"I was asking Till, I said you know, what's with all, you know, the fire and everything about the fire where does this come from?" "And he looks at me and says:" "There are three kinds of fire!" "First is the fire of the mind, your thoughts... ok?" "!" "Second kind of fire is the fire of the heart." "It's your passion... and lam waiting for the third kind... and he says, then the third kind of fire, it's just fire!" "They'd offered me earplugs." "Before they'd said, you will need these!" "And lam ah..." "So I used the earplugs, it was still too loud... my body was shaking!" "When the fans are there it's your job to give them bang for the buck." "We are brothers in pyro!" "We lead by fire." "The first time I met Till, he came into my dressing room on fire." "That's a great entrance!" "We couldn't even shake hands, because Till was on fire." "I probably could have roasted marshmallows from the seat I was in." "And I wasn't in the front row." "The production was over the top!" "It was great!" "It's everything that Americans think of Germany." "It just runs, Germany, it runs really well, like it's a very well oiled machine." "It was an incredible display of power and beauty, light and shade, entertainment." "It was a rock opera!" "Their backstory is unbelievably interesting!" "Six guys from behind the Iron Curtain who really did not believe they're ever gonna have the opportunity to play the kind of music that they are now playing." "It's the 1980s!" "The East German music scene is small but active, and very tightly knit." "Bands come and go, everyone knows everyone else and there is a great sense of solidarity." "On the road with their former band 'Feeling B,'" "Paul Landers and Flake Lorenz play every venue they're allowed to." "Back then, it was normal to play together with a lot of friends." "If you had time, you'd meet up and play together." "'Feeling B' and 'Die Firma' were still around so everyone had their own bands." "Back then life for Paul and Flake revolves around 'Feeling B.'" "Later they are joined by drummer Christoph Schneider." "In Schwerin Till Lindemann is playing drums in the band 'First Arsch,'" "Richard Kruspe is with 'Das Elegante Chaos,' and later'Orgasm Death Gimmick,' while Oliver Riedel is with 'The Inchtabokatables.'" "Their role models however are predominantly Western." "Because we could listen to radio, we had the same radio broadcasts as West Germans." "Radio Free Berlin had such great programs, and so musically we were on the same level as the West, because music quickly crosses borders." "And we knew the American bands, too." "School, of course, gave us a politically tinted view." "The GDR tried to portray the Soviet Union as good, and the West as bad, including America." "It actually accomplished the opposite!" "I had a huge 'Kiss' poster on my door at home, and one day my step—father came in and ripped the poster into a thousand pieces." "I spent the whole night putting the pieces back together, and the next morning at about 5:30, I was finished and could hang the poster back on my door." "When they would be able to get their hands on a tape, you know of a band, it was so..." "It meant so much to them." "So when the wall came down, obviously, that enabled 'Rammstein' to even exist." "In 1993, Schwerin friends Till, Richard and Oliver celebrate their newfound travel freedom with a voyage of discovery across the south—western USA." "Simultaneously 'Feeling B' are visiting the south—eastern part of America." "Blissfully unaware of each other's existence, the future 'Rammstein' members discover the formerly—forbidden country." "We only knew America through film's and thought it was a dangerous country." "We could speak school English, but it wasn't enough for communication." "The only one who could speak a bit of English was Till." "Oli could say 'yes" and I could say "no," so we were a good team." "Yeah, and it was terrible on the phone when they towed our car." "They were so inconsiderate, wouldn't speak a little slower, it didn't work..." "We've taken your car away..." "I didn't understand a word!" "Then they mentioned some kind of "fine," and I said: is it fine?" "But they wanted money!" "Till, Oliver and Richard's traveling party don't allow themselves to be waylaid by such problems and continue to enjoy the new world." "Paul, Schneider and Flake however take it a step further, and try to top up their depleted vacation fund with occasional performances." "When we were in New Orleans it was Mardi Gras, which is carnival for us." "There were bands playing in every bar, there was a real party atmosphere." "Then we said we'd play, too, and suddenly the whole venue was empty!" "No one came in, everyone just ran out." "I remember how Schneider asked the drummer, can I play on your kit?" "Then the drummer looked at Schneider's sticks, they were quite thick, and gave him two thin ones, right?" "He was completely over the moon." "Then he gave me his sticks and I had to keep playing with the thin ones." "And he asked me not to play too hard." "This American adventure is more than just a journey through the land of seemingly unlimited possibilities." "It is also a turning point." "At that time, we were a little bit directionless." "We still had the bands that we had in the East, but we knew that we might want to start something new." "It was a kind of crossroad." "For all of us, independently of each other and both groups, seeing how music was made here, was an inspiration that we took back to Europe." "We saw that in California, there were two people in L.A., on Sunset Strip, listening to this band playing." "They were kind of awesome in a way, it sounded good, at least to our East German ears." "There were two people in the pit, and then the band started, and they acted like they were playing for ten thousand people." "They went crazy!" "I said, what's wrong with them?" "You can't go on stage like that!" "Because we always thought, at the youth club, when a band plays there, it's always packed, or there are at least a few people there." "Two people!" "I didn't understand why they would even start?" "!" "I thought that this is the American way, to always give one hundred percent no matter what." "I noticed that music is more important to people here, because they have to live from it." "We're from the GDR and it was like paradise, you lived your life and then played music on the side for fun, because there was always money." "Here, people who make music are dependent on it and therefore take it more seriously." "Lives led in East Germany and experiences gained in America..." "These are the foundations on which 'Rammstein' is built." "The musicians also view their new band as a reaction to the situation in the reunified Germany." "We didn't want 'Rammstein' to sound like American bands!" "But we adopted the energy of the approach for our band." "We conceptualized the band to stir things up!" "We'd done it already with our bands in the East, and 'Rammstein' happens to be just what the West needs." "We were never allowed to say anything, that's how it was in the East." "The problem was always that certain topics couldn't be addressed." "in music, for example, the lyrics would be vague or in English so that no one could understand them." "Then all of a sudden you have the opportunity to say and sing whatever you want." "Even do some of the things you want to on stage, and of course in that moment you scream it from your soul." "Basically, we do what many people would like to do." "And you get the angriest about the mistakes you'd like to make yourself." "Basically, we rustle all the feathers we can here in Germany, and people get angry because they don't dare do it themselves." "I think it's good that 'Rammstein' polarizes." "I like it when a band provokes people into discussing the topic." "I think it's good in general." "People thinking about certain things and then maybe even realizing where they stand, and what their own opinion is." "We started as a completely normal band." "We just played." "There were no show elements." "Till actually saw us in Berlin 1994." "He said, he was at that show and for him and his friends, it was like one of the most important shows they ever went to, and he said especially 'Anthrax,' because he had never seen a band moving so much and trying to entertain" "and he said, it was really, really influential on them, when they were first putting 'Rammstein' together, thinking we want to entertain people." "American audiences, Western audiences like to be entertained!" "There is a long history of entertainment from the West, starting from Elvis Presley and... but it has to have, for longevity, it has to have some substance behind it." "I know that 'Kiss,' I am sure was a big influence on them as they were with me." "They were my heroes." "The first band that introduced certain special effects into their shows like pyrotechnics etc., I'd never seen that before." "'Rammstein's stage show is constantly evolving." "Pyrotechnics quickly become an integral part of their performances." "Before long the band is reaching an ever—greater audience." "'Rammstein' now play major festivals with international line—ups, and many