Bass guitar

Plays in Helloween since 1983 till now


Forever young. Never feeling down. Just a merry, jolly, tattoed all over fellow. He's the oldest member of the band who played both with Kai Hansen and Michael Weikath even before the birth of Helloween proper. It was Markus who found Michael Kiske (the voice that made Helloween a legend of the eighties) in 1986. He managed to stay away from all the clashes and scandals there were during all the long uneasy life of the band. Markus is the author of many extraordinary songs that mostly end up as single b-sides and bonustracks. That's why sometimes he's called "The king of b-sides".

"We make fun of ourselves in a way."

"At all events we wanted to avoid the metal cliche in order to do something different. If people create themselves in the metal cliche, no matter if it’s Blind Guardian, Judas Priest or Grinder, it’s convincing the way they do it. But why should we just repeat this? "

Career timeline:

date	event
september 21st, 1965	Markus Grosskopf was born in Hamburg (Germany)
end of 70s	in a holiday camp he met with two guys from a punk band and began to play bass for them
1980	Markus "broke up" with punk rock and became interested in hard rock and heavy metal
1980	Grosskopf got to know Kai Hansen and joined his band, Second Hell (Kai Hansen, Markus Grosskopf, Piet Sielck, Ingo Schwichtenberg)
1983	Markus's school studies were over. Since the band broke up due to Sielck's departure to USA, he began working as a butcher apprentice
1983	Markus joined Blast Furnace band. There he met Michael Weikath, also a member of Powerfool who invited Kai Hansen to play with him
1983	Grosskopf, Hansen, Weikath and Schwichtenberg formed Helloween (for further info, see Helloween timeline)
1990	While Helloween couldn't perform on stage due to legal reasons, Markus Grosskopf, Ingo Schwichtenberg and Roland Feldman created a band called Doc Eisenhauer and started playing in various Hamburg clubs
1992	Doc Eisenhauer's debut album, Alles I'm Lack was released by BMG
1998	Grosskopf released his first solo album, ‘Shockmachine’
2002	‘Hearts and Bones’, the first album of Markus's side project, Kickhunter, was released

Discography:

All Helloween issues

Guest appearances:

Ferdy Doernberg (Just a Piano and a Handful of Dreams)

Roland Grapow (The Four Seasons of Life)

Catch the Rainbow (A Tribute to Rainbow)

Andi Deris (Come in from the Rain)

Doc Eisenhauer (Alles I'm Lack)

Avantasia (Avantasia - the Metal Opera, parts 1, 2)

Ken Hensley & John Lawton (Salisbury)

Solo-projects:

Shockmachine (Shockmachine)

Kickhunter (Hearts and Bones)


Websites dedicated to Markus Grosskopf:

Kickhunter


Interview links collection:

Interview for Megalith Rock webzine - Date: 08.2004

Interview for www.heavyhardes.de website (in German) - Date: 02.02.2004

Interview for www.ontrackmagazine.com webzine - Date: 2004

Interview for www.metalstorm.ee webzine - Date: 02.10.2003

Interview for www.darkside.ru website - Date: 25.04.2003