Nearly two years after the passing of former Scorpions and Kingdom Come drummer James Kottak, his longtime bandmate and friend Rick Steier has shared a harrowing account of the musician’s losing battle with alcoholism. In a candid conversation with Anthony Bryant of “The Hair Metal Guru,” Steier stated plainly that the drummer’s addiction was the sole cause of his death at age 61.
“James wasn’t doing any dr*gs,” Steier revealed during the interview (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). “[He] just drank [himself] to death. It sucked. So, that was the end of that.”
Kottak died in Louisville, Kentucky, in January 2024. According to Steier, the move to Kentucky was a desperate, final attempt to save the drummer’s life after his behavior in Los Angeles became unsustainable. Steier recalled giving Kottak‘s family a stark ultimatum.
“I talked to his brother and sister in Kentucky. I said, ‘You’re either gonna buy him a one-way ticket to Kentucky or I’m we’re gonna send him home in a box. It’s your call. There’s no other way this is gonna end,'” Steier recounted. “So after a year, they sent him back… And I found out he was partying [in Kentucky]. Then one day his brother called and said, ‘James has passed.'”
Before his relocation, Kottak‘s reliability in Kingdom Come had completely eroded. Steier described a situation where he was constantly “fighting” the other band members to replace Kottak, who he claimed was “drunk day and night.”
“I realized he was drunk day and night — it didn’t matter if I talked to him at two in the morning or eight in the morning, or 12 in the afternoon. He was always drunk,” Steier said.
The guitarist detailed the chaos surrounding the band’s infamous performance at the 2022 Sweden Rock Festival, which was widely panned by critics. Steier explained that despite the band’s efforts to alert hotel staff not to serve Kottak, the drummer found ways around the restrictions.
“What [James] would do is if a fan would come up, he would go, ‘Hey, man, can you buy me a drink? I’ll pay you. I’m busy here. Can you buy me a drink?'” Steier explained. “And they’ll bring it back… So he’d do that three or four times with different people. It’s impossible to stop.”
The performance itself was a disaster, with Kottak playing at “half speed” and disappearing to his room mid-rehearsal.
“Our agent said, ‘[The Sweden Rock Festival organizers] might not pay you because you all sucked so bad,'” Steier remembered. “I said, ‘We still played. They’re gonna pay us. We did not not play because [James] was drunk. He just played terrible.'”
Steier also touched on Kottak‘s dismissal from the Scorpions in 2016, noting that the German legends tried hard to help him, even paying for a six-month stay at Eric Clapton‘s rehab facility in Antigua. However, Kottak eventually returned to his habits, often sneaking drinks during post-show dinners while the rest of the band was unaware.
The most poignant moment of the interview came when Steier recalled attending a Scorpions concert in Los Angeles with Kottak after he had been fired. Watching Mikkey Dee on the drum kit that used to belong to his best friend brought Steier to tears.
“I’m at the show and I’m watching them play and James is standing next to me. We’re watching it, and I just started crying,” Steier shared. “It was weird, because I was going, ‘You’re not up there anymore. You did this for 17 years, man.’ And it was uncontrollable crying… Because [James] was my best friend, and then he lost a job ’cause of alcohol.”
Despite Kottak‘s pivotal role in the Scorpions—including being featured alone on the cover of their autobiography—Steier believes the drummer never understood his own worth.
“He never knew how powerful he was, what influence he had in the band,” Steier lamented. “I kept saying, ‘Dude, you’re worth more’ than what he was getting paid. I always pushed him… Anyway, so that’s that for James. God rest his soul.”