American acts become aware of the German band." "I remember being somewhere in Europe and hearing bubbling commentary about a new important German group called 'Rammstein.'" "And it rang a strange bell, what is 'Rammstein', 'Rammstein?" "'" ""Stein" of course is German for "stone" and "ramm," to "ram" is a verb in English, it's an aggressive verb." "It means to push through and with aggressive force but I'd heard something else and all of a sudden, I realized..." "Ramstein is the big American base and I thought, oh!" "Somebody put their finger on the belly button." "I remember, we saw them in 1997 on this festival." "And he was shooting that flamethrower out over the crowd and I remember going:" "You can't do this at home!" "We played at festivals in Germany where international bands played, too." "After the concert, they'd come to us and say:" "You have to come over!" "And we always thought, what?" "Really?" "We sing in German, no one is interested in that!" "Feedback from international artists, and their rising popularity in Germany and beyond, spur 'Rammstein' on to take the next step." "The band wants to crack the American market." "The path from Germany to America just doesn't exist." "There's only the path from America and England to Germany." "There aren't even telephone lines." "They don't even have the numbers!" "They just get called up and told what to release." "In their search for a suitable American partner they come across Bob Biggs, founder of the independent label 'Slash Records.'" "He has experience of working with acts like 'Faith No More' and 'Asian Dub Foundation.'" "Biggs decides to take a gamble on 'Rammstein,' and says yes." "I came from a punk rock background, I think." "And I mean, the stuff that the bands that I had were doing, was, you know... it wasn't as slick and as produced and as good." "But they were doing crazy things on stage." "To understand 'Rammstein,' you have to see 'Rammstein' live." "That's why we invited him back then, and he came to see us play at the 'Bizarre Festival'..." "At the time, I had pretty much complete autonomy!" "I could do whatever I wanted to do, and when I first started talking about 'Rammstein,' it wasn't really popular within the company." "Biggs is particularly fascinated by their stage production as a total work of art." "He saw it and then fell in love with the band, and, of course, with his motivation he accomplished a lot of things we needed." "In this country, you need someone who believes in you." "And then, we brought them over to New York to play a couple of gigs, just to get them introduced." "In September 1997 the time has finally come!" "'Rammstein's American adventure begins." "European success counts for little here." "America is a totally different market, in which it is difficult for European bands to get a foot hold." "So, in New York, 'Rammstein' start again from scratch." "This is the location where we played for the first time." "The venue was called 'Banks' because it used to be an old bank." "I recall that we played here for about 15 people." "We were playing this festival called the 'College Music Festival.'" "And then, we heard a band called 'Rammstein' was going to play the same night and we were very excited going, who is this band from Germany?" "Wait a minute!" "We sing in German, they sing in German." "This is awesome." "We have to hang out with them, right?" "We sat on our gear in the hallway when 'Rammstein' arrived." "And all of them appeared at that time to be about eight feet tall." "And they just filed in one by one in front of us, walking stoically." "They came in with a smoke machine." "It was like the sun was behind them, they came in like shadows!" "The smoke machine and we sat there and went like...." "I remember, back then, we always started with the burning jacket." "I remember that Till set himself on fire out here, and then walked through the venue to get to the stage." "Because we didn't have a backstage area to prepare the pyrotechnics." "'Rammstein' went on considerably late and played to about 30 people, two of which were us." "Of course, we waited around and we were just, it was just like..." "It was insane, it was an arena show in a bar, it was a barena!" "Bob had said to me, you need to go check out this band!" "They are gonna be avery big priority for you!" "You're gonna have to work this and we're putting this album out in January!" "And I remember watching this and seeing this and saying to myself:" "This is it?" "This is the big priority?" "The German band's show causes jaws to drop." "The press now take notice of the six lads from the fallen East Germany, not least of all due to the band's extreme physical exertion." "Back then, we had a song that we played called... what was it called again?" ""Ich tu dir weh." — "Feuerrader."" "No, "Feuerrader!" — Yeah!" "That's what I meant." "That was the performance where Flake rode around on Till for awhile with a neon tube in his hand, and then, for the finale, would basically shatter it into a thousand pieces on Till's back." "German neon tubes are thin and very easy to break." "But Flake didn't know that American neon tubes are about three to four times thicker and not as easily shattered." "Exactly!" "So he went nuts trying to break it on Till's back." "PoorTill almost couldn't handle it anymore, and at the end it didn't really shatter, it just broke into two pieces." "The other piece flew at me while I was playing and suddenly it was stuck in my shoulder!" "And then we all went out onto the street where Till and I bled like crazy." "Till's back looked really bad!" "It was full of shards." "That was our first show in America." "It was like trial by fire!" "We're seeing it live in a small club with them playing and smashing fluorescent lights across each other." "I left and I just remember walking out shaking my head and saying:" "What am I gonna do with these guys?" "How is this gonna work?" "Listen to the band!" "It didn't really matter!" "I mean the trilling of the German like an opera singer, and the way it came out and the attack that it had and the point that the music had, was so aggressive and so, so, so striking!" "I didn't really care what was going on." "It didn't matter to me, I just thought it was wonderful stuff." "A mere three months later, in December 1997," "'Rammstein' embark upon their first major U.S. tour, supporting the industrial band 'KMFDM.'" "Pyrotechnics are 'Rammstein's trump card at this point." "I flew out to come and see the band, to see them perform, to see them really let loose." "I'll never forget, the show ended." "The end of the show, Till held out the flamethrower and was blowing flames, it couldn't have been more than 25 or 30 feet over the crowd's head and I saw the reaction of the crowd." "And I remember leaving that show that night and realizing this could work!" "So that was the next step for me to sort of believing and seeing what 'Rammstein' could really ultimately achieve." "The band still lack an American agent who can book shows for them in the U.S." "As a result Wayne Pighini has to do an awful lot of persuading." "He had called me and said, we are looking for an agent for this band and I think you would be perfect." "Your company represents 'Metallica,' you've some of the biggest artists in the world, but my initial instinct was, that this will never, ever work in America." "So I called Wayne and I said, I'm passing, I'm out, it's never gonna happen here!" "Americans will never listen to a band that sings in German." "And he wouldn't give up!" "So I said, OK!" "Listen!" "I'm gonna go see the show." "So I went to Los Angeles, I walked into the Palladium," "'Rammstein' comes out," "Till has his arms open with the metal jacket, completely on fire..." "I looked at Wayne and I said, I'm in!" "This is so extreme, this is so real, that America will eat this up!" "The biggest dream for every band from Europe or Germany is to be successful in America." "If you're then lucky enough to gain that success in your own language without having to imitate anything, if you can stay true to yourself, your music and language, you feel even better, of course." "That's why these concerts were incredibly important to us." "That we managed, after a certain time, after we'd already been successful in Germany, to do concerts here with 'Rammstein.'" "Because we just knew that our show, the pyrotechnics and everything, would also be well received in America, regardless of whether we sang in German, we knew that it was definitely worth trying to come here with 'Rammstein.'" "So it's possible that someone would go to a 'Rammstein' show in the States and have no interest in guitar—based music or heavy metal, but they just love the fireworks and the spectacle." "The first headline tour that we booked for 'Rammstein' across the U.S., we did San Francisco, L.A., Denver, Chicago and New York." "It's 1,200 miles to Denver!" "From where?" "From L.A." "Maybe we should leave earlier." "Pre sale!" "Denver 464!" "Chicago 740!" "Pre sale!" "740!" "Fucking beautiful!" "520 New York City!" "Two weeks left!" "Looking good!" "Very good." "Kids were coming to the show, knowing that they were gonna