In a recent interview with The Metal Voice, classic JUDAS PRIEST guitarist K.K. Downing said he would not be interested in reuniting with his former bandmates.
When asked if he would be up for a reunion with PRIEST, Downing responded: “When it’s a no, it’s a no. You can only hear it so many times, then you have to go, ‘That’s it…’ Now that this has happened, I never really… I got to be perfectly honest. I’m already putting material down for the next record.
“I just want to reiterate, when Ripper came over, he did embellish what was there, because he’s an incredible guy — because when we’re actually working together, we can work together, but this was just an unusual case. Did I feel a bit insecure? Could I do it? And when I found out I could, it was really enjoyable, and I want to do more of it, and I can’t wait to get back into the other room, which is not far away.
“Everything is set up, all I have to do is throw the switch, and I’m back into constructing songs again,” he continued. “So, fun times, and there’s lots of more that I want to put on a record before, I’ve got to get a roll on now.
“In the early days, one year we did two records, we released two records in one year, but we would do one record every year in the early days, so I’m kind of back to that now because I don’t want this to be the last thing that I ever do,” he added. “We fell into the trap, ‘OK, four or five years between records.’ You do that because you take longer holidays, you get complacent, but it’s like Judas now, I think they’ve done two albums in 10 years.
“I mean, that’s definitely taking it easy compared to when I was in the band, I think the previous 10 years I did probably six records, and that’s going slow compared to what we had done in the past.”
Asked what would be his perfect tour if he had a choice, K.K. said: “Everybody from the era — anybody from the mid to late ’60s to, let’s say, ’90s. When was it that it all stopped or it all started? Rob [Halford] left in 1990, Bruce [Dickinson] left MAIDEN for a while so, to me, 1990.
“After that, I wish I could think of some newfound bands that came along like bands did in the ’70s and ’80s. Here’s a new band like DOKKEN, VAN HALEN… It was a multitude of bands, and it kind of stopped, and everything got more kind of intense and heavier.
“Lots of great bands came out from SLAYER to PANTERA, MEGADETH, METALLICA, lots of good stuff, but just it was moving on from the what we call classic metal I guess, or rock.”
Sermons Of The Sinner is an incredible collection of future metal classics, sure to be one of the stand-out metal releases of 2021. K.K Downing’s genre-defining guitar style helped establish JUDAS PRIEST‘s iconic sound and helped propelled them to one of the top Heavy Metal bands of all-time, earning numerous accolades including a GRAMMY® in 2010 for “Best Metal Performance,” a total of five GRAMMY® nominations and multi-platinum and gold releases.
