DRUMMER James Kottak has reacted with surprise to revelations he was secretly being spied upon by his Scorpions replacement – who was invited to do so by the band.
Mikkey Dee told Metal-Rules that in 2016 the band called him in as a possible replacement for Kottak and hid him in arenas so he could watch the band and learn the songs.
“I was sitting secretly up on the arena,” Dee was quoted as saying.
“I had to sit very, very far away up there with in-ears, so I could hear what was going on. And [James] knew that there was a drummer – not who it was.”
Speaking on The Metal Voice in a live interview, Kottak said on Monday night that immediately before the shows in question he was in rehab in Antigua.
“I talked to the guys once a week or so and I never had any indication anything was going to change,” he said,
“I was really surprised by that (Dee interview). But they’re smart guys, they’ve got a business to run.
“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.
“I don’t blame them.
“If I knew something was going on, I would have checked out after the 30 days I agreed to go down there to Antigua.
“Because there were two shows we were going to do. I’m not sure if he’d flown in or not.
“But we were talking all along and there were never any indication that we were going to part ways.”
Kottak currently spearheads a rebooted version of German outfit Kingdom Come.
