“Right here is but but every other shot at glory for me. I know the things I’ve been denied. I shouldn’t personal to hang it up for the duration of but again”: K.K. Downing on reclaiming his legacy with KK’s Priest – and what his one-off reunion with Judas Priest used to be in fact like

It lasted for staunch over seven minutes, but what a wonderful 420-plus seconds it used to be. Judas Priest’s pioneering guitarists Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing were aid onstage collectively for the major time in additional than 11 years taking part in a few of their largest hits to a worldwide viewers.

The celebration took design November 5, 2022, within the Microsoft Theater (Los Angeles) on the Rock and Roll Corridor of Reputation Induction Ceremony, where Judas Priest bought the Lifetime Achievement Award. Following a temporary introduction by Alice Cooper, the band barreled thru You’ve Purchased But every other Factor Coming, Living After Hour of darkness and Breaking the Law as celebrities at the side of Dave Grohl and Drew Barrymore raised their fists and sang alongside.

Downing used to be joined on stage by the band’s present guitarist, Richie Faulkner, and each and every perceived to personal the the same vogue dressmaker and hairdresser. Wearing the band’s patented studded sad leather, wielding Flying V guitars and bobbing their flowing blond tresses, their chemistry used to be as tight as their precision riffing and synchronized stage moves. 

On utterly different aspect of the stage were bassist Ian Hill and Tipton, the latter sporting a Judas Priest baseball cap and eyeglasses and collaborating in a sad Hamer Phantom. Presumably because of his worsening Parkinson’s condition, Tipton remained somewhat stationary and glanced downward – an elder statesman evenly taking within the voluble scene and reaping the rewards of fifty-plus years of dedication to his craft. 

Onstage, vocalist Rob Halford stood as one with Downing. Offstage and before the camouflage, the atmosphere wasn’t so pleasant. Downing wasn’t allowed to stroll the crimson carpet alongside with his historical bandmates, had a separate dressing room and acquired the cool shoulder from every person within the band excluding Faulkner, who modified Downing when he left the band. Even so, Downing wasn’t about to let grotesque politics ruin an correct occasion.

“I used to be flying high, and It used to be implausible,” Downing says, recalling the performance. “I used to be there for the followers who wished to transfer wanting for me with Priest but again, and it used to be a super second. Of us cherished it and a total bunch them acknowledged hey, at the side of Richie, who used to be in fact nice and in point of fact chilly. I favor I could well per chance perhaps pronounce the the same for my historical bandmates.”

Downing officially stop Judas Priest in 2011. Due to personal and musical tensions that had grown over the years between him and a few of his bandmates, he opted no longer to play their planned closing hurrah, the Epitaph Tour. Downing insists the band agreed to atomize up after the last date of the prolonged recede.

“Everybody went, ‘He jumped ship. He left our loved Priest,’” Downing says. “That wasn’t the case in any respect. If I’d personal identified that the closing tour wasn’t going to be the closing tour and so that they’d be carrying on for but every other 10 years, things would potentially personal been loads utterly different.”

When Downing bowed out, Judas Priest recruited Faulkner, who breathed unusual lifestyles into the band, and with whom Judas Priest has persevered to tour and file. Faulkner performed on 2014’s Redeemer of Souls and 2018’s Firepower and toured for each and every albums. 

Downing never hoped to interchange Faulkner; on the choice hand, when Tipton announced he used to be too in miserable health from Parkinson’s to tour, Downing contacted management and expressed passion in rejoining, but too grand spoiled blood had passed beneath the bridge for the people to accept his provide. As a replace, they hired their producer, Andy Sneap, to join them onstage.

“I graciously requested to return when there used to be an opportunity, but the fellows within the band acknowledged, ‘No. We don’t favor you.’ I acknowledged, ‘Are you particular? Before I beginning but every other project, are you particular you don’t favor me aid within the band?’ Rob, Glenn and Ian acknowledged, ‘No,’ and that used to be it.”

