Judas Priest: Redeemers Of Rock (Interview)

Heavy metal legends Judas Priest are due to make their very first New Zealand appearance when they play at Auckland’s Westfest show on March 3rd at Mt Smart Stadium. The band was formed way back in 1969, with the one constant member being bass player Ian Hill. The 13th Floor’s Marty Duda spoke to Ian Hill a few days after his 64th birthday and discussed the band’s long-running career and the recent addition of new guitarist Richie Faulkner, who replaced KK Downing in 2011.

Click here to listen to the interview with Judas Priest bassist Ian Hill:

Or read a transcription of the interview here:

MD: Congratulations on the new album, or the newish album, Redeemer of Souls. I understand that this has done very well, charted really high in The States especially. Was that a surprise to you that it had that kind of reaction?

IH: Yeah it did, it was a very pleasant surprise. I mean the way album sales are these days, you know, so much smaller than they used to be to get any chart position…

MD: Right.

IH: …within the likes of your top 40 pop stuff and whatever,  is a real bonus, you know, it was a great surprise. It is the highest chart position we’ve ever had.

MD: Right.

IH: So people obviously warmed to the album which is good news.

MD: Yeah, yeah. Now I understand when you started your tour over in The States last year, your first show was in Rochester, New York which is where I’m from actually. I lived there before I moved to New Zealand 20 years ago. Was that the first show with Richie, your new guitarist?

IH: No, no, Richie played on the last tour. He played on the Epitaph tour.

MD: Oh right okay.

IH: Ken retired right before that  and Richie took over. It was beneficial really that we did that.

MD: Right.

IH: So we didn’t just know him as a great guitarist, we knew him personally as well at the end of the tour which is extremely important, I mean it’s beneficial in the writing process and recording process. We got to know him as a great guy that he is, you know, not just a colleague, now he’s a great friend and a bit like you say, beneficial.

MD: Yes. So what did he bring to the table on the new album, on Redeemer of Souls?

IH: He did a lot of, he came up with a lot of ideas, lot of riffs, chords sequences, ideas for songs, you know. So he was very hands on in the writing department. He took over where Ken would have been and he did a great job. And of course his guitar playing, it speaks for itself. Of course the good thing about doing his own material in the new record, he can be himself playing, you know, he’s not trying to cover somebody else’s part. They can’t really change that much because people know the parts he’s supposed to be playing, obviously with his own material, his new material, he can do what he likes, you know, it shows what a brilliant guitarist he is.

MD: Yeah. People are going to be interested in him when you guys get down here because he’s kind of new guy on the block. How did you hook up with him? Did you kind of search out guitar players and have lots of auditions or did you know him from somewhere? How did it come about?

IH: Actually it came about through a guitarist we were going to audition, we asked about, I’ve forgotten his name now cause it was too long. But he couldn’t do it, he was already committed to some other projects, he just didn’t have the time and he suggested trying Richie. So we did, you know, we met with him and had a quick knock around at Glen’s studio and within a few minutes, you know, we knew that he was a very talented guitarist and it went from there. We didn’t have to look any further, we were extremely lucky to find him.

MD: Right, right.

IH: And he’s been there, he’s been a real asset.

MD: Now I’m kind of interested because you’ve been with the band since the very beginning and of course the band’s been through an awful lot. What is a bigger challenge being in a band like yours,  the beginning of being in the band when you’re kind of building up and you know, kind of creating an audience and a sound for yourself or kind of in this part of the bands life where you’ve been around for a while, members are coming and going and you kind of have to maybe struggle to stay fresh? What would you say is the bigger challenge to a Rock and Roll band?

IH: Probably the second or third record, that kind of era. I mean in the early days, you’re driven solely by enthusiasm, you know, you got all this energy and incentive.

MD: Yeah.

IH: And speaking for ourselves we did it because we loved it, you know, we loved playing our music because we were successful at it you know, that’s a bonus if it happened. We would have carried on even if we hadn’t become successful.

MD: Sure.

IH: But it did happen, you know, we did the first couple of albums and then obviously your first two albums are pretty much your whole repertoire, if you know what I mean. Then you have to start, you haven’t got such a long period of time to write the third one and the forth one and stuff like that. That’s a little bit stressful. Throughout the late 70s to the early 80s actually, we had very little time after, we went straight to studio, straight on to the road, I mean very, very long tours as well, you know, nothing that we’d known before. That was probably the most difficult, just the sheer volume of work. After that of course you got those tours in the middle of the 80s there,  you got to cruise control, you got yourself on the plateau, you become popular, you got your very loyal fans, I have to say, that stick with you through thick and thin. From there on in it’s comparatively, nothings easy, you know, but it’s comparatively easy after that. And of course it’s sort of ingrained in us now. So we can’t imagine ourselves doing anything else.

