All Bow Before 'The Metal Queen' Doro Speaks Out.

Doro is without doubt the 'Metal Queen' reigning her throne for over 3 decades, having coming along way since her days with her previous band 'Warlock' who released some awesome albums such as their debut 'Burning the Witches' and their cult classic 'Hellbound', which in my opinion is their best album. Doro has come a long way since the Warlock broke up in 88 leaving her to pursue a solo career which started in 89 when she released her new album 'Force Majeure', this was just the beginning which has made her the 'Queen of Metal', no doubt about that.

Doro has been making metal music now for so long and has made a name for herself that all female vocalist look up to her for inspiration. I managed to catch up with Doro in Lockdown last week to have a chat with her about her successful career and of course the new album 'Magic Diamond...Best of Rock/ Ballads & Rare Treasures', and to find out just how difficult it was to pick the best of the best for this stunning new album. Here is what Doro had to say. There is no doubt about it that Doro has a true heart of steel and loves to talk to her fans and press alike.

Hi Doro, it's great speaking to you again, it's been a while since we last did an interview, I hope you are well in this day and age we are all living in. I'd like to ask you about the Warlock albums, do you have a favourite and why?

"Hi Jason, so good to speak to you too, yes it has been a while since we last did an interview, Johnny and Nick send their regards. To answer you're question I would have to say 'Burning the Witches' because we had no expectations of going into a studio and when it was released we were blown away and how many people knew about our little band back then. It became rather successful and we had so many good memories from that album, and so we did our 2nd album 'Hellbound' (Ed: that is my favourite album you need to do a Doro album as heavy as this album), that is cool you like that one, it has some great songs that I still love to play live.

It was the 1st album that we became more professional and we got picked up my Phonogram and we had much more time on the recording of that album. The next album 'True as Steel' was difficult to make because there was so much pressure and the label wanted it to be more radio friendly which we thought as a metal band was so ridiculous and for it to sound commercial and it was not a cool idea. It almost killed our band and we went on tour with 'Judas Priest' in 86 and we got to play the 'Monsters of Rock' festival in the UK, and we did the 'True as Steel' album and we didn't want to play any of the songs from this album live, we loved songs like 'Hellbound' and the 'True as Steel' album was just a little too commercial for us. We did a tour with 'W.A.S.P.' and then we went to America for a promotion tour for 3 days and after 2 days I decided to stay.

After that everything fell into place and we recorded 'Triumph & Agony' album which is my favourite and there are songs that I love and we still play songs form that album such as 'We are All', 'Fur Immer', 'Metal Tango', and many more that are on 'The Magic Diamonds...Best Of' album, actually 'I rule the Ruins' in the only song that is on this album twice, 1 studio and 1 live with orchestra. The 'Triumph & Agony' album was just a great album, even the artwork and of course 87 was a great year for metal."

Do you ever think of playing any other songs from those albums live?

"Well that was a revelation and we celebrated the 3rd year of 'Triumph & Agony' album and now we play every song from that album and some songs sound came out so great even the song 'Making time for Love', which we have never played before and it was always in the shadow but when we played it, it just sounded amazing. We also played 'Three Minute Warning', 'Kiss of Death' 'Touch of Evil' and they all sounded great to play live. 

We have thought about doing a full live album for the 'Triumph and Agony' album because they sounded so good and we played the songs at 'Sweden Rock', 'Graspop', and they got recorded and so maybe for another lockdown we may release a live album."

I think you should play the full album of 'Hellbound' in lockdown now that would be amazing, don't you agree?

"Yes that would be a great idea, we have never tired that and never played all the songs from that album.

OK Doro, now let's talk about the early Doro albums, do you have any favourite albums and why?

"Well I love the album 'True at Heart' because it has some of the greatest songs on one album & I also like 'Calling the Wild' album and I had my 1st duet on that record with Lemmy for the song 'Love me Forever' which was the old Motorhead classic song and that album was a great album and it was also a great time to release it. Nick Douglas came back into the band and the whole line up was great. At that time Grunge was so huge and metal bands struggled. I also got to tour with Ronnie James Dio which was an unforgettable moment in my life."

When you did the duet with Lemmy for the 1st time how did you feel to be recording a classic Motorhead song?

