Former ACCEPT and current U.D.O. singer Udo Dirkschneider will embark on a special tour next year during which he will perform ACCEPT songs one last time before he closes the chapter for good.

The 62-year-old German singer revealed his plans at a press conference in the VIP tent of this weekend's Wacken Open Air festival in Wacken, Germany.

During this ACCEPT "farewell" tour — which he will perform under the DIRKSCHNEIDER banner (not U.D.O.)— Dirkschneider will only showcase songs from the Udo era of ACCEPT. The German rock staple will close a huge chapter of music history forever. In the early '80s, the Solingen-raised singer skyrocketed to worldwide acclaim with the band ACCEPT and with his unmistakable voice, he had several hits such as "Balls To The Wall" and "Princess Of The Dawn". Now he has announced that he will perform these much-loved hits on this special tour one more time before he removes them from the setlist forever.

"I still love singing these songs live," Dirkschneider says. "The songs still are an important part of my catalog and still suit my voice very well. But at some point in your life, it's just time to close the chapter. There has been so much talk and speculation about ACCEPT, so I just want to give my last definitive musical statement about it and give my fans a chance to see me perform a complete concert of these songs one last time on stage."

After this tour, Udo will only play songs from his extensive library of U.D.O. material. Following his dismissal from ACCEPT in the late '80s, he garnered many classic hits with his new band in a long and successful career, such as "Animal House", "Timebomb" and "Man And Machine". "There is enough high-quality [U.D.O.] material to fill a two-hour set with no problem," says Dirkschneider. "U.D.O. has been the band where I belong for 18 years and I want to pay tribute to them from now on."