Downing says he used to be especially upset at being rejected since he had supported Halford’s decision to rejoin Judas Priest after a 14-300 and sixty five days hiatus. And he sat aid and patiently waited for six years while Tipton worked on the project Tipton, Entwistle & Powell, which launched Fringe of the World in 2006. When it grew to turn into clear as unblemished crystal that no-one in Judas Priest’s camp wished Downing aid, he took his gear, without lengthen recognizable tone and familiar songwriting vogue and soaked it all in a vat of piss and vinegar. 

Then he linked with historical Judas Priest vocalist Tim “Ripper” Owens, who sang for Judas Priest between 1996 and 2003 (while Halford used to be working on Combat, Halford and 2wo), and the two fashioned KK’s Priest, a searing, soaring metallic band that takes no grand distress to characterize apart itself sonically from the music Downing co-wrote in Judas Priest.

“Right here’s the ingredient,” Downing says. “Judas Priest used to be my toddler. I created it. I stuck with it from the very starting. I hired utterly different people to be an ingredient of the band and then it used to be my lifestyles. It used to be my career. It used to be my legacy. It used to be my tale. And the toughest ingredient on the earth used to be letting it prance.

“And now I’m acknowledging I am now no longer a member of Judas Priest, but I am still a super share of Judas Priest, and any individual who is aware of the band can characterize that by paying attention to what I’m doing now.”

KK’s Priest launched their debut album, Sermons of the Sinner, October 1, 2021. Besides to to drawing from Judas Priest’s trademark musical vogue, Downing referenced Priest songs at the side of Sinner within the title nick, The Sentinel in Return of the Sentinel and his personal ancient past in Hail for the Priest. 

For the explanation that Covid pandemic avoided KK’s Priest from touring, Downing stored writing riffs, leads and lyrics, and no longer up to 6 months after wrapping Sermons of the Sinner, he carried out writing The Sinner Rides Again.

With a lineup that parts Owens, guitarist A.J. Mills, bassist Tony Newton and drummer Sean Elg, the band spent the summer taking part in a handful of gala’s and a few reveals at K.K.’s club in Wolverhampton, KK’s Steel Mill.

“Wolverhampton is correct outdoors of Birmingham, and we archaic to play there loads within the early Priest days,” he says. All around the band’s July 6 camouflage at KK’s Steel Mill, the band performed nine Judas Priest songs (at the side of their duvet of Fleetwood Mac’s The Green Manalishi) and six numbers by KK’s Priest.

“I are desirous to hang an correct corrupt-share of songs from the major two albums alongside with some Priest songs the followers must hear,” he says. “We have videos for six unusual songs, and as we relief releasing tracks from the unusual album, we’ll relief adding them to the design.”

On the second, Downing is spending some down time at dwelling before heading out for more reveals in October. Whereas he still has several bitter grapes to flick at a few of his historical bandmates, he appears much less bitter than he used to be when he launched Sermons of the Sinner and more intent to take care of the promising arrangement forward for KK’s Priest than dwell on any past grief.

Judas Priest followers perceived to be split on Sermons of the Sinner. Some heralded it as an exhilarating return to hang; others thought it used to be a reflection of an artist attempting to recapture his historical glory.

“It’s a irregular world, isn’t it? The design of conditions about my departure from the band were so carefully misconstrued that folks fashioned an belief without lengthen about me. Management put out a press release: ‘K.K. has retired from Judas Priest.’ Everybody thought I used to be leaving to open a golf route. Priest followers didn’t charge the misfortune and couldn’t charge what I used to be upset about. But now we’re working with some unusual people and we’re on a peculiar designate and I’m taking a seek ahead to shifting on with KK’s Priest.”

At what level did you accept that you just couldn’t live within the past and you had to transfer on with a peculiar band?

“It used to be very bright to personal to present up the baton to unusual blood. Hundreds tears were shed and there personal been a total bunch sleepless nights. Of us thought I used to be an asshole. But that wasn’t it. I used to be totally devoted to metallic and the legacy of it, as I am this present day. The fact is, I gave up touring with Priest in consequence of I used to be aged down and I felt battered. I felt beaten. I felt like I haven’t bought a state. I felt I used to be being trod upon – even correct up to the level of the farewell tour. So I staunch relief it going in my personal manner.” 

