In a recent interview with Talk Louder, Accept frontman Mark Tornillo reflected on turning 70 and discussed how he adapted to singing full-time after joining the band in 2009.
“When I first joined Accept, I had sang hard on a consistent basis for a long time. I was in a few cover bands in the ’90s and the 2000s. But we wouldn’t play all the time. So I said, ‘Well, if I’m gonna do this night after night after night, I’d better go get some help, maybe, just see what I can find out,'” he shared.
Tornillo credited vocal coach Mark Baxter for helping him refine his technique. “I went to a guy who was recommended to me. His name is Mark Baxter in New York. He’s worked with Steven Tyler… Well, that says it all right there. That’s the only thing you need to know. And he says, ‘Look, I can’t teach you how to sing. You know how to sing. I can hear it. I listened to your records. I can hear you sing.’ I said, ‘Yeah, all right. What do you got’?”
The lessons focused on scales, tongue and jaw positions, and vowel techniques. “And it’s just a series of — it’s scales, but it’s all different positions of your tongue and your jaw and the vowels. Because vowels mean everything. If you change to go from an ‘E’ to a ‘U’ or something like that, it feels like you’re in a different throat… And nobody knows why.”
In another interview, Tornillo explained how he keeps his voice sharp when not on tour. “When we’re not working, I don’t do that, but I actually go out and sing with some friends of mine locally every once in and awhile. It’s nice for my voice to have a rest, to be perfectly honest with you.”
He also mentioned performing occasional side gigs. “This is a little long; the last time I was on stage and actually sang was in October. I did a gig with some buddies of mine. I do a thing with Paul Crook, who used to be in Anthrax and was also Meatloaf’s guitar player for years; I do an industrial thing with him and Scott Metaxas from Prophet. It’s a cover thing, where we do a lot of mash-ups and stuff. It’s a lot of fun,” he added.
Since joining Accept in 2009, Tornillo has been featured on six studio albums: ‘Blood Of The Nations’, ‘Stalingrad’, ‘Blind Rage’, ‘The Rise Of Chaos’, ‘Too Mean To Die’, and ‘Humanoid.’
To celebrate 50 years as a band, Accept will embark on a special anniversary tour at the end of 2025 and release a new album in early 2026.
