A German rocker on a special train: Udo Lindenberg

How many celebrities can boast that a statue has been put up in their honor? Living legend Udo Lindenberg has been rocking Germany for over five decades, and isn't ready to retire. The large bronze statue behind him, however, didn't hold up very long. Three years after it was erected in his Gornau hometown in 2015, it needed to be restored. A smaller, temporary replacement statue was even stolen.

Udo always loved the drums, even as a child. He left home at the age of 15, waited tables in the western German city of Düsseldorf and performed at various gigs in bars. After some time spent abroad, Udo landed in Hamburg. He met German band leader Peter Herbolzheimer, and was soon increasingly in demand as a studio musician.

In 1970, Klaus Doldinger, a renowned jazz musician, heard Udo play and invited him to join his new band, Passport. Udo was the band's drummer for three years. "That music was something else," he once said, recalling those early days.

After his stint with Passport, Udo started his first rock band in 1973: the Panic Orchestra. No musician before him had dared play rock music with German lyrics, sharing tales about life and its longings, about ordinary people, drinking and partying. By 1978, Udo and his band were big stars in Germany. Pictured above: Udo and theater director Peter Zadek celebrating the band's fifth anniversary.

Udo really wanted to perform in East Germany when the country was still divided. Cheeky as ever, he wrote a song, "Sonderzug nach Pankow" ("Special Train to Pankow"), pleading with East German leader Erich Honecker to let him play in East Berlin. His wish was granted in 1983, under the watchful eyes of East Germany's Stasi secret police. The Stasi actually had a 108-page long file on the musician.

Udo Lindenberg may come across, as aloof as he usually wears sunglasses. But the rock star actually enjoys mingling with his fans, as shown in this 1989 photo. He chats with people, gives autographs and doesn't shy away from selfies. Fans love the moment when he pushes his shades down his nose, allowing them to peer into his eyes.

For the past 20 years, Udo has called a suite in one of Hamburg's finest hotels, the Atlantic Kempinski, his home. He has everything he needs at the hotel, he says, adding that it's a good place to meet all kinds of people, and chat at the bar about everything imaginable. And no one seems to mind that he wanders about the lobby, smoking a cigar.

One day, Udo Lindenberg started to draw, small, comic-style "Udograms" which include portrayals of fat women, skinny men and self-portraits. His oeuvre includes entire cycles, like "Nackte Akte" (translation: nude acts) and "Arschgesichter und andere Gezeichnete" (translation: Buttheads and other drawings). His specialty are his "Likörelle" — paintings produced using brightly colored liqueurs.

Things started going downhill for the rock star in the late 1980s. Udo was in his mid-40s then, still youthful but already too old for many. His career stagnated, he drank too heavily and looked like he was slowly becoming a caricature of his own image. Many fans turned their backs on the rock singer at the time.

But Udo celebrated a comeback, and is stronger and better than ever before — even if he says so himself. Right in time for this 70th birthday on May 17, 2016, he launched a contemplative album that skyrocketed in the German music charts, titled "Stärker als die Zeit" ("Stronger Than Time").

Udo has been keeping busy over the last few years. 2020 saw the release of a biopic about his youth and his early years as a musician, followed by a new best-of album, titled "Udopium" in 2021. He's shown here in 2026, opening a model railway in Hamburg named "Panic Express" in tribute to his band.