Tornillo admitted that when he first joined Accept in 2009, he hadn’t been singing intensely on a nightly basis for quite some time. “I had sung hard on a consistent basis for a long time, but I was in a few cover bands in the ’90s and 2000s, and we didn’t play all the time,” he explained. “So, I thought, ‘If I’m gonna do this night after night, I’d better go get some help and see what I can find out.’”
He sought out vocal coaching and was recommended to Mark Baxter, a highly respected voice teacher based in New York. Tornillo shared that Baxter had worked with big names like Steven Tyler, which made a big impression on him. “He listened to my records and said, ‘I can hear you can sing. I can’t teach you how to sing, but I can help you with the technical stuff,’” Tornillo recalled. “And I said, ‘Okay, let’s see what you’ve got.’”
The frontman went on to describe the specific techniques that Baxter taught him to keep his voice in top shape for live performances. “It’s all about scales, but not just the notes—it’s about different positions of your tongue, your jaw, and vowels. Vowels are everything. If you change from an ‘E’ to a ‘U,’ it feels like you’re in a different part of your throat, and nobody knows why, but it works.”
When asked about how he maintains his voice when Accept isn’t on tour, Tornillo explained that while he doesn’t sing every day, he does keep his vocal cords active by singing with friends locally. “When we’re not working, I don’t do it as often, but I actually go out and sing with some buddies every once in a while,” he said. “It’s nice to give my voice a rest, to be perfectly honest with you.”
He also mentioned a recent performance with some of his musical friends: “The last time I was on stage and actually sang was in October. I did a gig with some buddies of mine, including Paul Crook, who used to be in Anthrax and was Meat Loaf’s guitarist for years. We do an industrial thing together with Scott Metaxas from Prophet. It’s a cover project, where we do mash-ups. It’s a lot of fun.”
Tornillo, who replaced Udo Dirkschneider as Accept‘s frontman, has contributed to the band’s last six studio albums, including Blood of the Nations, Stalingrad, Blind Rage, The Rise of Chaos, Too Mean to Die, and Humanoid.
As Accept gears up to celebrate 50 years of metal in 2025-2026, the band plans to embark on a special anniversary tour at the end of 2025 and release a new album in early 2026. Fans can expect a milestone celebration of the band’s legendary career.