Savage Sting! As you might guess from their name, Savage Sting is a Greek Scorpions tribute band. Driven by their deep love for the legendary German rockers, the band passionately covers Scorpions’ songs and is now stepping into the spotlight with their upcoming live performances. Their debut gig is set to take place this Saturday, February 15th. In anticipation of the event, Myth of Rock reached out to the band for an engaging and insightful conversation.
by Ira Bunia
Good evening, guys! How are you tonight?
John Kami: Greetings! Perfect, and ready to rock!
First of all, before we delve into music stuff, I’d like some very brief introduction of each of you, as well as your roles in the band.
John Kami: I am the lead vocalist and frontman, Sissy Kolia is our dedicated backing vocalist, Babis Kalogiannis is the drummer, guitar duties are shared between Tassos Karachalios and Yannis Mouzalas, and Theodoros Boutsikas is on bass guitar and backing vocals.
“Savage Sting”. Whose idea was the band name, and how did it come to pass?
John Kami: It’s rather funny, because the name choice turned into a long discussion for some time. It is customary for tribute bands all over the world to be named after a song title, album title, or some iconic lyric from the band they represent. When we sat down to choose, we had around twelve suggested names (laughs), some were Sails of Charon, Bad Boys Running Wild, Rock Believers etc. After an elimination process, we ended up with just two contenders, and “Savage Sting” dominated the vote. It’s basically a combination of the album “Savage Amusement” with the sting of a scorpion.
When was the line-up of the band completed?
John Kami: Now, that’s a very good question. We started off as a five-piece, just like the famous German hard rock legends. I’ve known Tassos and Yannis for over 15 years, and we also had a brief collaboration with Babis on another project back in 2022.
Yannis Mouzalas: It’s been 15 years? Wow!
John Kami: Time flies. Anyway, we found Theodoros through a vacancy page on social media and the five of us met for a jam. I believe it was mid/late spring of 2024, when we decided to take this seriously and move ahead. At some point, around November 2024, when we were finally looking for gigs, I was by myself one night listening to “Rhythm of Love”, and I remembered the great story of Lee Aaron being the one doing backing vocals on that track in the studio recording. I was immediately like, “We need a female singer for backing vocals”. I contacted Sissy, whom I’ve also known for a few years and suggested she took up that spot – a very difficult role to find candidates for, as not many singers are interested in being full-time backing vocalists. On the contrary, she took up the offer with great dedication and professionalism, and we became a permanent six-piece.
In general, are your opinions in agreement? Do you have common musical tastes?
John Kami: Every person is unique, however, I’d say that yes, our core mentalities and mindsets overlap. It’s an extremely important condition for any band to thrive, be it a cover band, a tribute band like us, or a band with original discography. High skill and technique is of course great and welcome, but it’s never sufficient by itself.
As for influences, again, there is definitely common ground, albeit we also have our own unique tastes. Personally, I’m a massive fan of AOR, melodic hard rock, and glam rock of the ’80s. I was shaped by artists such as Survivor, Foreigner, Journey and FM (whom I had the honour of meeting in person last November). I also like to call myself possibly the biggest fan of the band Europe in Greece (laughs).
Babis is very similar to me, and he’s also a massive fan of Ratt, another great band from the ’80s. The others have similar tastes, we all love bands like Whitesnake, Journey, and the likes (the list could get too long so I’m only mentioning a handful). Sissy has more of a symphonic metal background with bands like Nightwish and Lacuna Coil, which is evident in her vocals. Regardless of what we listen to at home, we are all in this 100%. Occasionally in rehearsals, just for fun and a break from our Scorpions stuff we may jam to some random stuff, from Motley Crüe and KISS to Metallica and Judas Priest. But Scorpions remains our focus and binding agent.
Yannis Mouzalas: I started out playing covers from bands like Metallica and AC/DC, which really shaped my early style. Over time though, I found myself more drawn to ’80s hard rock, AOR, and metal. The big melodies, powerful hooks and overall vibe of that era just felt like the right fit for me.
Tassos Karachalios: My musical journey has been deeply shaped by legendary bands like Metallica, Iron Maiden, Scorpions and Mr. Big. These early influences laid the foundation for my style. As I evolved as a musician, my horizons expanded, incorporating elements of jazz, which added a different depth and complexity to my playing. However, my true passion remains rooted in the electrifying sounds of ’80s hard rock and metal. This blend of classic heavy metal intensity and refined musical exploration defines my approach as a guitarist.
