Kee Marcello would not rejoin Europe if he had to play their “reunion” material
Kee Marcello would not rejoin Europe if he had to play their “reunion” material
Former Europe guitarist Kee Marcello was recently interviewed by the 80’s Glam Metalcast podcast and asked how come he was not part of Europe‘s current line-up of lead vocalist Joey Tempest, guitarist John Norum, keyboardist Mic Michaeli, bassist John Leven and drummer Ian Haughland. Marcello replaced Norum in Europe back in 1986 and ended up playing on the studio albums Out of This World (1988) and Prisoners of Paradise (1991) before the group went on hiatus in 1992.
Wikipedia states the following about the band’s comeback and choice of guitarist going forward (with slight edits): “The band members started to discuss the possibility of a Europe reunion in 1998. “Mic and Ian came over to see me in Ireland,” Tempest said, “Then whilst we were there, John Norum called from LA, and we were like ‘Yes, maybe now is the right time to get things started again’.” For the 2000 millennium celebrations, Europe was asked to do a concert in Stockholm on New Year’s Eve 1999. That would be Europe‘s first and, to date, only concert with both of their lead guitarists, since both John Norum and Kee Marcello had accepted the offer to play that evening with the rest of the group. They played “Rock the Night” and “The Final Countdown”.
Over the years, there were several reunion rumors, and on October 2, 2003, it was made official: Europe announced plans for a new album and world tour. The band then switched back to The Final Countdown line-up, with John Norum as the only lead guitarist. “There was no doubt that we wanted John back, and John wanted to get back,” Tempest said, “For me it was important to get that spark going again that we had before.” Kee Marcello claimed that he was too busy with his own projects. “I told them I didn’t want to participate in a [new] studio album because musically, I want to go in a different kind of direction than the music Europe stands for,” Marcello said, “Then we talked for a while about doing a six-piece tour – it didn’t turn out that way because of different reasons.””
In terms of why he’s not in Europe‘s line-up, Marcello indicated: “That’s a good question. We had first talked about doing a 2 guitar version of the band….but that didn’t happen. I had an idea to not really care about what was happening in music in the 2000’s. I wanted to do Europe’s thing, those melodic songs again and it didn’t seem like anyone was into that, especially Joey Tempest. So I think that’s the main reason I am not in the current line up. I currently don’t have any contact with Joey.”
On whether he would rejoin Europe, Marcello stated: “No! It depends. I would not be in if I had to play music from their reunion albums. That would not work for me. If we were to do something new or the music from when I was in it…I would think about it.”
Europe‘s “Prisoners of Paradise” video:
Europe – Prisoners in Paradise (Official Music Video)
Europe’s official music video for ‘Prisoners In Paradise’. Click to listen to Europe on Spotify: http://smarturl.it/EuropeSpot?IQid=EuropePIPAs featured on 1…
80’s Glam Metalcast interview with Kee Marcello:
80’s Glam Metalcast – Episode 12 – Kee Marcello (ex Europe/Easy Action)
In this episode, I talk to guitar legend Kee Marcello. We talk about his upcoming projects and his days in Easy Action and Europe.Find all the recent info on…