"Well I was friends with Lemmy before we recorded the song so I wasn't as nervous as most people would of been. I was totally excited and when I went into my vocal booth Lemmy gave me a little kiss on my head and said 'Knock it dead!!' He always gave me a little kiss when there was something important and there is a picture of us at the 'Monsters of Rock' backstage in 86 and Lemmy took me in his arms and kissed my head, which was so lovely. At one time I was checking out my vinyl collection and I picked up a Motorhead album and somebody put the picture of me and Lemmy on the inner sleeve, I thought it was so awesome and shocked.

So I wrote Lemmy a letter and put out the picture and sent it with the letter and I was hope he would remember me, and in the end we were both label mates on 'SPV' and I sent the letter to the management and I never expected to hear back. Later on I got a phone call and it was Lemmy, and he said we should work together on a duet. So that is how the song 'Love me Forever' came to be. So I went to L.A. and we recorded 'Alone Again' which Lemmy wrote on his acoustic guitar and I got tearful when I heard that song and he asked if we wanted to recorded it, I agreed and he also said shall we did another song and that is when I said 'Love me Forever', and we went into the studio which was own by Bob Kulick who sadly passed away a few months ago. 

He played the guitar on the song and it was awesome. I was there for 3 weeks and one night we went for a drive and he told me to just keep on driving which I did and we just kept playing loads of CD's and we had such a great time. We drove all night and went back into the studio to record, I mean Lemmy never needed to sleep and it was so good memories."

After the 'Calling the Wild' album you did the 'Fight' album in which you started doing kickboxing was it?

"Yes you are right, it was a time when I became friends with Regina Halmich and we did the video for 'Always live to Win' and it is on the 'Rare Treasures' albums. She was a great boxer for 12 yrs and we are still friends."

After that 'Fight' album you did the album 'Warrior Soul' in 2006 in which you also starred in a film 'Anuk- Der Weg Des Kriegers (The way of the Worrior)' as the actor 'Meha', and the producer of the film asked me to do the sound track for the movie. After I did the song for the movie the director asked me if I would like to appear in the film as 'Meha' and I agreed and I was so excited to be part of the film. Meha is a great warrior and a fighter and and the director knew I would play her part for the movie and we did 3 movies together and we wrote songs for all 3 movies and I am hoping the next one will come out at the beginning of 2021."

The album 'Raise your Fists' was released in 2012 and it took you another 6 yrs to record and release 'Forever Warriors...Forever United' album, why was that?

"Well we recorded some other stuff and some movies and then we worked on the DVD 'Strong & Proud', with our anniversary concert at Wacken and we worked 2 and half years on the DVD, with mixing and putting everything on it together. Then it took another 2 half yrs to make another record and we were working all the time. For the 'Raise your Fists' we did a lot of touring for that record and sometimes we would tour twice in the same continent so between the tours and the DVD we wanted to do a double album which took a lot long to record."

Why was the last studio album done as a double album?

"We actually started on the album and we did not plan it and we knew we had so many songs that we didn't want to leave out, so I wanted them on now and didn't want to wait another year or 2 for the rest to be released. I had never done a double album before, and the 1st song which was written for the album 'Living life to the Fullest' which was write for Lemmy and I got the idea when I was in an airplane on the way to Lemmy's funeral and I got the melody and lyrics together and then I went to Hamburg to meet my old friend who was the ex guitarist for 'Sisters of Mercy', his name is Andreas Bruhn and we had been working together since 1996 and I told him I had a song for Lemmy which I wanted to dedicate to him. So we worked together on that song and we had so many songs that we thought would be a shame not to use on the last album. 

I wanted to put some special songs on it as well, songs that had inspired me and there's a cover version of Whitesnake's 'Don't break my heart Again', and just because Whitesnake was my 1st concert in 1980. (Ed: Have you ever thought of doing a duet with David Coverdale?) I would love to do a duet with David Coverdale, that would be so awesome and even Rob Halford!! I plan on making many more albums so I intend to that something will work out."

Are you still signed to Nuclear Blast Records? When did you think about starting you're own label 'Rare Diamonds Productions'? Will you be signing any bands to this label in the future?

"Yes I am still signed to Nuclear Blast and the new album will be coming out next year, and with my own label I can put out stuff like LP's, picture discs, and I have all the rights back with SPV and AFM as I thought you may not be able to get them anymore and so I decided to re-release them myself and ad some fun stuff. My 1st release was called 'Fur Immer' which was all songs in German and it did so well that that we put out 'Calling the Wild' with different artwork and the vinyl was coloured. I went through the achieves and I planned on doing a 56 song release, maybe in 5 yrs I can do a volume 2 of the 'best of...' album.

