Udo Dirkschneider regrets losing the Accept name: “This was a big mistake “

German singer Udo Dirkschneider is known as the longtime lead singer of heavy metal veterans Accept. Since his Accept career, he has released several albums with his own band U.D.O.

Now, in a recent interview with Simfonia Metàl-lica, Dirkschneider recounts his feelings about how, in the early 80s, he accidentally signed a piece of paper that gave guitarist Wolf Hoffmann the rights to the Accept name. Dirkschneider called the incident “the biggest mistake of his career”.

“This is the only thing I’m really not happy with. I was creating the name Accept. And then, when we came — let’s say in ’80, ’81, we had to sign a lot of documents. And sometimes you’re not really looking on this. And then, in the end, when they fired me [from] my own band, I found a paper [saying] all the rights [to the Accept name] go to [Accept guitarist] Wolf Hoffmann. And that’s really a big point, a bad point for me. The name is normally on me and not on Wolf Hoffmann.”

 “This was a big mistake — not really to look what you’re signing. But anyway, this is history — [it happened] a long time ago. And I think in the end now, in a way I don’t care. But sometimes [I think] I did a big mistake. But anyway, it happened.”