In a recent chat with Spain’s classic rock radio station RockFM, Scorpion’s Rudolf Schenker talked about drummer Mikkey Dee, and how he’s compared to former drummer James Kottak, who left the band about five years ago.

Here’s what the guitarist said:

“Every musician has his own style. James was great and is still a great drummer, no question about this, but we had a little problem… well, he had a problem, and we tried to help him through the problem. In this case, we noticed that he need[ed] more time than we could give him because we were on tour.

”So in this case, Matthias [Jabs, guitar] had the idea to call Mikkey Dee, because he was available because of [Motorhead frontman] Lemmy‘s death. So, yeah, it was a great thing to see light in the distance because we were a little bit depressed because we [were] helping James so much, but he couldn’t deliver the spirit we gave him. And so we split.

“We rehearsed with Mikkey Dee and we noticed immediately there’s a new kind of kick-a*s [energy]. Everybody has his own style, and Mikkey Dee is really a very, especially for me as a rhythm guitar player, he is a very influencing person. That means when I play my riffs, he knows how to make them more wild and more powerful.

”And that’s very good, it’s a synergy effect which even is added by Paweł [Mąciwoda, bass] because they are really a great rhythm team, Pawel and Mikkey Dee, and me as a rhythm guitar player, we can build a great basis for Matthias and Klaus [Meine, vocals].”