see an incredible, intense show with pyrotechnics!" "And the band was challenged every day by the authorities as to what they could do or couldn't do." "When we were in Chicago in 1998, the fire department came down to the show and they told them they were not allowed to do fire!" "And they were like:" "Oh, my God!" "How we gonna do a show, without FEUER?" "!" "So the band had two choices!" "One:" "Go home!" "Two:" "Do a show with no pyro!" "So they said:" "Fuck it!" "There's 1,100 people here, we're gonna play without pyro and we're gonna kick some ass!" "We didn't know that almost every type of pyrotechnics needed to be inspected for permission!" "One of the drawbacks is that everyone here in America takes their job so seriously!" "150 percent seriously, and you have to show them everything." "Even to this day, the band will not play, cannot play in the city limits of Chicago, because they had massive fires way back in the early 1900s." "But the band receive surprising support of a very different kind from Hollywood." "Visionary director David Lynch uses two of their songs in his now—legendary film 'Lost Highway.'" "Lynch was definitely a door—opener." "A door opened for us into that style of art." "All these intellectuals, noticed us for the first time." "I mean, Manson was involved." "Trent Reznor of 'Nine Inch Nails' did the soundtrack back then, so it was a good soundtrack with Lynch, yeah." "I was playing a prisoner in the jail scene." "Henry Rollins was the prison guard." "So during that scene on the set David Lynch was playing this music to set the mood." "Because he wanted it to be very dark and very scary." "Start the music quiet!" "And then, when it hits the quiet part of the music, we'll crank it up on action, OK?" "!" "So he starts playing this song: "Rammstein!"" "I never heard it before!" "He's playing this really evil heavy music with some guy with this voice and singing in German!" "And I am like, this is fucked up!" "I'm sitting in this weird jail cell and I've never been in a movie before, so I was nervous anyway and the music just made me more nervous and that was the point." "David Lynch was like:" "I want everyone to look really nervous and scared, and the music did it!" "And then I asked afterwards." "I said, what's that music you're playing?" "He goes:" "They're this German band called 'Rammstein!" "' Isn't it great?" "!" "I mean certainly having 'Rammstein' in 'Lost Highway' was the introduction that 'Rammstein' had to a lot of Americans." "I think, they still would have had success without that, but it's such an amazing scene and the music works so perfectly." "You know, it's hard to imagine that scene with any other music in there." "I was involved with David Lynch making 'Lost Highway' and I had heard some music that he was considering using for the film and for some reason, he had asked me about 'Rammstein'." "And it ended up being in the sex scene when fucking somebody:" "Patricia Arquette." "So that's where it first started with, so I hopefully had a part of the suggestion to David Lynch because I was such a fan of the song." "At that point, David Lynch and Trent Reznor were like demigods." "And so David Lynch and Trent Reznor saying that they liked 'Rammstein' suddenly made it OK for everyone else in America to like 'Rammstein.'" "Cut it!" "Good deal!" "We're there, man!" "I think we gained a lot of hardcore fans at that time." "People that listened to that type of music, not the mainstream public." "But these were the first fans to notice 'Rammstein' in America." "So, the first American interview they did here was with a major fashion magazine, was with 'Details!" "'" "And I knew it was the right thing to do, as soon as people started calling up and saying:" "How the fuck did that happen?" "I was just working on these things, like I wanted them to be in 'Details' or 'GQ' or 'Esquire' or 'Vanity Fair' first before anything else and 'MTV' started getting into them," "ready to do some sort of Headbangers' Ball rock thing and I said, no, I didn't wanna do it until Kurt Loder did it himself and I also knew that Kurt Loder spoke German." "Metal isn't a musical combination one comes across every day." "When the German band 'Rammstein' passed through New York recently, in flames literally, we had to catch their act." "The group is fronted by an Olympic swimming champ, oddly enough has already been featured on a soundtrack of David Lynch's film 'Lost Highway' and doesn't speak English." "So in a tribute to Raymond Burr's placed—in appearance in the original 'Godzilla' we dusted off our rusty German and pre-taped some questions to put to the boys." "It seemed like a good idea, but let's see." "Good evening, gentlemen." "So tell me what's going on with the fire?" "There's fire in the videos and fire on stage, what's up with that?" "It's important to have something more than just for your ears, because that's what you get on the CD at home." "It was always my experience that when I went to a concert," "I wanted to see something other than the music." "Isn't that dangerous?" "Only minor things have happened to us, like light to moderate burns sometimes, some singed hair and maybe a burnt ear and those guys 'Rammstein.' Please don't try this at home, kids!" "Guitars can be dangerous!" "At the time, the music scene was the 'Spice Girls' and stuff like that." "It was 'Hanson,' it was terrible!" "And it was also this new metal scene with 'Korn' and 'Linkin Park' and those guys." "'Korn' and 'Linkin Park' were pretty powerful bands, but they weren't as interesting to look at as 'Rammstein' was." "They were just very theatrical sort of like 'Kiss' in away." "So they were much more interesting I thought and they knew exactly what they were doing." "Till is a great singer." "And I just loved it," "I love "Du Hast" and I love that album, it's really great." "Hard heavy music, metal, whatever you want to call it, was really on an upswing at that time in the form of bands like 'Limp Bizkit,' 'Korn,' 'System of a Down,'" "'Tool,' 'Rage Against the Machine,' these bands at that time were starting to become really popular mainstream and radio had to support that." "Again these bands were just getting too big outside of radio and that whole movement of heavy bands really sort of had dictated a new direction for radio stations." "Alternative radio in the States was 'Jewel' and 'The Wallflowers' and was very lighthearted." "And then almost over night, it became 'Metallica,' 'Limp Bizkit,'" "'Puddle of Mudd,' 'Disturbed' and 'Rammstein' fit perfectly into that." "The only other German band we really knew was 'The Scorpions' before." "And, you know, they always sang in English." "So it was very interesting to see this band playing such heavy, heavy music and singing in German, and American kids loving it, they loved it." "Because think about it, before that it was "99 Luftballons."" "So you got, it was 'Nena,' 'Rammstein.'" "It seems like every decade, there is one German song that is incredibly pervasive." "And it seems like this country allows only one German song per decade to be a hit." "'Rammstein' were fortunate enough to get the 90s." "'Rammstein's single "Du Hast" becomes that hit song." "Even the smallest radio stations play it." "'Rammstein' have managed something that has eluded almost all other German artists — they've broken America." "I'm from avery small town in the United States." "It's very unexpected that they would even play the song." "And I remember right away, I loved the production, the sound and I remember!" "had to ask someone right away what that meant." "And I felt anytime someone has to question art, it means something to you!" "It doesn't pass you right by!" "At the time MTV was very important." "You had to be on MTV!" "So, 'cause then your fans can see who you are." "They wanted to crack this market obviously." "They wanted to be big in America!" "Be afraid, be very afraid, if you love having the holy crap scared out of you, and I know I do, then you are gonna love this!" "Performing "DU HAST", oh my sweet lord, it's 'rammstein!" "'" "Once U.S. radio got a hold of it and saw the reaction and how it worked and MTV played it, it just continued to snowball and it was everywhere." "I remember a friend of mine at MTV called me up and said, oh hey, they passed on this third 'Smashing Pumpkins' video of whatever the album was at that time and they're giving the spot to your band." "I was like what band?" "Like 'Rammstein,' they're gonna put "Du Hast" into heavy rotation." "I had just left 'Hole', just joined 'The Smashing Pumpkins' and I remember James Iha, the guitar player in the Pumpkins, during like between songs just started going "du, du hast, du hast mich"" "and got the whole crowd to chant and that was my introduction, was through the guitar player of 'Smashing Pumpkins' doing an a cappella chant." "One of the greatest things I remember, was walking into a strip club and I don't frequent strip clubs, but when I heard "Du Hast" at the strip club, I knew the band made it." "Boosted by this success, the album "Sehnsucht" climbs into the American Billboard Top 50 — a massive success for a German band with German lyrics." "In the