OK, this isn't a review. But you don't get to interview one of the founding fathers of heavy metal very often. This was recorded tonight, over the speaker-phone function of my mobile phone. The signal from the phone just about cooked the tape I was using so it hard to transcribe everything he said. I think I got most of it though.
ME: Thank you for taking the time tonight, KK. Let's get straight to it: a huge double concept album is something that people would probably expect more from Dream Theater or even Iron Maiden, nor Judas Priest. What brought about the decision to do this, and why Nostradamus?
KK Downing: Well we're a band that's been around for a long time and there's been times when we've been really, really popular. But no matter what you do you will always find people will find something to criticise you for. We've done a lot of records now and we've always tried for consistency. Even after our comeback record Angel of Retribution there was people saying, "Where can Judas Priest go next? Where can they go from here?" You're always in a no-win situation when you're in a popular band. Even a band like AC/DC... They're a great band, but they're always being accused of making the same record over and over. So when people were saying, "What can Judas Priest do next?" We were like, "Well, what can we do next? What can we fuckin' do next? Let's do a double CD, triple vinyl, forty-eight page colour booklet, something we've never done before. Let's just show 'em!"
ME: Are you looking forward to visiting Australia again?
KK: Absolutely mate! We had an absolute blast the first time we came down with Ripper, so you know we wanted to come down and do the full show with Rob because we just knew that we owed it to the fans that have been following us for so many years.
ME: I notice from the shows you've done so far that you're doing a lot of different songs from when you were here last. It's almost a totally different set.
KK: Yeah, but we'll have to change it a little bit before we even get to Australia, because with the internet and everything now people know what you're playing. So as the record progresses - it's only come out this week - we might change some of the songs we're playing off that as well. But it's going to be loads of fun, really. I've just heard today that the tickets are getting along really well there and it's not for some time yet.
ME: Now you guys are veterans of some pretty big shows. I hope you can indulge me for a second because this might seem a little strange for someone to ask after so long but you're the first person I've ever spoke to who played at Live Aid. What was that like for you?
KK: Haha. Well that was a long time ago! We were actually recording I think, um, the Turbo album. We weren’t that far away. We were in the Bahamas. It sounds very nice, but we were just stuck in the studio. You know what I mean? So we just jumped on a plane and went up to Philadelphia and played our set, it was really a great day. But that was one of the greatest memories I can bring to the forefront, for sure.
ME: Getting back to the present now, you’re probably playing the biggest rooms we’ve got here. I assume that means we are going to get the full Judas Priest treatment?
KK: Yeah well I don’t know if the supports have been booked yet, but it will be a full-on Judas Priest show. It costs us a bit when we have to fly, but when we get together as Judas Priest, full strength, we spend all our money on making our show the best it can be you know. It might cost us thousands of dollars just to fly to South America to play six shows, but that’s what we do when we get together as a group. And that’s what we’ll do when we come down there as well.
ME: You’re actually doing the tour with Max Cavalera’s band.
KK: Oh well, that will be a good night of intense metal then, that’s for sure. We’ve just done some shows with Max in Europe, so we got to meet them. We played with them and Iced Earth and Airbourne, a really great band from down there. We got to meet those guys so it will be good to catch up with them again.
ME: So what more can you tell me about Nostradamus and where Judas Priest is likely to go from here?
KK: Well I’ll say this for Judas Priest. Like I said before, people have liked us. We’ve always tried to be consistent but even when you are consistent people will think differently about each thing you do. Like with Painkiller, that album that everybody now thinks is supposedly so great. It took years for that record to get to where people think of it now. It entered the Billboard chart at something like 65… Nostradamus, not even the first week, at #11. You know what I mean? Angel of Retribution, our last album, went in at #13. Painkiller was way down there. So was British Steel and so was Screaming for Vengeance… So sometimes it can take a while for an album to get to that level. The Nostradamus album, it is different. They talk about people’s attention spans being very short these days. But people still sit down and read a good book, watch a good movie, so why not sit down and hear a good album? This album really means what it is. Try to listen to it from the beginning to the end, because it is a full documentation of the life of Nostradamus. He was a figure from 500 years ago who is still very much talked about today. When we delved into the history of Nostradamus… we’ve done loads and loads of mini-movies if you like about the Painkiller, Metallion, Electric Eye… all those fictional things. We just applied that to a real historical figure. He was an alchemist and a doctor who lost his family in the plague, and he predicted the death of the king at the time which is what he was persecuted for. He was persecuted by the Church and sanctioned, but he was also a doctor who wanted to help people and I think he looked into the future so he could find ways to help others. I’m sure there was other major figures I suppose, like Adolf Hitler or Mussolini… warmongering ones, that we could have looked at, but we wanted a peace-seeker, a knowledge seeker. And I think that we might have had a lot in common with him because he was always looking for things, searching for meaning. I think that if he was with us now, if he was to come out on tour with us, we would probably find a lot of common ground in the way we have been treated by people and what we have tried to attain.
ME: I’m glad you mentioned that, because I was going to ask if you could see a similarity between Judas Priest and the life of Nostradamus in the way you have been sanctioned and accused of Satanism and such things?
KK: Yeah. Well we often say you can’t do right by doing wrong. He tried to help but he still got into trouble. The whole story is interesting. I didn’t know anything about what Nostradamus was really about other than what you normally hear. But we didn’t really touch on any of his prophecies. It was about his life. We certainly couldn’t think of a more ideal person with such a wide interest to people. It’s a good story.
[Some label dude broke in then and told me my 15 minutes was up. I still wanted to ask KK about those cheesy early videos where they pulled bank robberies with their guitars and danced around playing guitars that were on fire, and stuff, but alas... no time]
ME: Well thanks KK, I have to wrap it up now. Thank you for taking the time to chat with us this evening.
KK: Thank you Brian. Thank for the support with the site and everything. Tell all the fans it’s been a long time, but Judas Priest is coming!
So there you go - JUDAS PRIEST IS COMING!
No comments:
Post a Comment