James Kottak really surprised when permanently replaced in Scorpions but doesn’t blame them

James Kottak really surprised when permanently replaced in Scorpions but doesn’t blame them

Kingdom Come and former Scorpions drummer James Kottak was recently interviewed by Jimmy Kay and Alan Dixon for Canada’s The Metal Voice. Back in April 2016, the Scorpions announced that Motörhead drummer Mikkey Dee would be replacing Kottak for a number of upcoming shows and in September 2016, it was announced that Kottak was no longer in the band.

Kottak was asked if he had any idea he was going to be replaced in Scorpions and if he knew his replacement was going to be Dee to which he replied (as provided by The Metal Voice with slight edits):

“Honestly, no but if you’re going to replace me, get somebody really good. Mikkey is a great drummer. I met him when he was starting with Don Dokken and [he is a] great guy. I’ve seen him play with King Diamond. Over the years, we have been running into each other.  I was in Antigua at the thing [Eric Clapton‘s addiction rehab centre Crossroads Centre Antigua in 2016] and I talked to the guys about once a week or so but I never had any indication that anything was going to change. And that there was only a handful of shows booked for the whole year, it was only like maybe 10 shows [left]. So they got some kid from Greece to fill in and then they kept going, ‘Man, you’ve got to stay there [at rehab]. Stay there all you want.’

So I’m like, ‘Oh okay’, so I did and everything seemed cool. Then once I came back to L.A. in July and we didn’t talk about splitting ways until November or something, so  I was actually really surprised about that. They’re smart guys man. They got their business to run. And as they would say ‘They’re in their twilight years’ so to speak and they just didn’t want to take any chances on any trouble and I don’t blame them. I was really surprised and taken off guard. I think we were on the phone that day for like two and a half hours going back and forth, back and forth, and stuff and uh, but they were so good to me.”

You can listen to the interview with James Kottak via The Metal Voice below: