During a recent interview with Backstage Axxess, former JUDAS PRIEST guitarist Kenneth “K.K.” Downing was asked if he would ever consider playing with his former bandmates again, to which he replied:
“Well, you kind of say in the music industry, ‘Never say never. So it’s all a question of how you’re being asked and under what circumstances you’re being asked. It’s not just a question of somebody picking up the phone and saying, ‘Oh, K.K., do you feel like doing this? We’d really like to have you back with us just for this special moment.’ And then you start thinking about, ‘If we did that, then we could do this.’ It’s all about how you’re asked. But it somebody picks up the phone and says, ‘Yeah, a couple of people from the record company have asked if you’d do this with us,’ it’s a different thing. That’s the way we are as humans. I mean, probably not everybody is maybe as sensitive as me, but it’s all in the asking, isn’t it?”
He continued: “I’ve had a couple of relationships myself in my life, and the ladies have often said to me, ‘You know, the problem is not with what you say; it’s how you say it.’ And I have to take that on board. [Laughs] I think, ‘What do they mean?’ It’s the tone of voice and the right time and all of that.
“Maybe I could, if they said, ‘Would you mind doing this?’ Not just saying, ‘Can you do that?’ Or, ‘That needs doing.’ But [if they say], ‘Do you think you can do this for me, please?’ There’s a massive difference. Especially with the ladies, timing is critical. Sometimes you can say it like that; other times… That’s what confuses us as men. I’m diversifying now a little bit. I say something one day, and it’s okay. And I say it exactly the same way the next day and all hell breaks loose.”
Circling back to the subject of him possibly returning to PRIEST, Downing noted that “the ball is not exactly in my court.” However, he didn’t rule out rejoining forces with his former bandmates for a special appearance. “For example, getting inducted into the [Rock And Roll] Hall Of Fame,” he said. “You don’t get those things happening more than once in a lifetime. Probably if you lived 10 lifetimes, it would maybe only happen once. So some things you probably couldn’t say no to. Having said what I said, whichever way it was [presented to me], just to be a part of that.”
K.K. left the PRIEST in April 2011, and has since been replaced Richie Faulkner.
