenker tells Billboard.com that the prospect of ending Scorpions is indeed "really sad, and I don't even want to think about it." But he explains that the band and its management ultimately feel it's the right move to end the band on a high note with its new album, "Sting in the Tail", rather than risk a slow decline.
"You can't think about Scorpions at 70, not moving on stage, playing 'Rock You Like a Hurricane' — but on stage it's not like a hurricane, it's a very small wind," he says. "There's no stinger, and that's not good. You're going back down hill, from big hall to small how, small how to club...Everything has it's end; the question is it a good end or bad end? In this case we want to do these things and make it a good end."
Regarding the Scorpions members' future plans, Schenker says that guitarist Matthias Jabs has a musical instruments store in Munich, while drummer James Kottak has his own band, Kottak. Rudolf himself intends to publish his book, "Rock You Live," in the U.S. and plans a collaboration with his brother a Michael Schenker — which may include Scorpions' singer Klaus Meine on some songs.