At this level, there’s no motive metallic followers must personal to create a preference from the Rob Halford-fronted Judas Priest and KK’s Priest. You aren’t sports activities teams. 

“I used to be the K.K. in Judas Priest and now I’ve bought KK’s Priest in consequence of I’m the the same participant. I’ve bought the the same articulation. I’m using the the same amps and speakers, the the same methodology to what I deem an correct music must be. I’ve bought the the same tips on what makes an correct guitar sound and an correct lead sound. I’m staunch doing what I began to hang within the early days.”

Lift out you are feeling that KK’s Priest resembles early Judas Priest?

“No longer in fact, in consequence of aid then my musical vocabulary used to be somewhat restricted. It used to be acceptable for the day. It’s more like I’m starting over now with this band that isn’t that successfully identified but. Within the late ’60s and ’70s, I essentially performed the major and minor pentatonic and the Aeolian scale, which is the natural minor scale, which is my personal current, and it’s the the same as the relative major scale. 

“Different than that, we would hang a few chromatic things, or we’d rob things from utterly different styles without sensible what the scales were. Presumably we did hang something that used to be diminished, but on the time we didn’t realize it used to be from the diminished scale. We staunch cherished how it sounded. 

“But whenever you occur to educate your self, you beginning to combine all these utterly different scales – the harmonic minor, the Ionian and others so that you just’ve bought a bigger, louder state. I revel in integrating all of those styles so there are arrangement more instruments in that toolbox than I had in 1971, and that helps loads with songwriting.”

In any manner, hang that that it is probably going you’ll perhaps very successfully be desirous to personal KK’s Priest to sound utterly different from what you wrote in Judas Priest?

“For the major file, I used to be delighted to personal a minute little bit of a retro sound, where a few of those songs may well per chance perhaps per chance personal been created within the ’70s, ’80s or ’90s. I deem this one is suitable for the camouflage day with an seek towards the future. But a music like Brothers of the Boulevard is about guys in metallic bands assembly up on the aid of the scenes at gala’s and gigs. We’re all road warriors. 

“Infrequently we’re obtainable for months on terminate with a suitcase plump of soiled apparel, but we rating on with it and we rating the job done, and we revel in it. That may well per chance perhaps personal been on [Judas Priest’s 1981 album] Level of Entry. It’s the the same concept as Heading Out to the Toll road. However the tones are a minute bit bit more edgy in consequence of it adds to the joy of the songs. It’s a minute bit more unstable, a minute bit more gung-ho. Fairly more, Let’s fucking rating obtainable and rock!”

Sermons of the Sinner made it completely clear that you just personal your sound. Why no longer regulate it arrangement more on The Sinner Rides Again by using utterly different production tactics, songwriting styles or guitar tones, and making fewer disclose references to Priest songs so no one can accuse you of being stuck within the past? 

“Well, I’m no longer doing this to be a version of something from the past – a obvious version of Judas Priest. That’s no longer the case in any respect. Your total followers and people that don’t rating that non-public to charge that I used to be there on the very starting. I repeatedly wished to be in Judas Priest even before I auditioned for Judas Priest and failed. 

“I knew I had to return. I stored knocking on the door until I purchased thru it [toward the end of 1969]. And I used to be ready to invite people into that band. I brought Glenn into Priest in 1974. He used to be arrangement more commercially minded than me, but I knew he used to be an correct participant. I wished someone that may well per chance perhaps play leads, write songs and play rhythm as successfully. And I thought having two guitarists would in point of fact affect the band and create it in fact valid. 

“I couldn’t deem of but every other band like us that had more than one guitar participant. There were some, but most of them were within the States. There used to be Wishbone Ash, but they weren’t a heavy rock band. I wished Glenn and every person to be an ingredient of this amazing skedaddle to create music that didn’t exist.”

Cherish Judas Priest, KK’s Priest parts two guitarists. How did you connect with your unusual sidekick, A.J. Mills?

