Kingdom Come's Lenny Wolf

Interview by Avril Savoie
Exclusive to Rockstar Weekly
Biography based on Wikipedia

Kingdom Come is a hard rock band fronted by Hamburg-born vocalist Lenny Wolf. The group's first album, Kingdom Come was the band's only international hit, but they've been rocking Europe for many years. The musical style on their debut was very close to the early blues-rock style of Led Zeppelin leading to a backlash from critics and the band being dubbed "Kingdom Clone" in the press.The band currently consists of an entirely German line-up.

The group was formed in 1987 after the breakup of Wolf's rock project Stone Fury. Kingdom Come marked the first band where Wolf sang without playing guitar.

Opening act for 1988 Scorpions Savage Amusement US Tour. They toured in England supporting Magnum on their Wings Of Heaven tour during that year.

The band's first single, "Get It On," was a big enough hit on AOR stations that the band's eponymous debut went gold. Their second single/video for the power ballad "What Love Can Be" received much airplay on US radio and MTV. By the time the single/video "Loving You" was released, the album had sold to platinum status in the United States, Germany and Canada, among other music markets. The band was chosen to open for the North American Monsters of Rock tour in 1988, supporting Dokken, Scorpions, Metallica and Van Halen. Following that, they were tapped to support the Scorpions on their North American "Savage Amusement" tour.

The band is currently touring to support their12th album Magnified. Lenny took a break from rehearsals to chat with RockStar Weekly.

More than 20 years and youre still rockin. What keeps Kingdom Come going?

Since I have been asked this question several times and basically Kingdom Come is more or less my mission, hopefully everyone more or less has a purpose being on this planet - whether its somebody building computers or like baking bagels or whatever - and my mission is simply writing songs and performing live and keep on doing my Kingdom Come thing. I wouldnt know what else to do. It's as simple as that. As long as I have creativity pumping in my way shouldnt I be doing it?

Germany has always been known for its harder rock bands. Are you proud to be a part of that legacy?

To be honest I couldn't care less you know. Image is something I was never too concerned about and to be honest I wouldnt even know what Germans are known for except maybe borsch and beer drinking. I wouldnt know and I dont care. Seriously, I know about some bands like Accept and the Scorpions of course and stuff like that, but again Im not too concerned with who is doing what, with whom and why. I just do my thing without trying to fit into any particular scene or I should be doing this because financially because I should be doing this.

After "Hands of Time", Kingdom Come was starting to become a hard to find band in North America. What happened?

I wish I knew. The bottom line is the band broke up right after the Monster of Rock. Let me interrupt this answer by pointing out that we are doing a Monster of Rock tour in Russia in June and will be playing with the Scorpions, Alice Copper, The Rasmus and ourselves and you may have heard that The Scorpions drummer is James Kottak. James Kottak was the original drummer from the American Kingdom Come formation, so that is going to be very, very exciting.

Like I was saying, the band broke-up and as much as I loved living in Los Angeles and big into America and Canada, but home was calling, and I was away from home for roughly 10 years and I was missing my brother, my mother, my sister, my home streets - just the whole vibe. My heart was always torn between coming back to Germany or going back to L.A. , I enjoyed both places, but it just happens, I just kind-off had enough of the everlasting sunshine and palm trees and thought it was time for some cobblestone and some rainy days, so I went back to Germany.

I do regret not paying a bit more attention on the touring side, especially in the States. I want to be very honest and I dont want to bull shit you or your readers and listeners, but the whole business has changed quite a bit, and especially for a whole band from Germany coming out to the States. Its just not that easy anymore. Youre talking about some major immigration issues and Kingdom Come isnt exactly top 10 right now, so you know it just stuff. But we would like to come out and kick some serious butt.

When the band first started there was this strange uproar about you sounding a lot like Led Zeppelin. What the heck happened back then?

Its like unbelievable old news. I dont know what to say to that anymore. I mean Led Zeppelin is one of the biggest bands ever, we were very influenced by them obviously. Here we are. When we started off in the early days of Stone Fury, my first American Band right before Kingdom Come, we had the same influences and my voice sounded the same, but nobody was bothered by it because we only sold 2 or 3 records and then all of a sudden Kingdom Come took off and went through the roof. All of a sudden it was a crime to be influenced by the big guys, so to me its all a bunch of baloney.

At first they were celebrating that finally theres a band that sounds like them again, I mean at least a little bit, you know. All of a sudden they come around a couple months later and the whole thing has changed and mainly I believe some writer over heard Dave Stags saying "Whos Jimmy Page?" Obviously its bull shit. We all know who exactly who he is, but after months and months of talking about the same old baloney it get very tiring and boring and Danny at some point just said Whos Jimmy Page?" Some guy obviously picked it up and just claiming Kingdom Come saying they never heard of him and this is like ridiculous, but again it's old news -who cares. Its the year 2009 and certainly much more exciting issues to talk about. Rock n Roll.

