Happy Birthday today (April 6) to German heavy metal legend Udo Dirkschneider. The former Accept frontman is 65. Also celebrating today is drummer Roy Mayorga of Stone Sour (47) and singer/guitarist Warren Haynes (Gov't Mule, Allman Brothers) is 57.

Udo Dirkschneider formerd Accept out of Germany with guitarist Wolf Hoffmann and bassist Peter Baltes. The band was important to the development of speed and thrash metal in the early to mid 1980’s. Accept achieved commercial success in 1983 with the album Balls to The Wall and the title cut became a well known hit. The album remains Accept’s only gold album in the U.S. Dirkschneider currently fronts the band U.D.O. and they put out their last studio album called Decadent in 2015. A live album featuring Accept classics called Live- Back to the Roots was released in 2016. I got to see the band perform live on the Back to the Roots Tour at Upstate Concert Hall back in January. We covered the show and did a full review for the Metal Box.

Roy Mayorga was the original drummer for the band Soulfly from 1997-1999. He joined Stone Sour in 2006 replacing drummer Joel Ekman and debuted on the band’s second album Come What(Ever) May which featured the hit single “Through Glass”.

Cheers to Udo today on his 65th birthday!

Ray Mayorga
Ray Mayorga/Youtube
loading...
Warren Haynes
Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images
loading...

More From Q 105.7