RIP Kingdom Come
Today we are lucky enough to have another post from our friend HIM.
I really, really hoped that a full-fledged reunion was going to bring Kingdom Come back to my area so I could finally see them. The clips from the Monsters of Rock cruise earlier this year were enough to get me excited about the idea:
Alas, it is not to be. Recently, Wolf posted this message on the Kingdom Come/Lenny Wolf website:
Dear Kingdom Come soldiers, fans and friends!
The Kingdom Come ship has reached its final destination, at least during my visit on our planet earth.
My decision is mainly caused by experiences I made throughout the last 3 years, during which the fun factor disappeared more and more, and our energy and hopes have repeatedly been crushed by people and circumstances beyond our control. Some folks out there may not believe it, but it’s NOT all about money. I realized that chasing something which seems is not meant to be, trying to force things, would never lead to something good. Therefore it’s time to let go.
Allow me to give you a brief insight into my modest self.
I’m happy about every camera NOT pointing at me. I’m happy about every email or Face---- message I’m NOT receiving. I’m a rather private dude, who enjoys cruising through life without much noise, among true friends. Public recognition means nothing to me. It’s a sweet momentary kick, which helped me persuade the girls in my former wild days, but in the end it means nothing, and did not get me to a higher spiritual level. So I decided I'd rather sit on my boat and watch the birds shit on my head, NOT trying to figure out the sense of live. For reference revisit my song “Inhaling the Silence”. Only took me 50 years to figure that out. ;-)
It was a nice and overdue experience to share the stage with my old time Kingdom Come fellows, Johnny B Frank and Danny Stag one more time, which we finally came around to on our Florida cruise 2016. I never thought I would enjoy being locked up with so many people on a boat, but it was a great experience and a good way to organize my mind. That’s what the ocean can do for you! ;-)
It’s been a fantastic 30 year long musical ride, for which I can only be VERY grateful. Having gone through good and bad times, in the end it was an exceptional way to explore our planet, having met countless wonderful people around the globe and building up memories that can not be taken away from me, or you.
I’m not saying that I will never write a song again, or never again enter a stage, but the chapter called “Kingdom Come” is now closed. One day I may revisit the music scene with a new band called "Iron Banana", but until then, it is what it is.
I hope the Kingdom Come songs have given many of you energy, joy and strength, as they did for me. The Kingdom Come songs will live on, long after we all have turned to dust, and will hopefully do the same for many generations to come, unless of course, we have blown up our planet before then.
Not every decision I made was of glamorous choice, but hey, I’m only human. Before ending this note, I would like to express my personal gratitude to the following people who have held up the Kingdom Come flag in good, or bad times.
The Kingdom Come ship has reached its final destination, at least during my visit on our planet earth.
My decision is mainly caused by experiences I made throughout the last 3 years, during which the fun factor disappeared more and more, and our energy and hopes have repeatedly been crushed by people and circumstances beyond our control. Some folks out there may not believe it, but it’s NOT all about money. I realized that chasing something which seems is not meant to be, trying to force things, would never lead to something good. Therefore it’s time to let go.
Allow me to give you a brief insight into my modest self.
I’m happy about every camera NOT pointing at me. I’m happy about every email or Face---- message I’m NOT receiving. I’m a rather private dude, who enjoys cruising through life without much noise, among true friends. Public recognition means nothing to me. It’s a sweet momentary kick, which helped me persuade the girls in my former wild days, but in the end it means nothing, and did not get me to a higher spiritual level. So I decided I'd rather sit on my boat and watch the birds shit on my head, NOT trying to figure out the sense of live. For reference revisit my song “Inhaling the Silence”. Only took me 50 years to figure that out. ;-)
It was a nice and overdue experience to share the stage with my old time Kingdom Come fellows, Johnny B Frank and Danny Stag one more time, which we finally came around to on our Florida cruise 2016. I never thought I would enjoy being locked up with so many people on a boat, but it was a great experience and a good way to organize my mind. That’s what the ocean can do for you! ;-)
It’s been a fantastic 30 year long musical ride, for which I can only be VERY grateful. Having gone through good and bad times, in the end it was an exceptional way to explore our planet, having met countless wonderful people around the globe and building up memories that can not be taken away from me, or you.
I’m not saying that I will never write a song again, or never again enter a stage, but the chapter called “Kingdom Come” is now closed. One day I may revisit the music scene with a new band called "Iron Banana", but until then, it is what it is.
I hope the Kingdom Come songs have given many of you energy, joy and strength, as they did for me. The Kingdom Come songs will live on, long after we all have turned to dust, and will hopefully do the same for many generations to come, unless of course, we have blown up our planet before then.
Not every decision I made was of glamorous choice, but hey, I’m only human. Before ending this note, I would like to express my personal gratitude to the following people who have held up the Kingdom Come flag in good, or bad times.
Well, that sounds pretty darn definitive if you ask me. And while it wasn’t going to be a full-fledged reunion (Kottack did enough jabbing to make sure that wouldn’t happen even if he wasn’t in the Scorpions), that really didn’t matter to me.
After all, this was Wolf’s baby from jump. And it increasingly became only his baby as the years went on. Still, I dug Kingdom Come quite a bit. I found the Kingdom Clone slams a bit disingenuous, even when it came from people who were in and/or related to Zep (Page, please meet Coverdale; Page and Plant, please forget you knew Jones; Bonham, don’t disregard timekeeping). Simply put, they did imitation really well. The songs kicked. No wonder some people thought it was Zep when it first came out. And if Wolf’s Dokken-esque foot often ended up in his high-falutin mouth, that sounds like a lot of other singers of the era. Bottom-line: Wolf, and by extension the band, were gifted at what they did.
But I also liked Kingdom Come when it really became Wolf’s baby. 1991’s Hands of Time actually showed off Wolf’s talents for something beyond appreciative mimicry. Take, for instance, the lead track “I’ve Been Trying”:
That is no simple knock-off Zep song. It has texture. It is pompous (the fake fluke?). It is overwrought (the slow build-up). But it sticks with you. And so it went as I, admittedly, became less and less interested in the Wolf project while always retaining a love for those first three—Kingdom Come, In Your Face, and Hands of Time—albums. I’d check in every now and again. I’d listen to a track or two from the new releases. Then I would hurry back to those albums (or tapes), all the while hoping that Wolf would bring something back to the States.
So I am bummed that I won’t get to see a concert that features those albums (the first two really, as no one is clamoring for Hands of Time or for Wolf to play Ain’t Crying for the Moonfrom start to finish). I have no problem admitting my love for Kingdom Come. Nor do I have any problem say this: thanks, Lenny. You made some slamming music (critics be damned).