summer of 1998 'Rammstein,' in conjunction with some of America's hottest bands, launch the 'Family Values Tour.'" "Every town we went to at first, the people all stood like this!" "What is that?" "The 'Family Values' name was kind of like this group of bands." "Ironically 'Rammstein' was really the black sheep in that group, they really had nothing to do with those bands other then being classified in the" "U.S. music marketing machine as a metal band." "It was always encouraging to play with these cool bands, because we really had the creme de la creme." "They set quite a high standard and we could only just keep up." "Or let's put it this way, it was a good measuring stick for us." "Because it's easy to be the king back home in Germany." "But to keep up internationally, that's something else entirely!" "They were embraced in this group, in this tour which was built as 'Family Values' because at the time "Du Hast" was exploding in the U.S." "I think we were supposed to play third or second, in the lead—up." "Then we told our management:" "We won't play second out of five bands!" "We'll play second to last!" "We want to play right before 'Korn!" "'" "And 'Limp Bizkit' was lethal!" "So lethal live, really!" "They went off!" "We felt really shabby!" "We thought, they're cool, hard, make awesome music, and we've snuck in, unjustified, and are trying to mask it with a few flamethrowers!" "Their music is heavy, but it almost sounds military, almost sounds like a squadron of military musicians has come on stage." "I don't think the audience really knew what hit them over their head." "It felt like sort of this band coming on with fire and destruction and death and by the time it was over, it was like:" ""What happened?" "What just happened to us?" "!"" "It was complete entertainment, the whole time from start to finish!" "I remember that on the 'Family Values Tour', I had a huge problem just being there because I couldn't speak a word of English!" "So I closed myself off." "I thought it was such a shame, because I wanted to," "I mean we were playing with bands that we all liked." "But I never had the chance to communicate!" "I was very introverted there, and I suffered a lot because I couldn't speak the language." "It was strange for us, the first time them coming over, we're going to the dressing room and they're having a table set up and they'll have a traditional dinner set, they were all sitting like eating together at a table and like:" ""What the hell is going on in this dressing room?"" "It was very hard to communicate with the band." "It was very difficult to try to translate and explain to them some laws and things, really more cultural things." "You know the laws are different in every state in the United States." "So the fire marshal would come in and they would allow this in one city and not allow that in one city." "I still have language problems!" "My English is so bad that those who understand it turn away from me and hope that my speech is almost over, or make a face like they've just eaten something bad." "it's terrible!" "I'm just proud when I get a cup of coffee and don't end up with a cup of bacon or something!" "It hasn't gotten much better, but I have to admit that I haven't tried very hard to improve it." "When you come off the stage, you have a very peculiar chemistry in your body." "And it has to be compensated, which I think a party is quite good for." "You have to slowly come down." "The problem is that you always drink a lot and then spend every evening relatively drunk." "There was always a party afterwards." "I remember hanging out with Till, we had set up some coffee tables in the middle of the dressing room and we had girls dancing naked on the dressing room coffee table and one of the tables broke." "We just basically knocked on the door with like our box of porn." "And then Paul puts the porn on, fast forward, really fast and then put our CD on and then started jumping on the seats and going crazy and we're doing shots, and I was like, what just happened?" "!" "?" "!" "?" "I noticed it afterwards in group photos of us with 'Korn' and the like." "They always looked perfectly normal and we looked rotten, absolutely destroyed." "Because we got wasted every night and the Americans just drank beer or something." "We didn't really notice on tour that the Americans kept an eye on what they were doing, while every night we treated ourselves very badly, I have to say." "Well, we had Oktoberfest." "Remember?" "And then Tom came and was always giving out vitamin tablets." "A huge bag!" "We had to swallow them." "And I always wondered why!" "couldn't sleep at night!" "After three weeks, I realized:" "Super boosters!" "Something like 10 tablets and you can't sleep for a whole night!" "The bag of tablets came with instructions that we didn't read!" "It said take three in the morning, two in the afternoon, and the other four should not be taken at night!" "We always took them all at the same time!" "Right before the concert!" "And I had to drink a whole bottle of whisky to even go to bed..." "I've never had problems sleeping at night, but I couldn't sleep for the entire night!" "What is going on?" "!" ",7" "We didn't know boosters existed!" "And other things to stimulate you." "We met other bands who gave themselves B12 shots!" "I was really impressed!" "What are B12 shots?" "!" "?" "Vitamin B12!" "There's another story we have to tell." "This also happened on the 'Family Values Tour.'" "It was Halloween, and the bands all said, hey, we have to do something special!" "Halloween!" "We have to get dressed up etc." "For example, all of'Limp Bizkit' dressed up as Elvises." "For example, yeah!" "So then it was our slot." "We went on stage, played one or two songs, and then suddenly Till was gone!" "I thought, ok, maybe there's a problem or the mic is broken or something." "Suddenly, Paul was gone!" "I thought, strange?" "!" "Then Oli was gone, they were disappearing!" "At the end it was just me with drums and guitar and I thought, what's going on?" "!" "Until I turned around and saw the police slowly but surely pulling people away!" "Really secretively!" "After three songs the concert was over!" "They seriously dragged us off the stage!" "— Yeah!" "But we weren't completely naked!" "We still had nappies on." "Nappies?" "!" "I gaffered my balls!" "That was black gaffer tape!" "Nothing but tape!" "And you cheated a bit, I remember!" "It looked like an elephant's!" "But they couldn't even deal with that!" "Just taking your clothes off or getting undressed, they didn't like it!" "Barely a year after touring with 'Korn' and 'Limp Bizkit,'" "'Rammstein' head out on their own again across the USA." "There are always situations that make you notice that something has changed." "I remember driving to the concert." "We drove around the corner and suddenly there were people standing on the sidewalk." "We drove around another corner and there were still people." "Then finally I realized that it was a huge queue of people who wanted to go to our concert." "And I thought, woah!" "I was one of the first people at my school to listen to it." "I brought it to school." "We first listened to it in our music class, and all the students said:" "Horrible!" "Turn it off!" "Then about a week later, everyone was listening to it." "I don't know!" "I can't really explain why I am attracted to it like this." "it's just, it hits on something, it just stroke a nerve." "It brings over a different culture you don't have here every day." "The lyrics and the language itself works as a good instrument." "it's just guttural, it's aggressive." "If it's a song like "Du riechst so gut" it makes me think of another woman." "But when "Du Hast" comes on, I feel like I'm walking away from something!" "We included, at the time — again this is all pre—Internet — a card we put in the CD to people to fill out information." "And we had our address on the back and people sent it in." "And when people sent back the cards, one of the questions was:" "would you like a copy of the lyrics in English?" "And we were getting thousands of them!" "Oddly enough, I have heard people taking German based on being fans of 'Rammstein.'" "Each date probably took about 3 to 4 months to book." "The amount of drills we had to go through for pyro permits, riders, it was tedious." "Tour buses here were a funny thing." "We only knew the shaky nightliner buses from Germany." "We quickly sorted out everything, who could lie where." "Richard sleeps there and Till sleeps here." "At the front is the kitchen." "The best thing was that it had a freezer, it was called Hungry Man, right?" "There were 85 pallets of ready meals in it that you could heat up in the microwave." "We were always excited in the morning when we met up." "Everyone crept out of their bunks and then ate that stuff in shifts." "It was such a fine line, because we thought it was really awesome but actually it was quite disgusting." "It would expand in the microwave!" "Mashed peas or peas with mashed potatoes and some kind of piece of meat would swell up." "We're in a kind of a bubble, the six of us." "I don't have much to do with the crew or with any other