The Scorpions enjoyed their greatest commercial success after guitarist Uli Jon Roth left the band in 1978, as evidenced by such subsequent hit albums as “Blackout,” “Love at First Sting,” and “Crazy World,” plus the hit singles “No One Like You,” “Rock You Like a Hurricane,” and “Wind of Change.”
However, there is no denying the greatness of the Uli-era Scorpions material, which although less popular, has proven more influential, as such renowned and varied guitar pluckers as Yngwie Malmsteen, Kirk Hammett, and Billy Corgan have all admitted over the years.
And during a recent interview on the Mike Nelson Show, Roth discussed his decision to leave the band just as they were on the cusp of worldwide success (transcribed by Ultimate Guitar).
“It was an easy decision for me because I’d been in the band for five years and I really loved being there, I learned an awful lot.
It was like my apprenticeship in the business and all that. But there came a time, and it was around 1977, the year that I wrote ‘The Sails of Charon’ and all these pieces, I started writing completely different material. It just came to me.”
“Like a piece called ‘Earthquake’, which was a 10-minute semi-symphonic extravaganza and guitar fireworks. I knew I couldn’t bring that to the Scorpions’ table.
It would have completely been out of place. And I came up with more and more of that stuff. Then I knew that I had to leave, because I wanted to be free to do that.”
To this day, Roth does not regret his decision. As he further explained, it was completely musical, not personal.
“The right thing was for me to leave and just go on my own path. That’s what happened. And it was the right to decision.
Yeah, I would have been swimming in money had I stayed, but I wouldn’t have been very happy because the most important thing in my artistic life is that I have the freedom to create what I want.”
“And you can’t do that once you’re in a super-successful band, because people expect a certain something, and that’s what it is. With the Scorpions, they expect hit songs.
And my songs, I hardly ever repeat choruses and phrases. You can’t do that when you want to write a hit song. You need to repeat. I get bored very easily so, it’s not for me.”