Joey Tempest of Europe recently joined an episode of BBC Breakfast, and during the conversation, when he was asked his feelings about the group’s current place within the rock community, Tempest replied:
“We’ve gone through such a long journey together. Original band members since the ’80s, and we’ve done eleven albums. And we feel like we’re doing better now on the circuit, on the rock circuit, and we’re very accepted… So we don’t really think about that.”
About the genre of Europe versus the genre of ‘The Final Countdown’ transformed into, Tempest added:
“That song did have a crossover thing; it came into the pop world, whereas [we were] a rock band. So, it’s kind of… Yeah… We’re okay with it.”
In one of his previous interviews, Tempest mentioned that the popularity ‘The Final Countdown’ gained, along with ‘With Wings of Tomorrow,’ changed Europe’s career path and brought them to a new level. He said:
“‘With Wings Of Tomorrow’ [the second album, released as a four-piece in 1984], we knew we were going places, but we could never have dreamt what that song gave us. As international rock bands, Def Leppard and Iron Maiden had opened a lot of doors, and for a short period, we were the biggest band in the world.”
When he was asked about the initial goal of the band, Tempest replied:
“We started going to shows in Stockholm: Deep Purple, Whitesnake, Rainbow, Thin Lizzy… And we started rehearsing and dreaming hard about being a touring. So it was sort of a gradual thing. We wanted to be an international touring band like Deep Purple; that was our main goal.”
You can watch the whole conversation here.