So far I have not approached any bands to sign up yet but it could be possible, and I learnt from that situation what to do and not to do, I could certainly do with bands and newcomers and in the future I would love that."

How difficult was it for you to pick all the songs for the new 'Best of...' album?

"Yes it was very difficult to pick the songs because every song need some work doing to it and and with some lives songs maybe a guitar was out of tune, or feedback and or one channel didn't work correctly and so every song had to be remixed or re-mastered or re-recorded from scratch and 'Love me in Black' was recorded at one of the drive through shows we did this year and they were amazing. It was fun and better than doing nothing at all and to keep the machine going was just super. There's lots of live stuff on this new album to check out, and there are some unreleased songs on there too, like 'Prisoner of Love' which was the 1st cut,  'Fortune Teller', and the songs were picked by the fans. I am always in touch with the die hard fans looking for the archives and when I found them some of them need working doing to them in which we did."

Was it difficult to pick the title for this album 'Magic Diamond...Best of Rock/ Ballads & Rare Treasures'?

"The main 'Magic Diamond' was always going to be the title but each song was either a rare song or a rare treasure, so we wanted the fans to know what 'Best of Rock/ Ballads & Rare Treasures' was also in there as well, a mixture of classic songs and rare and un-released material."

I have to say Doro, that you really do look after you're fans, with presenting such great artwork, and putting a lot of work into CD/ DVD booklets and t. shirts. What is why the fans love you so much as they respect you as much as you respect them.

"Well thank you Jason, I do try my best to make everything I do for the fans, I take my time in creating the best possible artwork, and packaging for the CDs or DVD's and design for t shirts. I like to take care of the fans and it always looks good when in this day and age that you can make the best for the fans. This new release has a poster and double vinyl, a scarf & even men and ladies perfume which I have had made for the fans and it smells lovely."

How well has the reviews been with the press for this new release so far?

"The reviews have been great so far and the fans love the packaging and some fans like either just the heavy stuff or the ballads or the in-between songs, you can't please everybody. In 4 hours you can pick or choose which songs you wish you listen too."

How did you feel about doing the drive through love shows this year?

"Well it looked like our video for 'All we Are' and it was like going back back to 1987 and it was pretty cool and it was not the same and people were in their cars and far away, but after a little while you get use to it and when we played 'All we Are' I went into the audience and it was so much fun. We got like 60000 people watching it in 2 days on the internet and then we started to get calls from promoters asking if we wanted to do anther show and the last show we did was on the beach. So people would be in pairs of 2 and would be drinking beer, it was great to see people having fun. 

The only member who could not do the shows was Nick because of lockdown so we got Harrison to play the bass and keyboards and he did a great job. We also had some shows were Lucas couldn't do the shows as he lives in Italy and we did one show in Sweden and he wasn't allowed in so we had another guitar player so you have to be flexible in this day and age.

We did a live stream for free, Johnnys did his parts at home and I will record my parts at home and so did the rest of the band. It got mixed together and we did it to keep things going."

How has lockdown effect you, have you been busy recording songs for other artists or albums?

"It has effect us as we had so many tour plans but they all got cancelled or rescheduled and we had America and South America tours & Australia booked, so I have tried to keep busy so I don't get depressed and we are all in this together. I did a couple of songs on the new Dave Ellefson Record, I did 2 songs one which was the Motorhead classic 'Love me like a Reptile', and Queens' 'Heart Attack'. I also did an Irish folks song and I love it."

When I last spoke to you I mentioned you doing a duet with Lita Ford, did you every talk about doing this with her and will there ever be a record released? 

"Yes we did record something last year together and we planned on going on tour together and the record will come out when things get back to normal once again. I am looking forward to having it released."

What would you're reaction be to either a 'Doro' or 'Warlock' tribute album?

"Well there is actually one been released, it is called 'True as Steel' and Sabaton do a cover of 'Fur Immer' and it will be released soon."

Well Doro, thank you for the interview, always a pleasure speaking to you and also meeting you. Send my regards to the band, please be safe. Do you have anything to say before we finish the interview?

"Well yes, thank you for the interview Jason, it's nice to speak to you as always and all the best to you Jason.. I will tell the band you said hi. To the fans, please be safe and stay metal and I love you all with all my heart.. 'Fur Immer' forever."

Thank You To Doro For The Interview & Also Nathan @ Superstitious Activities PR