Guitarist Rudolf Schenker celebrates his birthday today !!
(Photo: Timetorock.ru)
He was born on August 31, 1948, in Hildesheim, Germany.
Rudolf is the older brother of virtuoso guitarist Michael Schenker. He is 7 years older than him. Rudolf and Michael were influenced by bands like "Deep Purple," "Led Zeppelin," "Wishbone Ash" and more.
Rudolf Schenker founded "Scorpions" in 1965 and is the only permanent member of the band since its inception to this day.
From the beginning of the band's career until the joining of singer Klaus Meine in 1969, Rudolf also served as the band's singer.
Rudolf is the living spirit and lead writer of the band, who co-wrote most of its songs during their 50 years of activity, from the album "Lonesome Crow" in 1972 to the present day.
The Gibson Flying V guitar has become Rudolf's trademark. His brother Michael, also started playing guitars of this kind following Rudolf. This guitar is so identified with Rudolf that during Scorpions' acoustic show - "Acoustica" Gibson created an acoustic model of the V-shaped guitar, especially for him.
Although Rudolph serves as the band's rhythm guitarist, he plays solos in quite a few iconic songs of the band such as: Always Somewhere, "Still Loving You", "Send Me an Angel", "Lady Starlight", "Dynamite", "Big City Nights", "Wind of Change", "When The Smoke is Going Down", "Animal Magnetism" and more.
He also serves as the band's background vocalist, but in a number of the band's songs, he sings solo, such as: "Hey You", "They Need a Million", Drifting Sun" and more.
The character that appears on the cover of the album "Blackout" is his (yes, the one with the forks in his eyes). The same character also appears in the clip for the song "No One Like You" from the same album. See here:
To date, Schenker and the Scorpions have released 19 studio albums.