Talking about rock n' roll, do you think grunge killed rock n roll?

Not exactly killed it, but it certainly had a big impact on the whole music industry, mainly, speaking of Nirvana, for example, who did a great record for very little money, and then the whole music industry said "Hey, if Nirvana can record a record which can sell millions of cds for only $20 or $30 $40 grand and get paid, then why should we keep building up bands and investing money and time, and blah, blah."

And all of a sudden the music industry didnt care about building up bands anymore. There was one downside, and obviously with the internet becoming stronger and stronger which in some cases have a lot of advantages but we all know the disadvantages, like downloading songs. I dont want to sound like Im whining on all this stuff but it did hurt, especially the bands that werent doing so well. If Metallica, instead of 8 million, were selling 4 million, then who cares. I mean how rich can you be. But for bands that have not sold as many records, it means there is a difference to be able to continue and having to give-up .

Some of the grunge songs actually had some good to it. I like Audio Slave okay. I like Muse very much, so Im not stuck in the 80s or 70s. If I like something I get goose bumps when I get excited. Every artist obviously gets influenced knowingly or not knowingly and you develop and you start building your own thing and pick a little here and pick a little there and try to make it become your own, but the elements I like of the new sounds and cliché the images and sounds I dont care for you know. But whos to say what good or bad or right or wrong.

Art in general whether its a painting or music, I like to not judge to harshly because in the end we all feel different. We all see different and hear differently, so why should I say to somebody who is listening to rap, like whats your problem, you must be like all screwed up in your head because I hate rap music - I cant do that. My first love, she loved John Denver. And there I was listening to Def Leppard in my old Opel car freaking out. So she probably thought that Im baloney and I thought "whats your problem", so its kind-off like a waste of time to figure that out.

Its just a sign of the times. Life is changing, things are constantly changing you know. Not just in music - our climate is changing too.

Youve stayed true to the sound of the band and the new CD is no different. How did you go about writing and recording Magnified?

Actually over the years I have set up my own studio, and again thats thanks to the new technology that enabled me to do so. I remember spending 6 digits amounts on studios and I had to hurry up because the red light was on and flashing and we had exactly 3 or 4 weeks time and then we must be done and under those circumstances obviously you can record a good rock record, doing the obvious 2 guitar piece, drum piece, yelling and then youre out of there. But if you have a guy, much like myself that into developing and creating your own sounds like theatrical industrial, loopy elements that type of creativity, it just takes time and sitting in my own studio with no red light flashing and no bills coming out every week and so on.

It gives you a lot of freedom and you work more relaxed, therefore you have more time developing what you want to do and in some aspect Im like the old rocker that likes to be on stage with spread legs and do the rock and roll kind of thing. But Kingdom Come even in the early days were more like a, how can I put this without becoming to whiny now, but kind-off like an emotional melancholic I dont know, like little heartfelt out-put. Its not just about cherry pie and okay wheres the next party and let me tell you about the last 3 chicks I was with last night, and that was never really my cup of tea. It was chick wise, but never music wise, and so I am very grateful I was able to set up my studio in which I basically hideout for weeks, and months and whatever it takes. You know, hide in my creative bubble and do my thing, especially when I do my songs like Living Dynamite or Sweet Killing from the new record.

You hear a lot of those elements that we just talked about and thats something that really excites me as a creative person trying the best I can. Im not saying Im changing the music business or something or that I came up with - something the world have never heard of, but Im always trying to get the best out of me and hopefully being able to excite people and get some goosebumps going. When you perform the stuff live, its just the ultimate you know.

There have been some members leave the band, but tell us about the latest line-up.

Actually Im surprised myself that Eric Foerster who plays the lead guitar has been with us for over 7 years now, I cant believe that , its amazing. I think I finally became a better person, not a good, but a better person. I mean Ill put it this way: easier to get along with.

Frank our bass player has been with Kingdom Come for 6 years, but left the band once due to personal issues like getting a kid, leaving one woman and coming together with another one, and lots of issues called life. Hendrik has been with us, I have to think about it, I think 3 or 4 years or something, and this is like a well functioning setup - we get along great.

We dont do very much on a private level. I live in Hamburg, Frank lives in Berlin, Hendrik our drummer lives in Betterfeld, so we dont have much time hanging out on a private level, which is kind-of okay because when we go on tour like we will for two weeks in Russia, which is going to be exciting to see each other again, and then we do our thing. Its okay - like a marriage - give them a break every once in a while, its a healthy thing.

But the creating, I have to be honest over the last several records I have been doing it more or less on my own, because when I create Im a very intense mother fucker and I need to really live my bubble and do my thing and then when the songs are more or less done then I come together with band and talk about little things here and there, little arraignments and what do you think there. Eric comes into my studio later and lays out the solos, so thats pretty much how it works. So I dont want to bullshit you and say that its the bands project when its not.