people." "It's also important that only the six of us are in the bus, because we function so well together, like clockwork." "If there were another cog, it wouldn't work anymore." "Underwear is fresh, there's nothing to complain about!" "The T—shirt is still OK, I can wear it again, but the imprint is a bit compromising." "I don't think that American women will like it." "There's no reason to be proud of that." "The problem with touring is that you don't get the opportunity to entertain yourself." "I take ten books with me every time, and try to read them." "Every time I come home with the same ten, unread books." "Maybe I should first explain how it normally is with a band, because as a spectator, you don't know what the problems are on tour." "It's like this, you arrive somewhere, you don't know exactly where." "Then you go out to eat." "Then you watch TV." "Then it's sound check." "Then you hang around a little bit, and then you play." "If you do it for three days, it's not so bad, but if you do it for a month, it affects your psyche in some way." "I call it the potato syndrome." "You sort of get poured out, and then have to do what you do every night, then get collected again." "The only thing you can do, which I take advantage of, is watch a lot of films to learn the language." "A day has 24 hours and you're on stage for about 1 '/2 hours." "The rest of the day is pure boredom." "We have a big toy box with things in it, like inline skates, a football, skateboards." "I go with the swim fraction, which is everyone except Oli and Flake." "The other four go swimming and I go with them." "Flake always tries desperately to walk somewhere." "The best part of the day is when I can wander around." "I can think about things in peace." "When you're so hyped up in the evening, when so many people applaud you, the daytime allows you to clarify why everything is the way it is, and how to deal with it in the best way." "Because it's hard to feel comfortable in a foreign country." "I don't really speak the language so it's nice to have some time to absorb everything in peace and think about it." "We have our own cook with us, because on the first tour of America," "I realized that in order to be mentally relaxed, you need good food." "What a service!" "So that's our daily routine." "And that's enough to keep you from going dumb." "Of course there are unforeseen incidents on every tour." "That's when the fine art of improvisation is called for." "Can you explain what happened here?" "The stage can't handle the weight!" "Only half the PA is set up!" "We can't set up any more, it's going to break!" "Meaning?" "— That's it!" "By virtue of necessity, we drove back to 'Korn's roadie's house." "He had a pool, and we invented tequila shotguns." "We had the kind of water pistols that kids have, the ones you pump." "We put tequila in them and had a really fun tequila pool party, where we shot each other in the mouths." "An after—show party without a concert!" "In Salt Lake City," "'Rammstein' have completely different adverse circumstances to contend with." "We had to start in daylight, but we have a show that depends on starting in the dark." "The show itself, if you play it in daylight, just doesn't work!" "The 'Rammstein' show, the fire and the contrast, you need it!" "At the end, what happened was that there was a time limit," "I think around 10pm, and we went over it." "We had our encore, the people were screaming and the show was just cut short." "There is nothing we can do!" "The tour manager came on stage and said, there are two vans full of policemen in front of the door, and if you don't stop now they'll storm the stage!" "Don't take it out on the band!" "It wasn't them!" "Don't take it out on anyone here, it wasn't actually the fairgrounds!" "It was Salt Lake City!" "So, FUCK SALT LAKE!" "There was some kind of drama around Salt Lake City, because of the Mormons." "Salt Lake sucks!" "— Exactly!" "And in Worcester, where nobody thought about it, of course!" "When you stop thinking about it, that's when they strike!" "I'm not surprised, I'm not surprised." "You know, as liberal as America likes to think it is, especially now that we have a black President and gay marriage and everything, we're still very conservative." "We're still very conservative!" "The police came backstage, we thought they wanted to check something to do with fire." "Then the tour manager said, you're now under arrest!" "We said, sure, whatever, and didn't think any more of it." "I said I would shower first and they said, no!" "No showering!" "You're under arrest!" "This is for real!" "The police stood there with handcuffs." "I thought, this is a bit stupid." "I quickly showered and put aT—shirt on." "He stood in the bathroom next to us in his uniform." "They locked Till and me up in a kind of animal—control van, handcuffed us to a bar at the back, and drove us to jail." "Is this the band?" "Sorry about the U.S.!" "What can you do?" "!" "it's just like you see on TV!" "There's a long hallway with bars, and between them are the cell walls." "You sit on a wooden bed, and there's a stainless steel slab that you can use as a toilet bowl at the bottom and as a tap at the top." "No toilet seat or anything." "So then you can go to the toilet if you want to, or sit on the bed." "Those are your options." "At night, the newly—arrested arrived." "They raged and bashed against the cells, and in shackles were dragged in by four men." "One had a bullet wound in his arm because he shot at police officers because they shot his dog." "They quickly took him to the doctor, bandaged him up, and then locked him up next to us." "Some people were drunk and snored and moaned and farted, so you couldn't sleep." "It was impossible." "And you don't have your glasses or shoes and no watch, so you don't even know how late it is." "It felt like avery long time, but it was only five hours." "After that we were released." "The police intervention is triggered by the special staging devised for the song "Bück Dich" (Bend Down), involving singer Till and keyboard player Flake." "America has these strange, what are called "indecency laws" or "decency laws."" "And Jim Morrison got arrested for it, lots of musicians overtime have been arrested for it." "These laws are very old, and they're very selectively applied." "So, it's almost like when the local police force doesn't like an artist, then they apply the laws." "if!" "have an artistic interpretation of something it's my interpretation of that thing, which I don't find bad at all." "I mean, if!" "get out a plastic dildo and squirt some milk around," "I don't expect to be locked up because of it." "That this actually happens, that such a thing exists, such narrow—mindedness, you have to get your head around that first!" "This country is ridiculous, it's so terrified of everything." "I love the idea of really powerful macho men playing role—games, role—playing like that, to really mainly screw with other men's heads." "I mean, none of that freaks me out." "But I'm assuming, it freaks a lot of men out." "For most heterosexual men, that's not really appealing." "Whether or not you're offended by it or not is one thing, but it's not really a subject that they would choose to be exposed to, so to speak." "It would rather have it over here." "And what 'Rammstein' does is, they bring it right here, right in front of your face." "Well, I think your average young meathead, you see a fake penetration between two guys, they're gonna be embarrassed, repulsed, but ultimately fascinated." "They probably won't be able you know!" "And if it's done theatrically enough, as part of a successful product" "That's good, getting arrested." "That's a good thing." "Your audience loves that even more." "And they worked the dildos, and they were busted." "Fabulous." "They still got to say what they wanted to say." "They just had to spend a couple hours in jail and pay a hundred—dollar fine, and they could've done it again and the same thing probably would not have happened somewhere else." "The incident has legal repercussions forTill and Flake." "Throughout this tour — in the land of the free — they have to repeatedly return to Worcester to account to the court for their actions." "Some of the local citizens are not used to so much open—mindedness." "I like the band!" "I think the band is good." "But what they did should have been left behind closed doors!" "America is a much more puritanical country and we, our sex is sort of kept hidden." "Which is strange because we are the porn capital of the world, but we're a puritanical country." "I believe we did have to send documents just saying that it was all simulated, that there was no actual nudity and there was no actual sex on stage." "Yeah,just dumb, dumb stuff." "Our Doggy here" "is scared to go back to jail, back to the big, bad people." "We had to get used to a lot of things in America." "Because we know it as the Land of Freedom, the land of dishwashers who become millionaires." "I always thought you could do what you wanted here." "It's crazy when a bit of fun turns so serious." "As a band, you feel pretty untouchable." "You're the king, everyone thinks you're