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Metal Hammer
Metal Hammer
Entertainment
Paul Elliott

“In the 80s, you ordered a gram of cocaine like you ordered a beer. Doing cocaine was normal in those days”: The high times and crazy life of the Scorpions

Rudolf Schenker Scorpions Klaus Meine Cocaine Uli Jon Roth Michael Ochs Archives Ritchie Blackmore America Jimi Hendrix Hipgnosis
Scorpions posing for a photograph in leather outfits in 1984.

Formed in Germany in 1965, few metal bands can match the Scorpions for longevity. In 2015, as they celebrated their 50th anniversary, founder and guitarist Rudolf Schenker, singer Klaus Meine and guitarist Matthias Jabs looked back on becoming the first globally successful German rock band, the hedonistic days of the 80s and their alleged ‘retirement’…

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