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

“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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