“I went to important college with A.J.’s uncle, and we’ve stayed chums. And then A.J. began to play the guitar as a teen. I’ve mentored him and his career since then and now he’s 34 and he’s prepared for the mountainous stage. If fact be told, he’s been on it! So that’s chilly in consequence of we’re from the the same metropolis and there’s metallic blood in our veins.” 

A.J. is credited on the major KK’s Priest album, but you wrote all the songs.

“I used to be delighted to hang it myself. But I used to be equally delighted to collaborate with him on two of the unusual songs in consequence of it’s appropriate for A.J. to rob on more of a characteristic within the band. I’ll be 72 this 300 and sixty five days, and at some level, it’d be grand if someone may well per chance perhaps rob over for me, every time that may well per chance perhaps just be. Hopefully, it’s a prolonged manner down the road, but you never know. I misplaced my sister all of sudden a few years within the past and that anxious me, to be appropriate. It used to be somewhat sudden, and she or he used to be staunch 70.”

Lift out you ever take into myth Glenn and how Parkinson’s Illness has impacted what he can hang as a guitarist?

“It’s terribly unhappy to transfer wanting for what’s came about to Glenn. And I’m extraordinarily happy with our relationship and what we did and done collectively. I respect him more than anybody within the band, to be magnificent, in consequence of Glenn used to be very hardworking, and he had skill. We wrote somewhat a few grand songs collectively. And on a social diploma, we did successfully for a truly prolonged time.” 

You’ve been severe of him within the past, even accusing him of drinking too grand onstage. 

“I don’t must narrate too grand about what used to be acknowledged and done. That’s all been beaten into the bottom. But there used to be repeatedly a difference between myself and Glenn. He had a obvious relationship with management than I did, and that grew to turn into problematic for me. I felt like I had no relief an eye on over band choices. 

“But Glenn will repeatedly personal a design in my coronary heart, as grand as we were at loggerheads on a total bunch things, we made grand music collectively. And in all chance even he wasn’t up to bustle after a particular level. Who’s aware of? But there’s repeatedly utterly different aspect of the coin and the followers must charge that.” 

Lift out you and A.J. personal utterly different taking part in styles?

“No longer in fact. When he used to be younger, he cherished nu metallic, but over the years he has seemed up to me and my sound. He has performed with me for a while, so our styles are the same, and so that they work successfully collectively. He uses heavier strings, so his voicings personal a minute bit more low terminate to them. And we tune down one-half of step, so when we fired up his rig and he performed thru Celestion G12 speakers and started chugging in fact appropriate, he cherished it.”

Lift out you make exercise of lighter strings? 

“I exercise Dean Markley .08 thru .38. I’ve repeatedly done that in consequence of I don’t personal in fact mountainous, valid palms. I don’t deem I ever did, but now at my age it’s appropriate to personal lighter strings. They’re easy to bend and so that they staunch feel correct.” 

Lift out you prefer to play runs with legato or alternate picking?

“I’ll hang total runs thru several octaves using all economic system picking. I personal stress-free doing that. It’s somewhat a project, but I will be succesful to hang it. I will be succesful to play staunch as quickly when I alternate pick as I will be succesful to when I exercise legato. 

“To be completely appropriate, I could well per chance perhaps exercise arrangement more legato in my sound if I had pulled it off all my lifestyles. It’s staunch bright to belief it a minute bit bit and to narrate as successfully with it until you’ve in fact bought that overdriven and compressed sound. 

“Ought to you’re within the dwelling and you’re taking part in, you rating to drag it off. Ought to you’ve bought a mountainous double-bass equipment and all the pieces else going off onstage on the the same time, successfully, it’s a two-guitar band so it’s never a particular ingredient. If I’m taking part in a ballad and every person holds aid then, yeah, it’s loads more uncomplicated to exercise. And I hang exercise it in a few songs now.”

You wrote and recorded Sermons of the Sinner on your individual for the length of Covid in a mere four months. How grand of a atomize did you rob before you began writing but again for The Sinner Rides Again?

