When I went to meet Doro Pesch to interview her it was because Makis, another editor of Metal-Temple.Com, who was supposed to take this interview said he had some problem that made it impossible for him to go. You see, I had never been really listening to Doro. The only thing I want to say after getting to talk with her is that such people are humans first and then musicians. And that quality of theirs is what can turn anybody into a huge fan! I know that reading a plain text cannot help you identify Doro's known kindness and natural generocity, but I hope you will enjoy this interview half or even less as much as I enjoyed taking it!

Unfortunately we don’t have much time, so let’s talk about the new album at first and then about some other things.

Ok.

It will be out in September…

Yeah, 20th of September.

And the title is Classic Diamonds.

Yes.

Well, can you tell me some things about its creation? How did you work together with UDO etc?

The idea was like…two people came and said it was a benefit thing and they asked if I wanted to participate and I said what is it and they said it had to do with the Metal Classic Night Orchestra and they were looking for some guests to sing classic Metal songs and I said that sounds good and I did want it in my life in year 2000 with the Dusseldorf Symphony Orchestra and it was really good. But, you know, I was like very classical and these guys, and UDO, looked like headbangers  and it sounded interesting, so we met and then we did a benefit festival and had arrangements and it sounded really good and the atmosphere was great and we played some other songs of mine and some other Metal songs and I thought that’s really cool and then we did it again with Blaze Bailey…

You were on tour with Bailey…

Yeah, we were on tour, we became great friends and he is a great guy. We played Fear Of The Dark together and the whole festival was good and it would be a shame not recording it. So, we started in January and recorded a couple of the classic songs, like All We Are, Fur Immer and Breaking The Law of Judas Priest and I asked UDO if he wanted to participate and he said OK, let’s check it out.

You will be with the Classic Night Orchestra in August, too, In Wacken. Is it more difficult to give a show with an orchestra?

Yeah!

How many people are there in it?

In Wacken I think about 45 and then, in October, about 35-40. I must say it’s much more difficult with an orchestra.

Is there any chance you will come to Greece for a gig with the Orchestra?

We hope.

Because you have come here, but with other groups so you didn’t have the time to put all the set on the scene.

It’s a matter of promoter. It’s hard to find one.

It’s expensive I suppose.

With 45 people, you know, it’s massive. Everybody needs to eat, then a tour-bus and then you need to get some pocket money and we try to find people who are willing to do it, especially in classic theatres. We have to look for more options, to play like for more money than just for fun and we still look to find a promoter for the whole show. It’s really something different and I think the songs are good but even better when we sing together. Then it’s so cool! And when I saw some headbanging going on, which I didn’t expect with the symphony orchestra, it was wilder!

There are many groups doing all this the last years, Nightwish for example. Orchestras are in fashion and they are great, it’s very impressive the whole thing with all that show…

Yeah, you know in 80’s everybody said that, you know, we are Heavy Metal fans but I think there are a lot more in common.

It’s a matter of music in the end, not only the Metal genre itself.

The intensity, the power, the energy dynamic, I think there’s a lot of stuff coming. I must say that it seems that people from both sides are open to come together. In the 90’s it was like un-metal and I think these days the Classic people are more open-minded, the Metal people are more open-minded and that’s great. We try to make it a little bit different than all the other records with a symphony orchestra, we use like special guitars and stuff and more acoustic guitars. It was tricky to find a good bend, but I wanted to do it a little bit different so that people won’t say it’s the same like anybody else’s.

Are there going to be any Warlock members with you? Because I have read that you are about to wok together again with some of them.

I don’t know. I mean, we play at the Wacken show with Warlock and there are no plans yet, but we don’t know, nothing is definite. We’ll see how the Wacken show goes and maybe, in the near future, maybe…

What about the EP, entitled Let Love Rain On Me? You sing in Spanish and French there. Do you actually speak these languages or is this for these countries’ market?

Little bit I can understand Spanish and French, I had the school stuff and then in Spain there are lots, lots of fans and then actually I had somebody form France and I had him to hear me and then translated it and we had another assistant, she is from Spain, and it wouldn’t be possible to do it without all these people’s help and I thought that maybe we can do it in every country with the native language. People have told me that Greek is very difficult but if I could do it in every country I would.

The main problem with Greek is that there is no pronunciation; we don’t have any particular accent, so it’s difficult for somebody to speak like that.

Even singing can be. The French was done really easily and quickly but the Spanish one…everything is different and we had two days but I think that both came on so nice, I liked them more than the English version. It’s fun, I love singing in different languages, I love it when people can understand and I learn things.

Well, we are supposed to learn till we die anyway.

Yeah, that’s right and now, the last couple of years, we got traveling all over, and I loved the first time we came to Greece and I waited 20 years to come to Greece and in December it was the very first time…

You’ve worked together with many classic Heavy Metal stars like Udo Dirkschneider, Lemmy, Slash…but you also don’t hesitate to also work together with much newer artists like for example Pete Steel (singer of Type O Negative). So what about these cooperations?

