Wolf Hoffmann

Wolf Hoffmann (born 10 December 1959) is a German musician, primarily known as the guitarist and last remaining original member of heavy metal band Accept since 1976.

His work in Accept influenced the development of speed metal genre.

He is also one of the first players of neoclassical metal.

Wolf Hoffmann was born on 10 December 1959 in Mainz, West Germany.

He moved with his parents to Wuppertal at the age of six.

His father was a chemistry professor and his mother a housewife.

The parents hoped their son would go to university and pursue an academic career.

However, Hoffmann became interested in playing the guitar and got his first acoustic guitar from his parents by promising to take playing lessons.

Hoffmann was not enthusiastic about playing the acoustic guitar and took playing lessons only for a year.

His passion for playing returned after he got his first electric guitar.

While studying in middle school, Hoffmann played the guitar with his friends every day.

There were the occasional bands that would usually last only a few rehearsals.

Rehearsals were mostly for hanging out and having fun.

At the end of 1975, Hoffmann heard in a local music store that a band called Accept was looking for a new guitarist.

The band practiced in the nearby town of Solingen, only a 15-minute drive from Wuppertal.

Hoffmann has played in all Accept's line-ups since 1976.

The first album Accept was released in 1979.

In the 1980s the band released seven albums: I'm a Rebel, Breaker, Restless and Wild, Balls to the Wall, Metal Heart, Russian Roulette, and Eat the Heat.

In 1989 the band broke up, and it returned in 1992 with the album Objection Overruled.

The band was inactive between 1997 and 2008 except some live performances in 2005.

Hoffmann has released two neoclassical solo albums, Classical (1997) and Headbangers Symphony (2016).

Hoffmann made two more albums, Death Row and Predator, with Accept before the band disbanded again in 1997.

In 1997, Hoffmann released the album Classical with rock versions of classical music works.

Accept made a comeback with Hoffmann in 2009.

Since then, the band has released the albums Blood of the Nations, Stalingrad, Blind Rage, The Rise of Chaos, and Too Mean to Die.

In July 2022, Hoffmann revealed that he has started writing material for the next Accept album that will possibly be released in 2023.

The band was reformed by Hoffmann and another original member was released on 20 August 2010 to overwhelmingly positive reviews.

Four follow-up albums were released successively since then.

Hoffmann's second solo album, Headbangers Symphony, was released in July 2016.

On the first album, Hoffmann reduced the music to mainly just guitar, while on the second album, he included an orchestra.

However, both albums have the same basic idea: they have well-known classical compositions, of which Hoffmann has made his own rock/metal adaptations.

Hoffmann became Accept's guitarist a few weeks before his 17th birthday.

Accept was not like the random groups of friends that Hoffmann had played in before.

The band members took practice seriously, and they also played gigs locally.

After bassist Peter Baltes joined the band half a year after Hoffmann, they started composing new songs for the band together.

Their collaboration continued for more than 40 years, and they made most of Accept's songs.

Since Restless and Wild Hoffmann has played the majority of all the guitar parts on Accept's studio albums, although the entire band is typically listed on the records.

Hoffmann has released 16 studio albums with Accept.

Hoffmann's long-time dream of performing together with a symphony orchestra on stage came true in 2017 at the Wacken Open Air Festival, when he performed Headbangers Symphony songs for the first time in front of an audience with the Czech Symphony Orchestra.

Baltes left Accept in 2018 and Hoffmann is now the last original member.