In a recent chat with American Songwriter, Wolf Hoffmann shared reasons Polish fans didn’t like Accept.
“We caused quite a controversy in Poland because we had this intro—’Heidi heido heida,’” Hoffmann said of the song ‘Fast as a Shark.’ “We played that over there like we did everywhere, and they f*cking hated it because in a lot of those World War II movies, German soldiers were marching into Poland singing that song.”
The guitarist added, “Whether that historically really happened that often or whether it was just something that was featured in the movies. … To them that ‘heidi heido heida’ thing was like the essential Nazi song. So here we are like dumba**es, not knowing any of that. That caused a big controversy.”
Back then, Accept was known as a West German metal band, and they played in Poland in 1986 to support their album ‘Russian Roulette.’ The German song ‘Ein Heller und ein Batzen’ still bothers many Polish people today.
However, Hoffmann revealed that the song isn’t about Nazis. It’s actually a German drinking song from 1830, but it became associated with the marching Wehrmacht during World War II.
Accept’s first concert in Russia was in Moscow in 1993. Even though the Berlin Wall fell and openness began in 1986, the country still felt different at that time. “It was all black and white over there compared to the West,” Hoffmann noted. “But definitely the fans were amazing. They were definitely hungry for that kind of music, for sure.”
Accept is still touring for their latest album, ‘Humanoid,’ released earlier this year. They have announced a 50th-anniversary tour for late 2025 and 2026. “Yeah, of course, of course,” Wolf talked about if former Accept members Udo Dirkschneider And Peter Baltes might join the tour as guests. “That doesn’t mean they’re gonna [show up]. We have to wait and see. Of course, everybody [is invited].”
He continued, “The door is always open for anybody to join us on this because it’s gonna be a retrospective of all the 50 years of Accept, and whoever wants to participate is more than welcome. Yes, sure.”
Accept will perform in New Orleans on September 26. Their last US show is in San Francisco on October 7. The band will start their European tour on October 17 in Turkey.