great, people flatter you." "You're driven around, and your every wish is catered for." "Then suddenly you're not the king anymore, you're hardly anything." "Yeah, but since then you have a record, and every time they enter the country they both have to be interviewed." "We just wait." "We have two shuttles, so the band is comfortably in the hotel while Till and Flake get to sit there for another hour and be harassed." "I can't get used to the fact that you can't just pee against a tree somewhere." "I was put in a paddy wagon in Texas because I pissed between two bins at the exit behind the stage." "And then it went off!" "You're in my country, in my city, this is my district and you won't be peeing anywhere!" "Just don't talk back, otherwise you'll end up in jail immediately!" "And that, to me, is a bit more restrictive to personal freedom than what we're used to in Europe." "Since then, we're very humble, even the fire marshal gets fawned over, because you can't allow yourself any mistakes." "The so—called authorities here, they have such power!" "They can send you home overnight." "They revoke your work permit or cancel the concert, you go to jail or just pay a ridiculous fine." "If something challenging and shocking is not a product, you'll be punished." "But if it becomes a product," ""Oh yeah, they're doing that in Madison Square Garden," "I wanna go see that giant penis right now!"" "In 1999 'Rammstein' tour Latin America with 'Kiss.'" "Myth," "Power," "Excess," "Eroticism," "The most perfect German machine in Mexico" "The rest is history" "Tickets on sale now!" "They still built Beetles here, you can tell straightaway!" "There, another Beetle!" "One, two, three Beetles." "I'll tell you when I see a Beetle, Schneider." "There's a press conference this evening." "Who is taking part in the press conference?" "All of us!" "Right after that..." "After the press conference?" "— There are going to be free records again." "Where 30 selected..." "— CDs ...listeners can get their CDs signed." "Quickly, run along the wall!" "As fast as you can!" "We drove there in a shuttle and thought there's a protest going on, we have to get around it somehow." "Then the driver said it was because of us!" "And then there was complete panic." "We had to get into this record store within three, four minutes." "They closed the shutters behind us and the people crushed themselves against it!" "All the roads were blocked!" "People were standing on buildings." "Then the chief of police came to us and said:" "If you don't go onto the roof and say something to calm people down, because they're taking the flower boxes apart on the boulevard, then you'll be arrested!" "And I said, how is this our fault?" "Well, this is all because of you!" "He was really angry!" "So we went onto the roof and yelled through the megaphone in jumbled Spanish." "There were people everywhere!" "The parking garage opposite was stuffed with people." "And when Till took the megaphone in his hand and shouted something to the masses, and they screamed, there was this feeling of, OK!" "You can say anything here, they'll scream and think we're great regardless." "That was the first time we realized the kind of responsibility we carry in what we do." "Then we went down again and left." "Do I have everything?" "Did they rob me?" "Something like that never happened to us before!" "And it was so out of the blue!" "We thought we were just going to an autograph session, and suddenly there was a riot." "People don't believe us when we tell them that people in Mexico sing along twice as loudly as in Germany, where we actually come from." "I remember that, in Mexico, entire families came to the concert, with kids and everything." "What left a lasting impression on me was that the Mexican audience was fully outfitted in T—shirts we didn't make!" "They had unbelievably cool designs and were graphically very interesting." "Only later did we realize that they just have their own market for it there." "There was a street with a merchandise shop on each side." "I've never seen anything like it!" "They had 'Rammstein' merchandise, and they sell it there." "Everything that you could possibly imagine, everything you need for your household, had 'Rammstein' on it." "That's what they sold." "It was cheap, but they had everything!" "The tour takes 'Rammstein' to the city of Teotihuacan in the Mexican high plains, one of America's most significant ruins." "Named by the Aztecs, the place translates as "where man becomes god" "It's really exhausting!" "I fell something like three meters on the last pyramid and sprained my leg." "How did that happen?" "You wanted to jump up somewhere?" "Or jump down?" "I wanted to climb down normally, I just fell." "Then during the show, because we still had to play, I was getting shots so that it wouldn't hurt so much!" "The thing about South America is, it's great audiences, but very difficult to tour." "Because you have to ship, fly everything from city to city, you can't just put it in trucks and let it go because you don't know if it's going to show up at the other end." "So, for the most part." "Also the distances are so great, too." "So you have to airfreight stuff." "The South American tour also takes in Argentina and Brazil." "The shared concerts with 'Kiss' in South America are a particular highlight for 'Rammstein.'" "I remember the first concert in Buenos Aires, Argentina, as they came out." "And suddenly!" "ran after them like a little kid and reverted back to my 14-year-old self." "Because there were, like I said, these little pictures that you could buy for something like 20 deutschmarks on the school corner, and I would stare at these pictures constantly, with intense fantasies running through my head." "I thought their appearance, their makeup and style was totally awesome!" "If we are in any way responsible forgiving them the inspiration, it's something to be proud of!" "They are out there, maybe if they weren't a band, they would be burning houses down, so we keep them on stage." "I think 'Rammstein' seems like a German band." "They've got something about them, there's a vibe, the great pyro." "These guys, I heard that a couple of the guys in the band are actually professional pyrotechnicians." "So, they do that very uniquely and it's over the top!" "And anything like that, any band like that definitely appeals to us as well, even though they probably got some of their stuff originally from this band!" "At some point, I remember, I was on stage with Oli, there was a moment — you never saw them, those guys, because they always had makeup on — we were standing there looking at them," "and then Paul Stanley turned around during the concert and went like this." "Or I was with Schneider, and I was like:" "WOW!" "However, the band find out first hand just how unforgiving the 'Kiss Army' can be." "We've never experienced so much hate from the audience as we did in Sao Paulo." "When we came on stage, they thought 'Kiss' was starting." "And then some German idiots appeared and started to play things no one could understand." "Of course they lost it and started throwing things at us, lighters, small bottles, rocks." "It was a nightmare!" "I think it was the worst concert ever!" "At the end, the event organizer even said to us, I remember you should be glad they didn't throw half a goat at you." "That's normal." "You did well." "After the South American tour it will be two years before 'Rammstein' tour North America again, with the new album "Mutter."" "The one mistake I think a lot of European artists make when they come to the States, is they forget how big it is." "And like a lot of European artists will come to the States to tour and play ten shows and think that's a tour." "Whereas, you look at some of these American artists like 'Kid Rock' or 'Dave Matthews' or whomever, they play 200 shows in America every year." "'Rammstein' play more than 40 concerts, 27 of them in 4 weeks on their headlining summer tour, and a further 20 in autumn — a punishingly tight schedule for everyone involved." "It was so tedious, because you spend time in so many areas that aren't very exciting." "Of course, New York is interesting, and San Francisco is nice and so is L.A." "I loved New Orleans." "It had an extremely dark appeal when I was there, but avery interesting appeal." "The West Coast, San Francisco and Seattle were really cool." "L.A., of course, but everything around that was quite difficult." "In July alone they perform in a different city almost every day, traversing the entire country." "The enormous distances covered can't fail to leave an impression on the musicians." "Most hard rock bands are on the road for like 2 years straight, they have no life and no body, 'cause they just tour nonstop." "When you are an American band touring the U.S. for two years, you're like a heartless soul, it's disgusting." "It's a terrible place to tour." "The toughest time really is being away from your friends and family." "And a lot of the times when you're on the road for a long time, you kind of stay the same." "Like the band, we're still the same people even if we're gone for 5 or6 months." "But you get home and