MD: Exactly.

IH: And the thought of probably not doing it, probably terrifies everybody.

MD: It’s been 40 years since your first album Rocka Rolla came out.

IH: Yeah.

MD: I was just giving it a spin a little while ago, I have a copy of it on vinyl,  the production sounds pretty good on it, it really kind of came right out of the speakers.

IH: Yeah, it has been remixed. The original one was a little bit short on the production side but the material was very good, you know. But the production wasn’t up to scratch. It was remixed and re-mastered actually by Chris Tsangaride I believe sometime, I think it would be in the mid 90s, late 90s or something like that.

MD: Right.

IH: And he did the job that should have been done to start with, you know.

MD: Right and I assume you’re not featuring any songs from that album to celebrate the 40 year anniversary or anything like that when you’re touring.

IH: We’re not, no. We did on the Epitaph tour. We did Never Satisfied, I believe, from the first album, which is a great one to do, you know. I tell you what, doing that tour, you’re having to dull back because the plan was to play something from each album and of course, I’m going back and listening to albums that I haven’t listened to for years. It was great fun picking the material out for that tour. Of course this tour now, we have to make way for new songs. So some of the older ones have to go. So we have to keep, obviously the fans’ favourites otherwise we’d probably get stomped to death.

MD: Yeah, that’s for sure.

IH: So there’s not much scope at all to make changes, but I think we’ve managed it. We’ve got a good blend of new and old material.

MD: Right.

IH: I also think everybody would be well satisfied with it.

MD: Yeah. One song I have to ask you about because it’s the one that I got into Judas Priest from, which is you guys’, cover of Diamonds and Rust the Joan Baez song and I don’t know if you’ve been asked this a lot of times before or not, but how did you come up with the idea to do that because it’s so off the charts, it’s just amazing but it works amazingly.

Click here to listen to Judas Priest’s version of Diamonds And Rust:

IH: That was suggested by our first record company.

MD: Really?

IH: Gull Records. They came along with this and basically they wanted us to pretty much to do what Joan was doing but sort of put a couple of lead breaks in there, you know, and we took the song,  we took it apart and turned it into a rock track.

MD: Right.

IH: It was supposed to be the big single. It actually wasn’t released, I don’t think it was released on Gull, it was released, I think we might have released that on Sin After Sin.

MD: Right.

IH: But anyway the original idea came from Gull Records, from David Howells.

MD: Right.

IH: And then in the late 90s when Ripper Owens was with the band we pretty much did what Gull wanted us to start with, which is the slow version of it, you know.

MD: Right.

IH: With a nice Bluesy lead break in the middle of it and a rock finish. So they got their way in the end, although they didn’t have anything to do with it.

MD: Has Joan ever commented on your version?

IH: I think she did once, yeah. I remember her saying that we’re one of the few people that actually covered one of her songs and I think she was, you know, impressed with that more than anything.

MD: I would be. It’s Fantastic.

IH: I mean Joan, Joan Baez, you know, the huge mega star really isn’t she, if you know what I mean, she’s a bit of a legend.

MD: Absolutely, yeah. Now I noticed that you had participated in a Rock and Roll fantasy band camp thing in Las Vegas a while back.

IH: Sorry can you say that again, somebody just rang the doorbell.

MD: Sure. I said I had noticed that you had participated in a Rock and Roll fantasy band camp in Las Vegas. Maybe you can tell me a little bit about that. People must be curious about what goes on in one of those things, from your perspective of what is it like?

IH: Its great fun. You’re given a list of songs that these people wanna run through and obviously myself and Scott and Rob went and Richie and Glenn, he was still working on the album, so he didn’t do anything the whole night.

MD: Right.

IH: And of course just learn those songs so that we haven’t played for a long time and then these strangers show up. They’ve had mentors who’ve sort of performed in little groups and they just get up on stage and play along with you. Like I say it’s great, they’re all amateurs obviously, ranging from not too bad to bloody awful. We’re just grateful, we had a blast doing it, you know, great laugh all around.

MD: If you were to come across in an aspiring heavy metal kid who was wanting to be in a band, would you tell him there’s a future in playing in a metal band these days?

IH: Oh dear, it’s difficult. I mean with the problems we’ve got with illegal downloads these days.

MD: Yeah.

IH: It’s almost impossible for anybody to get on, you know because the infrastructure just isn’t there anymore.

MD: Right.

