Francis Buchholz

Born in Hanover on 19 February 1950, Buchholz discovered rock music at the age of 11. His first public appearance as a bass player was at age 15, with a school band, Blue Carps. From then on he played in different rock, blues and jazz bands in his hometown. While studying mechanical engineering at the TU Hannover and taking jazz classes at the Musikhochschule Hannover, Buchholz joined the band Dawn Road, whose lineup included vocalist and guitarist Uli Roth, drummer Jürgen Rosenthal and Achim Kirschning on keyboards. Eventually they and the two members who first formed Scorpions, singer Klaus Meine and guitarist Rudolf Schenker, merged into a new incarnation of the Scorpions in 1973, with Buchholz on bass. Buchholz's first recording with the Scorpions was 1974's Fly to the Rainbow, and he stayed as a band member for 18 years, recording 12 albums during the band's most commercially successful period. His bass riffs for hit songs such as "Rock You Like a Hurricane", "Wind of Change", "Big City Nights", "Still Loving You", "No One Like You", and others were regarded as iconic. In 1988, Scorpions were the first metal band to tour the Soviet Union. They returned the following year for the Moscow Music Peace Festival, where other bands included Bon Jovi and the Ozzy Osbourne Band. "Wind of Change" was written in the spirit of perestroika and also appeared in Russian. …

In 1978, Buchholz founded a PA and stage lighting rental company, Rocksound, in Germany. The company began as a way to distribute special exponential loudspeaker cabinets Buchholz had developed, but also to provide employment for the Scorpions' roadies when not on tour. Buchholz lived in Hannover with his wife Hella; they had a son and twin daughters. In 1996, Buchholz authored the book Bass Magic; he also worked as a record producer and consultant. Buchholz died from cancer on 22 January 2026, at the age of 75.