Usually it always develops in a natural way. You know, you meet or it happens by accident. On the Fight (2002) record we had this song, Descent, and then my bass player Nick Douglas - who’s actually Greek! – he was singing the male parts because we thought it was nice to have a male voice too. So while he was singing I said hey Nicky, you know what? It sounds so much like Type O Negative doesn’t it?, he agreed and I went I should call Pete Steel and Nick said that would be great!. But we were just talking about it and one week later I went to New York at a concert there. I met up with a girl I knew, who’s actually from Germany and she asked me how the new album is going and I said cool. She asked me if there is going to be another duet on it and I said no because the last record had a duet with Lemmy (Motorhead) and I loved it. So I told her I didn’t know who I’d be singing with, what the choice will be. I mentioned that there’s one song which is quite dark and it’s called Descent and that Pete Steel’s voice would be perfect and she told me that Pete Steel’s her best friend! I went no way! and she asked me if I wanted her to call him up and ask him and I said no, no because I was too shy to ask him but…she called him anyway! \[Laughs]

Pete called me one day later and said hi, this is Pete, our mutual friend called me and I’d be really interested in listening to that song of yours. We got along really great and we said let’s do it. So he did it and I think he did a great job. It’s one of my favorite songs on the album and it’s really extra-special to be working with someone you like. With other musicians it’s great too but with Lemmy or Udo or Pete it’s that they all have like a special magical feeling!

I think it makes sense that it’s a great feeling to be working with these famous musicians because you yourself are probably the only woman in the Heavy Metal scene right now with a band under her own name and who’s been around for many years. How do you feel that all those years have passed, there are not any other female singers (on their own) that are so bright personalities so that they can be a superstar like you?

Oh well, jee…um \[Laughs]

Of course! You’re a symbol; you’re an idol! And I’m not trying to flatter you right now! \[Laughs]

It actually happened because someone took our name, Warlock, that someone was our former manager, who was a merchant….he was a fucking thief, so he took our name from us and I thought that using another name wouldn’t be so good and everybody said how about you called it Doro?. I said ok even though I always wanted to have it Warlock. I just do what I love and I always try to give the best you know; to always be 150%…

Is there anyone you’d especially like to work together with?

Yeah actually, maybe with Tarja from Nightwish! I was just in Finland a month ago mastering the record and there’s really a very big scene over there, everybody’s very excited over there. I don’t know though for sure because I’m going to start doing the next album by the end of the year so we’ll see…but yeah I think it would be interesting to have another female on the album.

I did something with Sabina Classen (singer of Holy Moses) at a Wacken show; it was a Too Drunk To Fuck improvisation and it was real fun! So it depends…it doesn’t necessarily have to be female or necessarily male.

I think that everybody respects you as an artist and doesn’t pay attention to the fact that you’re just a woman. You’re a well known singer in the business!

\[Laughs] And everybody expects me to do something with Motorhead!…

Has it ever bothered you in the past or now the fact that some people might like you for your looks more than your musical skills?

Maybe in the beginning some journalists or photographers from the media tried to put me in the corner but I think that it was always clear that I love music and everything else is ok. I’ll tell you what. Before I started music, I had a disease; I lost all my hair so I know how it feels when you look awful and you still have to find a way to survive and…back then I lost all my friends, but I was 16 and that made me start with the music. If it wasn’t for that disease I probably wouldn’t have had the balls or the guts to even start the band so it was good and bad actually in both ways.

I somewhere read that you were on a German TV show wrestling with x-porn star Gina Wild. Was that for the promotion of Fight?

You know how TV shows are. Well, I was on tour in Russia and they told me about it and I said I couldn’t do it because I was on tour. Then I thought about it and said ok because you know, it’s just a show but it turned out not to be just a show, it was dead serious! And I was oh man, I’ve got 50 more concerts to do, I hope nothing happens and then I find out that it was a porn star and then all the judges were like unfair, you know, they probably like porn more than music \[Laughs]. It was bizarre. I declined 5 times but then they called us in 2 o’clock in the morning and said they’d do everything possible to get us back on tour after that in time and I said ok let’s do it. But the other girl had been training for like three months already and for me it was just three days before the fight…

Did you get any injuries during that fight?

Oh, no but it was much heavier than I expected! It was too hardcore for me though because we had been working on a DVD and we were playing for like three hours in a cave and I went for the fight without having slept before…It was definitely an adventure, it was fun after all. \[Laughs]

I’ve heard you’re a boxer yourself!

I did Ty-Boxing for a couple of years …

I’ve also read that you believe in some Eastern philosophies which have to do with positive energy and stuff…

Actually I always believe in good energy and stuff. I always believe like in going with what’s in your heart. I believe in God but I’m not religious. I do meditation and stuff. That combined to Ty-boxing was in 1995 and I was totally into it, but then we toured so much I couldn’t do it everyday, I didn’t have time to do it. So I did it in 1995 and then not any more. I just believe in the good. All the stuff that I’ve read and I know I think it’s actually very simple. Whatever’s in your heart…I believe in love, friendship and stuff. That’s something you can find a lot in Metal, something Pop people wouldn’t know what we’re talking about and I’m so proud to belong to the Metal family. That’s definitely one philosophy! \[Laughs]

Do you ever read webzines or get news through your e-mail or stayingng in touch with your fans through the internet?

Yes, fans are most important to me; I don’t have a family, I don’t have kids and really want to stick to Metal music and fans are a very important thing to me in my life. Some fans will do some really cool web pages for me, some hard work, some are really well done and I always try to keep up to date!

Do you post on any forums?

Yeah and I’m always in contact with my fan club and we do stuff like that and I always try to keep up to date with everything. In the studio I feel so consumed sometimes, being in there for 15 hours and I don’t always have time for news but I always try whenever I can. I like to be informed and I think that all these websites are great because they bring the whole world together. It’s great that you can talk to people from Australia, Russia etc.

Unfortunately we have to be going now. Do you have a message for our readers and of course your fans?

It’s great that you guys support Metal and I hope that we can come here (to Greece) really soon and play a show. My first experience in Greece, in December, was awesome, the fans were so passionate and wild, it warmed my heart. I hope I’ll see you on our next tour!