In a recent interview conducted by Mark Frankhouse of the 107.7 RKR radio station, JUDAS PRIEST‘s bassist Ian Hill reminisced about the band’s period with vocalist Tim “Ripper” Owens.
Owens recorded two studio LPs with the British heavy metal legends — 1997’s Jugulator and 2001’s Demolition — before the group reunited with Rob Halford.
When asked about the shift from their longtime vocalist Rob Halford to Owens, Hill said: “It was pretty simple, really. We didn’t really want another name per se, if you know what I mean. Because they always bring their baggage with them, and it really would change the band dramatically. And we didn’t really want that; we wanted to continue in the vein that we were in.
“So, we wanted someone who could pretty much cover what we were already doing. And Ripper was an obvious choice. He had a tremendous voice, and he was actually playing in a PRIEST tribute band at the time, so he knew most of the songs, which was a bonus. So, we went with Tim. And it was a pretty easy process. Tim‘s a great bloke, an easygoing fella, so it was an easy process, really. But the problem was he wasn’t Rob, and that’s what people wanted — they wanted the trademark lineup. And in the end, Rob sort of started to hint that he wouldn’t mind coming back and whatever, and I think Tim, he agreed. He was a fan of the band as well, and he could see the point. So even that was a comparatively smooth process as well, when Rob came back.”
Hill further commented that PRIEST‘s two albums during the Owens era contained “some fine material.”
“I think Demolition was a fine album,” he continued. “But it was what it was. And, like I say, we weren’t making a great deal of headway either, and neither was Rob [with his solo career]. It was a good idea all around to get back together with Rob. It just made so much sense. Our fans wanted it, and in the end, we wanted it, and even Ripper wanted it. So, it made a lot of sense. And Rob came back, and we stepped straight back to where we [left off with] Painkiller, and it went off from there.”
In a 2019 interview with “Rock Talk With Mitch Lafon,” Hill was asked about whether the absence of the albums from the Owens era on streaming services was due to rights-related matters or if it represented a deliberate effort to suppress that chapter of PRIEST‘s history.
Hill responded at the time: “It’s an odd one, really, because there’s some good material on both of those albums. And Ripper is a terrific vocalist, and he did a tremendous job on Jugulator and Demolition. And why they’re not for sale has got nothing to do with us — put it like that. Whether it’s a contractual thing between Sony and whoever owns the copyrights to those albums, I don’t know.
“But it is a shame, because there’s some good material there. And as a band, it’s still JUDAS PRIEST. I know it wasn’t the trademark lineup, but it was still JUDAS PRIEST nonetheless. So, it’s disappointing — if that’s true that the material is not available. It really is.”
