Гитарист KINGDOM COME Danny Stag в недавнем интервью
Rock Interview Series ответил на вопрос, были ли какие-то попытки собрать оригинальный состав:
«В 2014 году мы все согласились снова собрать оригинальную пятёрку. Дошло до того, что у нас появился агент, были организованы концерты, и мы собирались начать репетировать в Лос-Анджелесе. Lenny прилетел из Германии, мы провели одну репетицию, и все пошло прахом, потому что Джеймс [Коттак, барабанщик KINGDOM COME] должен был вернуться, чтобы играть с SCORPIONS. SCORPIONS сказали Джеймсу: "Мы сворачиваем свою деятельность. Теперь мы даём всего 50 или 60 концертов в год". И Klaus знал, что Джеймс говорил о том, чтобы снова собрать KINGDOM COME, и он знал, что на это есть запрос. Это была мечта Джеймса — ушедший участник, как ни странно, хотел собрать группу снова. Джеймс всегда любил группу. Он любил Johnny [B. Frank], Rick'a [Steier] и меня, мы все были хорошими друзьями. И вот что произошло: SCORPIONS сказали: "Да, Джеймс, ты можешь выступить с KINGDOM COME с нашего благословения. Только не должно быть пересекающихся концертов. Если у нас будет шоу, не организовывай концерт [KINGDOM COME] ни на одну из дат, когда будет шоу SCORPIONS. И ты всё равно получишь ту же зарплату". Ему не пришлось бы менять свой контракт или что-то ещё. Они просто сказали: "Если ты хочешь сыграть несколько дней с KINGDOM COME, это здорово". Так мы и собирались поступить. Потом Klaus'у сделали операцию на колене. Он был в больнице, и он не пьёт. Он лежал в больнице, его пичкали обезболивающими, и у него изменилось мнение — он сказал Джеймсу, что он на это не согласен. А мы уже начали действовать. Да, они сказали: "Мы запишем ещё одну пластинку". Помните, как SCORPIONS уходили из группы около шести раз за последние 10 лет? Это был один из тех случаев. И они сказали: "Ты должен вернуться. Мы собираемся в студию и устраиваем турне". И у Джеймса не было выбора. Он не хотел выбрасывать на ветер кучу денег и портить жизнь группе. Поэтому он сказал: "Извините, ребята. Мы не можем этого сделать". Он был в слезах. Ему было очень плохо. И Lenny отправился домой, в Германию».
Германия
A very lucky event happened when Lenny was introduced to Bob Rock, who is best known for his work with Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, Loverboy and later for Metallica. "Working with Bob was one of the best times I've had during my career. Being a musician himself, knowing how to get the best out of a band, a similar outlook on how the sound should be and working in a great studio (LittleMountain in Vancouver, Canada) were major reasons for the first record's success", - says Lenny.
Having finished the record Bob and Lenny flew to New York to mix it at the Electric Lady Studio, formerly owned by Jimmy Hendrix. During the mixing session of "Get It On", John Kalodner, a John Lennon look-alike and back then one of American most listened to men, stopped by to say "hi". He liked the song and asked if he could take a cassette with him. As far as is known, the tape ended up at a radio station in Detroit, which played the song without anyone in the band or Polygram Records knowing about it. Hard as it is to believe, other stations actually recorded the song off the air since the record had not even been released yet. The American music industry magazine "Album Network" reported about a mysterious band, which kept the telephone lines of Detroit's rock stations busy for days. Suddenly, a few weeks later, all of America's rock stations were playing "Get It On".
Kingdom Come shipped gold (500,000 copies), before the label or the band itself were able to discuss the first single. They toured throughout Europe opening for the English band called "Magnum", while the news from the states kept on getting more and more exciting by the minute. Timing could not have been better and Kingdom Come ended up on the first American tour named "Monsters of Rock", playing with Van Halen, Scorpions, Metallica and Don Dokken.
"Besides having to sing at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, we had a fantastic time. Strange enough, playing in front of 500 people makes me sweat a lot more than facing 80,000 rock heads in New Jersey's Meadowlands Stadium", - says Lenny. After the Monsters of Rock tour Kingdom Come continued touring America with the Scorpions for another two months.
A new chapter in Lenny Wolf's Kingdom Come was just beginning. The split meant taking everything into his own hands - and he took it on with his usual enthusiasm. After a short period of guidance and help from Stephan Galfas, Lenny was introduced to Nigel Thomas, who then took over the band's management. Lenny began writing all of the material for what was to become Kingdom Come's third album "Hands of Time", and took over full production responsibilities for the first time. Following the release of "Hands of Time" in 1991, Lenny continued to commute between Los Angeles and Hamburg and came into contact with WEA Germany, through a friend of his named Gerd Krombholz. The relationship culminated in a WEA worldwide signing and in 1993 the album "Bad Image" was recorded in LA and Hamburg, with Lenny once again taking on the lion's share of responsibilities.
After a long and frustrating period of business hassles, culminating in the tragic death of Nigel Thomas, their manager, Kingdom Come changed labels in 1994 from WEA to Viceroy, a small but very motivated label located near Nuremberg - Germany. The band, now with a complete German line-up, began to work on their next album "Twilight Cruiser" which was released in 1996. Right before finishing the "Twilight Cruiser" tour in 1996, Lenny and his label Viceroy decided at the last minute to record the show in Basle, Switzerland. The outcome was the "Live and Unplugged" double CD.
Kingdom Come, was now being managed by Jim Lewis, a former A&R man for Polygram Records during the album "Hands of Time". At this time, due to the fast lane changes in the US music industry and, especially, the high peak of the Seattle grunge sound, bands like Kingdom Come were facing a much harder time.
Lenny started writing again and, not willing to sell out by jumping on any trend, he kept the musical red thread, for which Kingdom Come is known throughout the years. Looking for a drummer, Lenny remembered a fantastic band, called "Mother's Finest", whose drummer was Dion Murdock. Lenny called and Dion checked in at the "Reeperbahn", Hamburg's red-light touristy district. Lenny recalls: "I hadn't heard him play for about seven years, not knowing whether he was all drugged out or had lost his ability to play, but my instinct had proved me right".
Dion's first sentence after arrival was: "Hey man, let's go to work". Magic words for a man on a mission!! "Master Seven" became reality and was released in 1997.
A passion for Corvette automobiles gave birth to a friendship between Lenny Wolf and Luca Maric, his partner in crime for years to come. At the req