Herman Rarebell was born on November 18, 1949. He joined Scorpions in 1977 and became a regular songwriting partner as well as the band’s drummer. On “Rock You Like a Hurricane,” from 1984’s Love at First Sting, those roles came together: Rarebell played drums and shared the lyric credit with singer Klaus Meine.
His preparation included studying both drums and piano at music school in Saarbrücken. Before Scorpions, he played in groups including Mastermen and Fuggs Blues, then spent 1971 to 1977 in England looking for a band to join. Michael Schenker provided the introduction to Scorpions. Those years abroad also gave Rarebell something immediately useful to a German group writing in English: the confidence to work on its lyrics.
That became part of his job during his first Scorpions album, Taken by Force. Speaking to Cryptic Rock in 2015, Rarebell recalled Rudolf Schenker asking him to write words for “He’s a Woman – She’s a Man” because of his command of English. He said the lyrics came together during a promotional visit to Paris, and Schenker and Meine liked the result. By Lovedrive in 1979, the invitation had grown into a broader collaboration. Rarebell contributed lyrics to “Another Piece of Meat” and part of “Loving You Sunday Morning,” establishing a writing relationship that continued alongside his work behind the kit.
“Rock You Like a Hurricane” shows how that partnership operated. In a Guitar Player interview published in 2025, Rudolf Schenker recalled bringing the music to Meine and working through repeated lyric revisions. Meine had the chorus words, then worked with Rarebell on the verses. Schenker singled out Rarebell’s ability to write double meanings as part of what made that collaboration work. The finished recording combined Schenker’s music, Meine and Rarebell’s words, and Rarebell’s drumming; his contribution reached across the arrangement and into the vocal.
His piano training also found a place in the band’s songwriting. For “Passion Rules the Game,” released on Savage Amusement in 1988, Rarebell composed the music and Meine supplied the lyrics. Rarebell explained the sequence to Jay Nanda of the San Antonio Metal Music Examiner in 2010, in an interview excerpt published by Blabbermouth. A drum pattern came first. He developed the composition on piano, then took it to Meine with a problem: “I have no idea for the lyrics.” Meine completed that side of the song. Here, their collaboration started with the drummer bringing a musical idea that needed words.
Rarebell left Scorpions in April 1996. Looking back in the same 2010 interview, he described wanting to begin another chapter and make music outside the band. The songs he had helped write remained material he could revisit in his own recordings.
On 2013’s Acoustic Fever, he returned to that catalog with acoustic arrangements and a different guest singer on each track. Rarebell played drums, while the instrumentation included steel-string and flamenco guitars. Bobby Kimball sang “Rock You Like a Hurricane,” and John Parr took on “Passion Rules the Game.” The two songs reflected different sides of Rarebell’s Scorpions work: one carried his lyric contribution, the other his composition. Both became part of a project that placed those songs with new voices and a different instrumental setting.