What do you think are the reasons Kingdom Come and most of the other hard rock bands have had success in Europe over the last 10 years, but not in North America?

I dont know, I can only guess. I think America is known for when youre hot your hot, when youre not your not, and I think Europe in some ways, some aspects is more traditional - meaning when some people start holding up a flag for some music then they keep holding up the flag for that kind of music for the rest of their lives. Whether thats good or bad, to be honest I dont know. But there is a very traditional hard core fan base for the last 10 years which for more or less have enabled bands who are continuing to do the more traditional rock stuff to at least tour to make a living or whatever you want to call it. But thats my guess.

America honestly is very keen about coming up with the next big thing, featuring or pushing a very young artist or whatever, so its very hard for the other bands who are kind of like in the middle to get heard. Unless you like one of the very big ones like Metallica or Van Halen, I mean those names will always do good business, if you know what I mean. But there are bands from the 80s that were doing okay and now are having a really hard time. Its once again just a sign of the time you know, and to be honest I wouldnt even know what to call it a bad thing or a good thing its just a thing.

Other than your family life, do you think Kingdom Come is your passion in life?

Absolutely, it has certainly given me a sense of life, I mean if I would have not been able to become a musician I would have been put to jail or I dont know because this 9 to 5 concept was never my cup of tea.

I was, Im not saying it proudly now because its hip to say that, but I was a difficult child and I was put into a particular school where you basically cannot leave, and some teachers tell you, Hey punk, relax, otherwise you're having some serious trouble, so that is where I was for 3 years and they realized the only way for them to keep me cool was to let me play guitar in the dishwashing room, so actually, some good came out of it.

So music was definitely something that kept me out of trouble and is like a vent for me to put out all the stuff I need to put out and I notice specially lately, I am becoming older, and becoming a bit more, let me put it modestly wiser." Im a little bit more calm when it comes to curtain situations, but I still got some anger in me sometimes and thats good from a creative point of view, because Im not starting to create a poppy commercial sound. I know many bands from the 80s are doing it now simply because it has turned more into a financial institution than a band, if you know what I mean. How many cars can you drive? How many times can you eat in a day? I dont need to be that filthy rich. Im very grateful that I am able to continue what I am doing, so thank you God and the rest Hallelujah.

Some musicians have made their music business their family business. Is this true for you?

I missed my brother very much when I was living in Los Angeles. When I came back to Germany a few years later, he left for Seattle - he is now working for Microsoft, can you believe it? I mean this is unbelievable, and "Im Mister Apple", so it was like "Fuck you brother." I mean he got a great job there; hes doing fantastic, hes very happy. He actually got married to a very charming lady by the name of Denise, who actually contacted Kingdom Come through our very first webpage, like 8-9 years ago. Back then I wasnt so internet connected so my brother answered all those questions and requests and they just started talking. So to make a long story long they ended up getting married and moved to Seattle with his German dog and is now a happy a Microsofter.

But my sister works at a hospital department so she has nothing to do with music, and my father is pretty well a business man, who for hobby purposes played a big flute, but it was just for a hobby you know. My mother still likes to drink wine and listen to Spanish music so I dont know if its enough to say that theres music in the family, you know. So right now, to be honest, it looks like Im the only rebel here.

What are some of your favorite songs from the band?

To be honest, its easy to say Twilight Cruiser. Its definitely the song that still today really moves me, because most of your own stuff you cant really listen to, like the old record. Its like "Oh my God, my teeth are hurting - how could I have let that happen/" Its like our hearing has changed over the years and I remember when we finished the first record with songs like Get It On and the blues and stuff, and I thought oh great, Im pretty happy. When I hear the songs today its like, okay, Im proud it part of my past, its nothing to be ashamed of I would do about 90% differently now as days.

So its things change, but Twilight Cruiser is one red thread of Kingdom Come. I love playing that song live, it shows a lot of the emotional output, intensity, depth, and so on. We do like to rock out and we do like to play our ballads, but Twilight Cruiser I think has its very very own positioning inside it own.

What would be the finest moment you had on stage?

Every band enjoys the fact that people show up. There is nothing worse than to play in a 1000 seat place and there are only a hundred people in front of you. So obviously you want to make sure there are people and especially I have noticed over the years having played in Russia quite a bit, people are still very excitable and a lot of emotional exchange. Thats something I really enjoy and thrive on very very much.

I need a lot of energy exchange when Im on stage. Im not like a David Lee Roth type of guy where he does his acrobatic stunts and jumping around and talking about party time all day. With Kingdom Come, its more or less like delivering the songs and let the songs do the talking. And sometimes you can feel the energy in the room and its hard to put into words. Its something worth living for, its like thank you God and what can I tell you. Its not about getting laid after the shows anymore believe me!