things have changed." "Really weird things happen, like they forget you at home." "You're a stranger!" "I think that's the most difficult point, it's re—adjusting to life once you get home." "'Rammstein' miss the old days..." "Now everyone has their own hotel room, we don't see each other, it's actually boring." "In general, it's better like that for such a long tour, but sometimes you long for how it was back when we all drove around in a little bus and had a plate with sandwiches, which was the food for the entire day." "As far as the atmosphere goes, it was somehow better than now." "We were more like a band, we kind of lived together." "Back then, Till used to go to the petrol station and steal food." "We'd rip open the bags in the bus and eat it." "It was fun, and there was a good feeling among us." "Now you just order room service, it's not a lifestyle!" "What preceded the 2001 'Pledge of Allegiance' tour, with 'Slipknot' and 'System of a Down,' remains stamped in memory far beyond 'Rammstein.'" "This was the apartment of my then—girlfriend, and it's also where I witnessed September 11." "At around 9 am, a friend phoned me from Europe." "I was lying in bed, and she wondered if I was OK." "I didn't understand what she meant because I thought she was asking if!" "had arrived safely." "Then she said, no!" "You have to get out!" "So I left here and went around the corner." "That's where I saw the second plane fly into the second tower." "The crew was in the air as it happened, and then they were rerouted to Montreal and had to wait in a huge arena for two days, and were given crispy bread to eat." "I remember the band being frustrated after some of the shows because of the reaction, was not what they expected." "The extreme strain of recent years takes its toll on the band on this tour." "There are tensions between Paul and Richard, and the atmosphere hits rock bottom." "The post—9/11 political climate does not help." "Everyone from the bus driver to the cleaning lady was mobilized!" "Everyone wanted to bomb something, wanted to find those responsible!" "We had this feeling, that sentiment that existed all over Europe, that America was suddenly so strange and not like it used to be." "We weren't even talking to each other from time to time, whatever." "We often didn't talk to each other anymore." "Some of the band members were very uneasy with 9/11." "And one in particular decided to call it quits and get on a plane and fly out ofJFK and said bye bye." "In the end, Flake just went home." "Right!" "Now I remember." "It was so bad for him that he just left everything behind, went to the airport and flew home." "He just threw in the towel." "So you do notice that it's a certain..." "But I have to add that we totally slipped into this wave of hysteria, and I found the frenzied atmosphere very frightening." "The whole of the USA is gripped by 9/11, with society paralyzed by the fear of further terrorist attacks." "The land of freedom and limitless possibilities begins to turn in on itself and loses some of its lustre." "And it was sort of a dividing line." "To me, that tour was were 'Rammstein' stopped trying to force things to work in America and stopped playing by the rules and just went away for awhile and waited, whether by accident or design, waited for America to come to them." "As a result 'Rammstein' concentrate more on their career outside of America." "By dint of their experiences after9/11 'Rammstein' start incorporating contemporary critiques into their songs for the first time." "For us, or in my eyes, the song was a direct answer to the Iraq war, the US invasion." "We neatly wrapped it in words so that you should be able to understand, but you don't have to." "The song describes how all countries are infected by America and culturally influenced, that we get all kinds of American brands everywhere and are very Americanized." "The lyrics describe this with a wink." "Americans are saying that they're the greatest country in the world, that they're the strongest country in the world." "But more importantly, it shows a kind of lack of understanding of how diverse this world is and how amazingly culturally different we are from one society to another." "And I think that that song came out at a particular time when America was feeling very powerful and America's will was being felt all around the world whether it be militarily, socially, economically and they were having a go with that." "So the U.S. are the masters at making one—dimensional, Coca—Cola, nightmare superstars." "It's next to impossible to make it in this country unless you do, what I said earlier, this road—warrior mania, where you go to every small town." "So there is no appreciation by the industry." "There are people here who love heavy music, who love alternative culture, who want crazy shit, but the mainstream is like blanketing everybody's front page of their whatever website and every stupid magazine with the most bubble—gum crap." "The American market is hard to conquer because it's always changing." "If you are trying to be top 40, you're like really, really widely popular, you'd have to keep changing your sound and your look." "And who wants to do that?" "That's pathetic." "In 2005 'Rammstein' parody the jaded star system in the spectacularly funny video to their song "Keine Lust."" "Humor and self—mockery become an increasingly useful stylistic weapon in their arsenal." "I remember I saw that one on MTV once and I took out my camera and I filmed the TV, 'cause I never saw it in America, and I was laughing," "I was watching and laughing and the camera was moving while I'm watching the video and I'm filming and sent it to my wife you know, like, check this out." "This is so bad ass." "They're not afraid to take risks, look crazy, look funny, look gay even." "Which is great, you know." "That's the funniest thing in the world, you can do anything and not fear anyone, that's the best thing in the world." "Promoting music is very, very difficult." "Because in the old days, there were basically three things, four things." "There were record stores, magazines, MTV and radio." "Now, MTV is reality TV, record stores unfortunately don't really exist, radio is 'Justin Bieber' and magazines just get smaller and smaller and smaller." "So... that's why most musicians now sort of try and promote to their fans." "And then hope that the fans talk about it to their friends." "It is only fitting that film director Rob Cohen is a massive 'Rammstein' fan." "He wants to secure the band for his action film 'Triple X' at all costs." "Starring action hero Vin Diesel, it is guaranteed wide public awareness amongst fans of the genre." "But their international popularity is being boosted by more than just the silver screen." "In that time frame, something came along called "the Internet."" "And all the fans of the bands' music, whoever became interested in 'Rammstein,' all they had to go on was watching clips on YouTube." "And the longer the band stayed away, it almost seemed like the more anticipation got built up." "Definitely, I look up YouTubes of 'Rammstein,' because they just do everything and there's so many of them that you can just watch one after the other and just see something totally interesting and inspiring." "A new era has dawned." "The Internet is a virtually taboo—free zone." "'Rammstein' are adventurous enough to exploit the medium's possibilities." "The band conceive something special for the song "Pussy,"" "supported in this endeavor by Swedish video director Jonas Åkerlund." "I wasn't sure if he would like this kind of humor." "But I said, if anyone can make a video for this song, then it's him, because he has a kind of darkness and seriousness that is somehow never inane." "We sent him the song, and he emailed me saying, let's start a revolution!" "This video is gonna piss a lot of people off!" "And this video is gonna be thought—provoking and irritating and funny and sexy and musical and stylish and beautiful and everything at once!" "We love the way that Jonas deals with controversial topics, and his courage." "The plan works!" "The uncensored video is only available on Internet porn channels." "'Rammstein' cause an outcry amongst the guardians of public virtue and morality." "It is welcome publicity, and great fun!" "Media is so fractured." "I'm sure it's the same case in Germany, where... it used to be there were like four music magazines and now there are 15,000 blogs." "It's very hard for one act to make a huge impact." "I mean, even the big bands like 'U2' don't get that much attention." "After a seven—year break the band return to America, taking up residence in a studio near San Francisco to record their album "Liebe ist für alle da."" "What I like about America is that it's a country with an energy that says do it!" "Germans tend to think first, then do." "We hoped that through America, we would also be able to do first, and then think." "Let me open up another track and we do one more of those, OK?" "OK!" "— Here we go!" "It's always fun for me when a song is suddenly created out of individual ideas or emotions." "The process of the song growing and maturing is very beautiful