Guns N’ Roses’ Axl Rose and Slash, and Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider are among the guest artists featured on former Scorpions and UFO guitarist Michael Schenker’s upcoming album, My Years with UFO. The album celebrates the 50th anniversary of Schenker joining UFO, and features new versions of 11 songs he recorded with the heavy metal group from 1974 through 1978.
Videos by American Songwriter
My Years with UFO will be released on September 20, and can be pre-ordered now. Other noteworthy musicians and singers who contributed to the project include Deep Purple’s Roger Glover, Ratt’s Stephen Pearcy, Vanilla Fudge/Cactus drummer Carmine Appice, Europe’s Joey Tempest, Saxon’s Biff Byford, former Whitesnake guitarist Adrian Vandenberg, ex-Rainbow frontman Joe Lynn Turner, and Helloween’s Kai Hansen.
[RELATED: Behind the Space-Age Band Name of UFO]
Serving as Schenker’s main backing group on the album are drummer Brian Tichy, who has played with Billy Idol, Whitesnake and Foreigner; former Dream Theater keyboardist Derek Sherinian; and ex-Michael Schenker Group bassist Barry Sparks.
Most of the album’s 11 tracks were songs that Schenker co-wrote with founding UFO frontman Phil Mogg.
Advance Single Features Slash
An updated version of the 1975 UFO song “Mother Mary” has been released as an advance single from the album. It features Slash on guitar and former Skid Row singer Eric Grönwall on vocals.
The track is available for streaming now.
More About My Years with UFO
Rose sings on a rendition of the 1977 UFO song “Love to Love.” Snider and current Whitesnake guitarist Joel Hoekstra are featured on a version of the band’s 1976 tune “Natural Thing.”
UFO’s biggest hit was a 1979 live version of the band’s 1974 tune “Doctor Doctor” that peaked at No. 35 on the U.K. singles chart. Turner and Appice appear on the updated rendition of the song featured on My Years with UFO.
More About Schenker
As a teenager, the German-born Schenker played with the Scorpions, which his older brother Rudolf co-founded, from 1969 to 1973. He then joined the U.K.-based UFO, and was a member of that group until 1978, when he briefly rejoined the Scorpions.
In 1979, Schenker launched his own band, the Michael Schenker Group, which became his main musical focus for many years. The guitar virtuoso also reunited with UFO a few times, as well as launching various other projects.
My Years with UFO is the first of a planned trilogy of albums from Schenker as part of a new deal he signed with the earMUSIC label. The other two albums are expected to arrive in 2025 and 2026, respectively.
My Years with UFO Track List:
- “Natural Thing” (featuring Dee Snider and Joel Hoekstra)
- “Only You Can Rock Me” (featuring Joey Tempest and Roger Glover)
- “Doctor Doctor” (featuring Joe Lynn Turner and Carmine Appice)
- “Mother Mary” (featuring Slash and Erik Grönwall)
- “This Kid’s” (featuring Biff Byford)
- “Love to Love” (featuring Axl Rose)
- “Lights Out” (featuring Jeff Scott Soto and John Norum)
- “Rock Bottom” (featuring Kai Hansen)
- “Too Hot to Handle” (featuring Joe Lynn Turner, Adrian Vandenberg, and Carmine Appice)
- “Let It Roll” (featuring Michael Voss)
- “Shoot, Shoot” (featuring Stephen Pearcy)
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