Do you all share the same love for Scorpions?
John Kami: (laughs) Nothing could be further from the truth. I mean, we all love Scorpions, of course – I don’t think it’s possible not to, we are the generation that grew up on timeless anthems like “Holiday” and “Big City Nights” – but when you have the likes of Theodoros Boutsikas as the bassist in your band, everyone else takes the backseat! As previously mentioned, we found him through a vacancy post. His response was immediate and I could feel the enthusiasm overflowing through the messages. If you ask me who carries the flag of the biggest Scorpions fan out of the six of us, that honour goes to him, no contest. Funny little piece of trivia, when we were beginning to rehearse “Make it Real” for the first time, he almost jumped in the air full of joy and exclaimed, “I’ve been waiting for this for 30 damn years!”
Theodoros Boutsikas: Indeed, I was really excited at that moment, because throughout my years of playing music I was literally begging other bandmates to play at least one Scorpions track, and for some reason they would all be very evasive about it. Before Savage Sting I only ever got the chance to play three Scorpions tracks in a live gig in total, namely “Blackout”, “Holiday” and “Always Somewhere”.
Let’s switch gears now. I’d like you to mention your favourite Scorpions albums and even tracks, and how much those have influenced you as musicians.
John Kami: Hard question to answer, when you’re dealing with a band with such a massive discography. Many albums and even more songs are competing for my number one spots in both categories, but I’d say “Taken by Force” is my favourite album, probably followed by “Lovedrive”. As for individual songs, I could name dozens, but if I had to narrow it down to a single one, I’d say “We’ll Burn the Sky”. Now, THAT’S a song I could listen to every day for the rest of my life and never get bored of it. The instrumentation, the top line, the backing vocals, the lyrics – everything about it is nothing but pure perfection.
Tassos Karachalios: Μy favourite Scorpions albums would be “Love at First Sting” and “Blackout”.
Babis Kalogiannis: Mine are “Taken by Force”, “Lovedrive”, “Savage Amusement”, and “Crazy World”.
Yannis Mouzalas: “Love at First Sting”, “Lovedrive”, “Blackout”, and also “Humanity: Hour 1” as well.
Theodoros Boutsikas: Personally, my top albums would be the ones I got my hands on in my teenage years, when I first started playing music as a guitarist initially. Those albums were “Animal Magnetism”, “Savage Amusement”, and a compilation titled “Best of” (those compilations were a widespread thing back then). Aside from that, I have nice memories, mostly from summer holidays in my village, listening to Scorpions ballads from an old boombox from older friends. That was probably the stinging for me – that of the musical Scorpions of course. I would not be here today if the stinging was done by the actual scorpions we have in the area!
Your first, debut gig, is on 15/02/2025 at Architecture Rock – Live Stage in Zografou district. I’d like you to talk about it for a moment, as well as your feelings on it.
John Kami: One word, excitement beyond limits – okay, that was three words (laughs). We’ve had some tough luck with gigs due to some setbacks that kept postponing our debut performance, so the enthusiasm kept building up. It’s finally time to get out of the studio and share the energy with our fellow Scorpions fans out there. We are playing together with Omonoia Circus, an awesome female-fronted band of the Athens music scene. They released their album “Sappho’s Little Boat” in 2023, and they are definitely a band you have to check out. We, both bands, hope to transmit our excitement to the audience – if they can handle it, that is!
Next milestone?
John Kami: Thanks for asking! We already have our next gig booked up for Friday, March 28th in Blackbird/BUMS in Exarcheia, together with Mistreaters, a Deep Purple tribute band. That’s another band you definitely have to check out on social media and YouTube. Incredibly faithful Deep Purple sound and exploding energy on stage. I stumbled upon their videos randomly, listened to “Burn” and “Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming”, and I immediately thought, “Okay, we MUST play together with this band, PERIOD.” You will be seeing an announcement for that event on social media around the end of the month, in a couple of weeks or so.
Thank you all for your time, we are eager to attend your performance on Saturday at Architecture in Zografou!
John Kami: Thank you too, we do appreciate it, and we’re waiting to Rock you like a Hurricane!