IH: I mean, when we first started out, even in the little town of West Bromwich where myself and Ken were bought up, there must have been at least 6 places just in the small industrial town that we could play. Then there’s Birmingham all these places you know, and you could earn you know, a very, very modest living just doing that.

MD: Yup.

IH: All those who’ve gone there, you know. And of course the perennial source of investment in new music were the record companies. It was nothing sentimental about it, it was just a business thing, we could earn money out of this lot or we can’t. But of course they can’t anymore because as soon as the record hits the shelf, somebody’s got it on his website given it away everybody. So they’re not getting the money back that they invested. So it’s a bit of a downward spiral at the moment unless something is done there where you can find investment from somewhere that the chances of anybody, I mean, obviously if you should get brilliant talent, then sooner or later they’ll make it.

MD: Yeah.

IH: But it would be pretty difficult. I mean, my boy’s been trying to do it for 15, almost 20 years he’s been trying to do it.

MD: Right.

IH: And he’s had trouble as well and like I say, it needs a change somewhere.

MD: Hopefully it will shake itself out. I was wondering if that current situation where there’s very little money to be made in releasing records because people are downloading them, does it affect the band like a veteran band like yourselves? Do you think well what’s the point in doing it, we’re just kind of giving it away anyway?

IH: You think well, why do you want to do something that you’re not getting any money from. But then again people are still getting it even if they are stealing it. From a purely artistic point of view it’s worth doing it.

MD: Yeah.

IH: For a band of our stature we don’t need that income really. We’re got a huge back catalogue which sells a few, I mean fewer and fewer, obviously, which always brings money in and of course we go out on tour. We’re an established band and we know we can plan on a certain amount of people.

MD: Yeah.

IH: You know what I mean? So our income is secure, if you’d like. But of course an upcoming band, they haven’t got the fan base that we’ve got and they haven’t got the back catalogue, so unless they’re earning, I mean, that’s it.

MD: And what do you think about the state of heavy metal music in general? Do you listen to many new bands? Some of the really black metal stuff up in Scandinavia any of that kind of thing, does that kind of show up on your radar?

IH: We’ve come across  it loads of times. I think what it’s crying out for is a versatile band. I mean, fragmented in the late 80s, 90s, you were a grunge band, you’re a speed band, you’re a goth band or, you know what I mean, and that’s all you did.

MD: Yeah.

IH: Theres nothing wrong with that, it’s all good stuff. The players are very, very good players, they’re all good musicians. But they do just the one kind of music, you know, and sometimes you’re crying out for a more commercial song or something that the general radio can play.

MD: Yeah.

IH: Without which heavy metal wouldn’t be where it is anyway. A slower song, a ballad, the Joan Baez song. People sort of don’t do that anymore, you know, well not metal bands anyway.

MD: Right.

IH: Something that metal is known for in the early days was versatility and not being afraid to have a go at something and that to a certain degree has been lost these days.

MD: Yeah, you like to be surprised a little bit.

IH: Yeah if somebody calls that a little bit more varied. Obviously your fan base the angle there widens straight up, doesn’t it?

MD: Right.

IH: I think possibly there is room for a band like that to make something of themselves.

MD: Now I know after you’re done playing here in Auckland in, I think its March, beginning of March and you’re done with this tour, I believe you’re signed up to tour and play with Ozzy and Motorhead, is that right?

IH: I think we are. Yeah, teamed up with Ozzy again. We always seem to run into Ozzy every now and again, every tour we always seem to run into Ozzy, which is great cause’ we’ve known him for years. Yeah we went through from, let me see, from your neck of the woods we’re off to Japan, I think we do a show in Korea on the way home, the Southern part of course.

MD: Right.

IH: And then we’re into South America and I think we’re doing several shows with Ozzy, which will be great to catch up with him again.  And Motorhead, you know, we’re old pals with Lemmy and the gang as well.

MD: Yeah I’m hoping Lemmy is doing well, I know he was kind of unwell for a while there so hopefully

IH: Yeah, let’s hope he makes a full recovery.

MD: Yeah. Well it’s good to know you guys are still out there pumping them out and looking forward to seeing you guys when you get here. So anything you can tell folks about what to expect when you do get here in Auckland?

IH: It’s going to be a classical Priest show, you know, it’s going to have everything, the lights, the bike, of course the music and it’s the first time we’ve ever been to New Zealand and I don’t know why it’s taken so long.

MD: Really?

IH: We’re really, really looking forward to, you know, everytime touring comes up, you know, New Zealand’s always there.

MD: Yup.

IH: Always mentioned but we never seem to get there for some reason. So we’re genuinely looking forward to getting there and playing to you guys.

Click here for more info about Westfest 2015.