“After we carried out the major file, the Covid ingredient used to be still there and the agents were announcing, ‘There’s a backlog of bookings and engagements that must be filled. Don’t count your blessings about getting on the road.’ So I thought to myself, ‘Well, I’ll staunch hang but every other file.’ I work spontaneously and quickly and I regulate onto auto pilot. If it comes out appropriate, it’s appropriate. If it doesn’t, I’ll are attempting something else. But it completely is what it is in consequence of I am who I am. 

“When I sit down down to write a music like One Extra Shot at Glory, it’s a handsome design for my mind to be in, so no wonder I rock and roll quickly and infected and rating the job done snappily. I’ve bought so grand declare material to work with. I will be succesful to’t narrate for Glenn, but per chance that’s why we were so prolific as writers in Judas Priest over the years. If something else, the most efficient ingredient that in fact slowed us down used to be the queer project of having to trust every utterly different. Now I don’t personal to hang that. 

“I skim on my personal and I haven’t in fact done that since 1969, 1970 and 1971 when I used to be doing the writing aid when we were staunch a four-portion band. It’s grand to personal A.J. interested, but I’m in fact reveling within the real fact that I could well per chance perhaps sit down down and hang but every other album and it would potentially simplest rob me three or four weeks to rating the declare material collectively. That’s what came about with the major two records, and that makes me in fact feel appropriate.”

It doesn’t sound like the songs on The Sinner Rides Again were snappily slapped collectively. They’re crammed with valid riffs, memorable choruses, blazing solos and twin-guitar harmonies. And there’s no shortage of atmospheric arpeggios, energized rhythm changes and kit-altering rhythm shifts. 

“When I’m on a roll, all I personal to hang is resolve on the declare material that conjures up me and then the comfort is easy. I’ve been doing this for so prolonged, I feel love it staunch comes naturally, like I’m pulling it out of the sky. And now I personal the boldness to know that there’s no lack of quality there.”

You were working with historical Judas Priest drummer Les Binks before you hired Sean Elg, who also plays in Cage and Nihilist.  

“Obviously, I in fact wished Ripper and Les to whisper in additional of that spirit of Priest. But Les anguish his wrist handsome badly in an accident and couldn’t hang it. With the mechanics of having to hit his drums and hang that time and but again, that’s anxious on your body, and alongside with his anguish, it staunch wasn’t imaginable, so we bought Sean, and that worked out in fact successfully.”

One Extra Shot at Glory is handsome poignant. Lift out you are feeling that is your closing chance to rob your music to the heaps and repeat you’re still an spectacular force in metallic?

“That music will also be interpreted on several ranges. It’s a few hero that’s won a fight, and going to battle, and wielding the sword, which is cast with molten steel, which is terribly metallic. And then that bridge is about me and my conquest, and my fight to return and rating aid within the saddle. 

“Right here is but but every other shot at glory for me. I know the things I’ve been denied. I shouldn’t be in a question where I personal to create this on my personal and hang it up for the duration of but again. But I’m compelled to hang it, so I hang it. And I will revel in it and create it work in consequence of metallic is repeatedly regarding the fight and the victory.” 

• The Sinner Rides Again is out now thru Napalm.

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Jon is an author, journalist, and podcaster who just no longer too prolonged within the past wrote and hosted the major 12-episode season of the acclaimed Backstaged: The Satan in Steel, an irregular from Diversion Podcasts/iHeart. He may well be the major author of the standard Louder Than Hell: The Definitive Oral Ancient past of Steel and the sole author of Raising Hell: On the aid of the curtain Tales From the Lives of Steel Legends. Besides to, he co-wrote I am the Man: The Yarn of That Guy From Anthrax (with Scott Ian), Ministry: The Lost Gospels In step with Al Jourgensen (with Al Jourgensen), and My Riot: Agnostic Entrance, Grit, Guts & Glory (with Roger Miret). Wiederhorn has worked on workers as an accomplice editor for Rolling Stone, Govt Editor of Guitar Magazine, and senior author for MTV News. His work has also appeared in Trail, Leisure Weekly, Yahoo.com, Revolver, Inked, Loudwire.com and utterly different publications and websites.