The backstage area of Rockfest in Cadott Wisconsin is
comprised of one main building that houses a bunch of production and dressing
rooms, and a handful of trailers that are brought in to serve as dressing rooms
for acts that are lower on the bill.

We arrived on site and made our way to the dressing room,
which was at the front of the building facing the parking lot where the other
temporary dressing room trailers were located.

As Jerry & I were sitting in the dressing room talking,
we heard music off in the distance, but it didn’t take long to figure out that
it wasn’t coming from the stage.

It was coming from one of the dressing room trailers.

And at a festival full of loud rock bands making a ton of
noise with amplified guitars, it stood out.

It took me a while to figure out what we were hearing, but
eventually I realized that it was The Backstreet Boys.

Then it was NSYNC.

Then Whitney Houston.

And the pop hits kept coming.

I’m not sure if whoever was playing this stuff was being
ironic, or if they just really had a soft spot for top 40 hits from the past.

Either way, it was a bit interesting to hear that kind of
music cranking at this kind of a festival.

That led us to break out or own Bluetooth speakers and play
some music of our own.

This almost never happens in the dressing room before a
show, but there are exceptions to every rule.

Why?

Because Sean Kinney needs an education.

And the class being taught was Early Scorpions 101, with
Professors Baldy & Cantrell.

If you were a child of the 80’s and liked hard rock music,
it’s hard to imagine that the Scorpions weren’t a part of your musical diet.

But part of Sean’s diet is lacking, because he wasn’t
familiar with any of the Scorpions early work prior to the Lovedrive album.

We rattled off song titles, album titles, and former band
members.

Nothing.

So the only thing to do was crank a few early Scorpions
tunes and open Sean’s eyes and ears to the wondrous Uli Jon Roth era of the
band.

And he didn’t seem to care.

He was unfazed by Robot
Man, unfamiliar with He’s A Woman,
She’s A Man, and unmoved by In Trance.

So Jerry & I reluctantly gave him an F and moved on with
the day.

But this attempted education reminded me of a little project
I worked on in the studio back during the recording of Black Gives Way To Blue.

There was a day back then when the subject of the Scorpions
was once again on the table, and it was Sean who brought it up.

He was talking about how the members of the band always had
their mouths open like they were screaming in all of their publicity pictures.

This led me to write a fake letter to Mike Inez and post it
in the studio.

It went over pretty well with everyone, so I hung onto it.

So on a day almost eight years later when the Scorpions are
once again on our minds, I dug out the letter and am including it here.

If you’re not familiar with the Scorpions expansive catalog
of songs then this will probably go over your head, but if you love the Scorpions
like Jerry & me, you may hopefully enjoy this…