Michael Schenker

Michael Schenker (born 10 January 1955) is a German guitarist.

He played in the rock band UFO and leads the Michael Schenker Group (MSG).

He was an early member of the hard rock band Scorpions, a band co-founded by his elder brother Rudolf Schenker.

In the mid-1970s, Schenker joined UFO, playing lead and rhythm guitar.

He left the band in 1978 to briefly rejoin Scorpions for the recording of Lovedrive, and then to form MSG.

He has rejoined UFO three times, producing an album each time.

Schenker continues to perform and record.

He has been called "a legendary figure in the history of metal guitar."

Schenker started playing guitar at an early age, after his brother Rudolf got a Gibson Flying V guitar for his birthday, which captured his imagination.

His main influences were Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Leslie West, Johnny Winter and Rory Gallagher.

He played his first gig when he was 11, with Rudolf and the Scorpions in a nightclub.

Schenker played with the Scorpions on their debut Lonesome Crow at the age of 16.

After recording their first album, the Scorpions opened for up-and-coming UK band UFO in Germany.

Schenker was invited to be lead guitarist for UFO (taking over from Bernie Marsden, himself a temporary replacement for Mick Bolton).

With Rudolf's blessing, Schenker accepted.

Schenker cowrote most of the songs on UFO's major label (Chrysalis Records) debut Phenomenon.

His career with UFO was turbulent, sometimes walking off mid-song and causing shows to be cancelled.

Despite successful albums and tours, Schenker unequivocally quit UFO after their show in Stanford, Connecticut, on 29 October 1978.

During this tour the band had recorded six concerts, from which selected tracks would make up their live album Strangers in the Night, released after he left the band.

"[Singer Phil] Mogg later claimed that I left UFO over a disagreement about which version of 'Rock Bottom' appeared on Strangers," Schenker recalled, "but don't believe everything you read."

Schenker briefly rejoined Scorpions in late 1978, when they were recording Lovedrive.

He composed and played lead guitar on "Another Piece of Meat", "Coast To Coast" and "Lovedrive".

Although it was believed for decades that those three were Schenker's only contributions to the record, during an interview with satellite radio host Eddie Trunk, Schenker vehemently maintained that he contributed to the whole album.

In 1979, Schenker briefly toured with the band in support of the album.

He blamed his very short stay on finding out he did not enjoy playing other people's songs.

He was permanently replaced by Matthias Jabs, who had originally joined Scorpions before Schenker's return.

Schenker auditioned for Aerosmith in 1979 after Joe Perry left.

According to Martin Huxley, Schenker stormed out of the room after producer Gary Lyons made jokes about Nazis.

After the death of Randy Rhoads, Ozzy Osbourne's first call was to Schenker to replace Rhoads, as the German guitarist and his iconic Flying V were a huge influence on the latter.

But, Osbourne claims, Schenker made too many outlandish demands (including a private jet).

Schenker himself, in an interview with KNAC radio, claims he was the one to say "no" to Osbourne: "If I would have joined Ozzy Osbourne, I would have screwed up my life. I was almost about to do it, and something told me: DON'T!!"

Schenker has also claimed that at some point he was offered, but turned down joining the likes of Deep Purple, Thin Lizzy, Ian Hunter and Motörhead in order to focus on his solo career.

In 1979, Schenker started a solo career by founding the Michael Schenker Group (MSG).

The history of MSG is strewn with personality conflicts and incidents.

In 1982, original singer Gary Barden, who sang on the first two studio albums and a live album, was fired in favour of Graham Bonnet.

Bonnet lasted one album (Assault Attack) and a single gig, at Sheffield University, where he drunkenly exposed himself and was subsequently fired from the band.

Barden rejoined MSG for the rest of the tour.

He also appeared on the 1983 studio album (Built to Destroy) and the band's second live album (Rock Will Never Die).

After Barden's second departure, Schenker reorganized the band around himself and new singer Robin McAuley and renamed it the McAuley Schenker Group.

The new incarnation of MSG was steered toward a more commercial hard rock sound.