to me." "I came up with a little trick." "Every song has a certain tempo." "This song is, for example, 120 bpm." "My heart is usually around 90." "I try to match my heartbeat or pulse to the song, so I'm in the right groove to play to the beat." "I'm at 90 right now," "Ido a few pushups to get my heart back to 120." "Alright!" "Rock 'n' Roll!" "The environment in which you work together is very important, and how free each band member is from stress." "When we looked at the studio on the Internet, it said there was a tree house." "For me, that was the reason to come here, because living in a tree and waking up and falling asleep in nature is something special." "If you get the chance, you should take it, that was my thought." "and I like to live secluded and not be right in the community." "After being away for many years, they kept pushing the issue to come to America with a full show." "Playing the arena, playing with the full production." "The first show was up in Quebec, it was a town festival and the city had spent a lot of money, the entire province goes there, something like120,000, 130,000 people." "It's a basin, it was totally packed." "And seemingly because of us, and 'Pink's playing the day before, 40,000 or 50,000 Americans came." "It was an amazing festival." "It means a lot to me that there are so many people here that get really excited when we play." "If I can make them happy, that makes me happy too." "And these people happen to be American, so you have to play here to make them happy." "You can't just fly them all to Europe." "I think, it's interesting that they stayed away from the U.S. for so long, and played everywhere else in the world." "And I think in away, that that sort of made people hungrier here for them, to see them." "There wasn't a single promoter in New York that would take the risk for 'Rammstein' to play MSG." "Between all the guys with all the big pockets, nobody would touch it." "And we made a painstaking effort to go to MSG directly." "Madison Square Garden is one of the most famous venues in the world." "I mean, everyone's heard of Madison Square Garden." "And it's sort of a sign, when a band can play there, of being real rock stars." "You know, so every band when you're growing up, you just have this idea of playing Madison Square Garden." "It was probably a three—year—plus process, in discussions and development and a lot of back and forth of how crazy this is, and how risky this is, but I give the band a lot of credit," "because they really they took the risk." "This was the first attempt to headline the band in America with full European production of 18 to 20 trucks, full pyrotechnics, as many effects as the authorities would allow." "This was the show to stake the claim in America, everything prior was a build, was growth, was development." "This was the pinnacle, this was the defining moment that put 'Rammstein' back here." "When the band finally announced they were coming back, all these people who had been hearing about it and buying the albums and looking atYouTube clips, and waiting, finally had their chance." "The fact that they waited might be better for them in the long run in America than had they continued to come every couple of years or every album—cycle." "Or whatever." "They're coming!" "The most explosive band on earth!" "This is your only chance to see 'Rammstein' in the United States!" "Tickets on sale now!" "I was at home in Berlin when it started." "10 minutes: 5,000 tickets, 12 minutes: 15,000 tickets," "In the space of20 minutes it was sold out, and I jumped around in my apartment like a teddy bear!" "I was so happy!" "This band can sell out Madison Square Garden, it's like 18,000 people, it's a big deal." "It's amazing that they did that." "What I found phenomenal about that is they managed to do all of that after not playing here for over ten years." "That's quite an accomplishment in today's music industry and music scene." "So, it was very rewarding." "One of the most rewarding highlights in my career as far as being involved in the music business, if not the most." "The show is huge, I mean it is a very deep stage, a very wide stage, so it fills the room quite a bit, and I just remember the first time that they let off all the lycojets at the same time." "The ones up in the air and the ones on the floor." "It sucked all the oxygen out of the room instantly, and it felt like my whole head was compressing." "It was so bizarre." "It was the most unbelievable feeling." "Can I take a picture with you?" "Come here!" "— Awesome!" "Is it ready?" "— Yeah, it's ready!" "Oh, my God!" "Hi!" "' Hi!" "YEAH!" "OH, YEAH!" "Most famous arena in the world!" "Right there, baby!" "Here's a great story actually:" "The morning of the Madison Square Garden show, we're staying at a hotel in New Jersey, and I met up with a friend for breakfast, and I'm standing on line waiting to pay for my breakfast," "and there's a girl in line in front of me, so the gentleman behind the counter says to her: "How are you today?"" "And she says:" ""I'm great!" "I'm going to see 'Rammstein' tonight at Madison Square Garden!"" "And I say, did I just hear you say that you're going to see 'Rammstein' tonight?" "She's like: "You better believe it, man!" "I've been waiting fuckin' 10 years for this shit."" "That was the representation of what everyone in that audience was feeling!" "It's finally here and I can't wait!" "My son is fifteen years old, that's his favorite band, so I was like dad of the month, because I got him tickets to go see the show." "We begged to have a few chairs removed so that at least a few people could stand." "So that it looks like a rock concert." "It's more of a seated 'Sting' concert venue." "We have a band ritual where we always drink a tequila right before we go on stage." "We look each other in the eyes and clink glasses so that we get a bit of a connection." "We don't communicate on stage, that's why this human interaction is avery important moment." "I don't know if I've ever seen a band that did not sing in English play at the Garden." "I don't know, is there another German band that can go play all over the world and sell out arenas?" "In America?" "!" "?" "And we were cordially invited to the show, and it was amazing to watch, because more than 10 years earlier, we played right down the street with 'Rammstein', and we were one of 20 or 30 people watching 'Rammstein,'" "and now we are one of like 20 or 30,000 watching 'Rammstein'" "Prost!" "— at Madison Square Garden, which is, you know, it is crazy!" "SURREAL!" "A bunch of German guys coming over to America, it was sold out!" "It's about time!" "About time the world embraces something like that!" "They keep pushing the envelopes, and nobody can copy them, and 'Rammstein' is still inspiring young musicians, you know, it's... they continue to tour, they continue to put out music... it's just more fuel for the fire." "What I noticed also about their show, was that I thought was unique, was that they don't use any video screens." "And we use screens, I mean most bands, that's the thing, faraway, people wanna look up at the screen." "I personally would be afraid of getting set on fire on a nightly basis." "And my guitar player played with 'Rammstein' on one show, and he didn't move!" "He just stood exactly where they told him to stay and didn't move for the whole night, and I don't blame him at all!" "I'm low—budget!" "I just turn around and show my ass crack!" "At the end of day they represent everything that is rock'n roll, but in a new way, that no one has done before." "I would say to any other band:" "Do not go on after 'Rammstein!" "'" "To be a German band singing in German, to be embraced by an American audience, I would tell you it's impossible." "And yet, clearly through their success, it's not." "Which leads me all the way back to where we started talking." "There is a level of authenticity in their music and their style and their show and what they're presenting that people are relating to." "And it doesn't matter about their culture, it doesn't matter about what language they speak, they can feel it." "I couldn't tell you how to do that in a million years." "I'd just never seen them so happy and in such a good place and I think that's what happens when you wait for success to come to you." "What I learned from it was that we really tried for a certain period of time to establish ourselves here, with a lot of dedication, but nothing ever came of it." "Only once we were really relaxed about it, so typical 'Rammstein,' always when we try to will something into happening, it never works, but when we don't want anything, we get it all." "The feeling of being from Germany or being German always had a stain on it that I could sense in some way." "You always felt somehow guilty." "And in America I didn't have that anymore." "People were more open, and suddenly certain German virtues were seen as good." "Reliability and punctuality and things like that were appreciated here." "And for the first time, I really got a feel for my own home country." "I had to leave first in order to be OK with where I come from." "It was a beautiful experience for me."