Metal Shock Finland (World Assault )

Uwe Lulis, A metaller with about 36 years of a career as a musician, was born in 1965, in the age where Metal Music was ready to rise. He was well known as one of the main members of GRAVE DIGGER and was a part of the band for about thirteen years, then formed REBELLION along with Tomi Göttlich. But now he is well known because he is the guitarist in ACCEPT, alongside such legends as Wolf Hoffmann and Peter Baltes.

In April 2015, Teutonic heavy metallers ACCEPT announced guitarist Uwe Lulis and drummer Christopher Williams as their new members. It was big news indeed, especially for their fans. I, Mohsen Fayazi, had the chance to be the first journalist to have an exclusive interview with Uwe Lulis since he joined the band. I knew that ACCEPT fans were curious to know more about him and probably had lots of questions in their minds, so I prepared and tried to ask some of the main and important questions, ones I thought are more important to the fans.

Back to the past, I started my questions with one about the GRAVE DIGGER era, when Uwe was the main song writer, “I was also responsible for production stuff, I was producer too,” Uwe answered my question about how he feels now when he looks back, “It was a successful time. When I look back, I really think positive, it was a good time for me.”

Those who know Uwe, know about his bad motorbike accident. I heard from one of his friends that the accident really changed his life. So I asked him about it: “It was a really hard accident, I was four years on crutches and had thirteen operations on my leg.” Then I asked him what is the main difference between Uwe in the past and now, he said: “Basically, Uwe in the past was a little bit wilder and little bit more going forward but Uwe now, thinking more about things, more positive and enjoying every day…”

I know some of you are really curious to know about Uwe‘s recent situation and life, especially related to ACCEPT. Perhaps some of you know now that Uwe was not unknown to the band, in fact he worked with Wolf Hoffmann as his Guitar-Tech for about two years. But to begin our chat about ACCEPT, I started in the middle of the story and asked him if he knew that it would be him as the band’s new guitarist, when ACCEPT parted ways with Herman; “There was a 50-50 thing, ” Uwe continues “that means if you want to play in ACCEPT, you have to pass a lot tests, personality tests and musician tests. I mean to play in a band on that level, you have to be really good.”

It is several years now that I have been friends with the ACCEPT guys and I can say that they are really serious about their work. How else could they be so successful when many things and people were against them? I asked Uwe about this and his relationship with other band members. He answered me “Yeah they are really absolute 120 percent serious about their work. That was the reason why I joined the band too, because all my life I wanted to play in a band like this, where everything is well organised, where everybody is pulling his force in the team. That’s exactly what I wanna do too, that’s why I feel so comfortable in this band.”

As I mentioned, Uwe Lulis was not new to ACCEPT, but remembering how the story begins, Uwe said: “It was a kind of funny story, their drum tech Andy who is a good friend of mine, asked me for doing Accept during the summer festivals in 2012. Normally, I am not a guitar tech or something, but I said yeah no problem, I can do it. If I can help you guys out, no big deal, but I will stop after the festivals. Two and half years later still I was on the job and then I joined the band. Kind of nice career.”

Gaby Hoffmann is the mysterious lady behind the curtain, who is responsible for much of the band’s success. She is also a serious person and I find her truly determined. So I asked Uwe about his opinion about Gaby and if she is cruel?! “Yeah cruel is the wrong word, I would say more ‘straight’, 200 percent straight. Maybe that’s what a lot of people can work with, other people are not that straight.” Then he continued expressing his opinion on Gaby – “In my opinion I like her work, she’s a really nice person. She can be really tough of course, but she’s always telling the truth, this is what I like you know. I don’t like people who lie to me or tell me some bullshit or stuff and that’s what’s not happened in Accept. And this is 100 percent what I want to do.”

You can listen to the whole of the interview on our Audio Player below: