The Biography

"Awesome, just awesome” is what his fans think. Others say he’s just another singer of German pop music. His fans like the fact that he has always remained level-headed, and they like his songs, which may have simple melodies, but they appeal to fans of “Schlager” music. All the hysteria about “Wolle”, as he is generally known, started many years ago, and stadium concerts with more than 50,000 in the audience are nothing unusual. So how has this come about? Maybe one reason is that some time ago Media-Control started to use computers to record the sales figures. Since then, the figures have been correctly calculated, not just estimated. Also, for decades there has hardly been an après-ski party, company party or village fete which has taken place without the hits of the long-established and curly-haired singer from the “Bergisches Land” area of Germany. Petry’s great breakthrough came in 1996 with what he called “the world’s longest single”, between 20 and 30 minutes of catchy song fragments, a cross-section of his musical career. After 20 years in show business, Petry – who originally trained as a precision mechanic - had found his recipe for success, and his subsequent albums always included a new part of “the world’s longest single”. In 2005 he expands his “collagen single” into a whole album and calls it "Die längste Single der Welt? Das Album". In his songs, Petry continues to praise and to live a simple, uncomplicated life. He experiences the hell of relationships, analyses the mating rituals of men and women, and has no doubt that “We’re all going to heaven.” But not until the party is over, of course. And the party ends in 2006, when Wolfgang Petry announces that he is quitting the music business. On September 16, while accepting his “Goldene Stimmgabel” lifetime achievement award from Dieter Thomas Heck, he astounds the audience when he says, “I started with Heck, and that’s where I’m going to stop.”