Kiske is a fantastic character study, not to mention my personal favorite vocalist. Someone really needs to write a book about the guy.
There's two questions that I have always, always wanted to hear him answer--so if anyone out there who's going to talk to him ever sees this, please ask--
1.) What does he think of his legacy, being a singer religiously emulated by an entire subgenre of metal music? (Is he even aware that he's typically considered the crown jewel power-metal singer, and that one of the "rules of power metal" is, "if at all possible, be Michael Kiske"?)
2.) What would it take for him and Weikath to finally bury their two-decade feud? Not for him do anything with Helloween, record or tour, but just... not perpetually snipe at each other in interviews, shake hands, just something to make it so I don't think every time I hear "Eagle Fly Free" that it's being sung by a guy who hates the writer, and vice versa? (Someone should really ask Weikath this as well--he's another mega-sized personality with a big mouth.
)
Great interview!! I particularly liked this, it's a bit more clear than comments he's made in the past which suggest bands should always be changing their styles:
Michael - I pissed the whole German metal scene off, with the comments I made about it being false and people just kissing ass, but that’s just me having a different understanding about true music. Musicians have the right to express themselves, I’m not saying that every band should change their styles of music from one record to another, say making a metal album then a country album, then a pop album, that would be stupid. If you stop your creativity just because you have concerns that your audience won't understand you, then that’s wrong. As I said earlier I disagree with the satanic thing and that alone got me a reputation.
I think the reputation came less from opposing Satanism in music and more from being adamant that he wasn't going to let anyone tell him what music to write... but still a very good quote.
