K.K. Downing has spoken up about the two Judas Priest records from Tim Ripper Owens’ time.
Owens joined Judas Priest in 1996 to replace Rob Halford and left the band two albums later. He contributed to the 1997 album ‘Jugulator’ and the 2001 album ‘Demolition.’
In a new interview with 94.3 The Shark radio, the former Judas Priest guitarist was asked why those two albums were not in the streaming services anymore. As it appears in his response, he’s not really sure either. He said:
“Yeah, [it’s] a little bit of a mystery, really. Obviously, I no longer have any control over those records, but I don’t think that it’s a label thing ’cause labels always like to sell records, don’t they? And, obviously, myself and Ripper, we’re still very proud of everything that we’ve done as a part of our history and legacy, and we’d very much like to see the records out there in the stores once more. So, hopefully, we’ll see that come to fruition.”
The guitarist then shared some news:
“But the good news is that this band KK’s Priest will be out there playing those songs throughout this year, so everyone is welcome to come down and experience those magical times that we now refer to as the ‘Ripper era’ or the ‘Ripper years.’ And, yeah, so everyone can enjoy those songs again in a live format, which, in a lot of ways, is even better. But let’s hope the records will appear at some point.”
Downing Thinks It’s Unfair For Owens
After some conflicts, Owens left Judas Priest in 2011 and was replaced by Richie Faulkner.
Downing thinks the band wanted to erase Owens’ songs from their history. In an earlier interview, the rocker explained how ‘crazy’ it was for Priest not to make the albums available:
“It just seems like they’ve — the desire is to want to erase those songs, which is extremely unfair, really, because it’s a part of my musical history, Tim’s musical history, and [it’s] very, very sad. Not to make those albums available to the fans is just crazy, really.”
You can watch the interview below.