In a recent interview for MetalRules, Mikkey Dee talks about Motorhead’s “Bad Magic” album reissue, recording with the Scorpions, his love for hockey, joining Motorhead, but also about the circumstances leading to him becoming a Scorpion.
“They called me in to be a stand-in for James [James Kottak] just because they started to get tired of his problems. So they said: ‘Look, if you could be a stand-in for the parts of the European tour’? I said: ‘No problem’. Meanwhile, while I was secretly following the band around in Germany, we were rehearsing a couple of times… Secretly. I’m sure that they wanted to check me out, of course. You never know how things are gonna go with the social part or the musical part. They loved it immediately and my idea was to show them what they cannot be without. James is a great drummer, he did fantastic with Scorpions. He ran into some health problems that he had to deal with. I never did, nor will I ever talk him down but what I wanted to do at that point was to show what I can do. […] I said to the guys I was gonna motorize them: ‘I want it harder, tighter and heavier. I’m gonna put much more energy into what we do and hopefully that will contaminate the whole band and we can take it to another level. I can inspire you and you will inspire me’, because playing pretty much the same stuff for 25 years is one thing. So this was a big challenge for me. […] It was the same feeling joining Motorhead. […]
I saw every single show in that European tour because I had to learn the set. He [James Kottak] knew that there was a drummer, not who it was. He played great! I mean, he shaped up and played fine. I went back to Sweden and then I got a call right after the European tour and they said: ‘Can you finish out the year?’. […] I realized at that time he wasn’t coming back. […] He did great and then kinda lost it a little bit. […] I was not there to snag his seat in Scorpions. They had to do something and that’s what they chose to do and here I was.“