JUDAS PRIEST Guitarist: Fans 'Know We Always Experiment And Try To Do Different Things'

Bryan Reesman of The Aquarian Weekly recently conducted an interview with Glenn Tipton (guitar),Rob Halford (vocals) and Richie Faulkner (guitar) of British heavy metal legends JUDAS PRIEST. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

On how the band's new axeman, 31-year-old Richie Faulkner, has been received by the fans:

Tipton: "Europe started off fantastic. We did a warm-up day in Holland, and it just went from strength to strength. The audience reactions have been overwhelming. Richie is fitting in incredibly well. It couldn't be better. We're just over the moon with it all."

Halford: "He's turned it up. He's just added a new dynamic to the band, and that's not to be disparaging to K.K., who lives with us every night because we're playing his songs. Most of the songs we're playing on this tour were written by Glenn, Ken [former JUDAS PRIEST guitarist K.K. Downing] and myself, but Richie's got his own vibe. He's on the edge of the stage most of the night, and he is just interacting in such a special way that the PRIEST fans have totally accepted him. He's just got this tremendous guitarmanship and showmanship that you can't take your eyes off of him. We've never had that type of depth and dimension before in that respect. He's brilliant."

On what PRIEST was looking for in a replacement for Downing:

Faulkner: "They wanted someone who would do their own thing. You take the motifs and the classic solos and then do your own little spin on them, and I think he did that as well. K.K. would play something on record, then live he would go somewhere else but keeping those motifs. We feed off of each other, different things come out, and you do different things on stage. It's like an organic process really, and you're learning different things every night. It just changes and gets better every night from my point of view."

On performing on "American Idol" earlier this year prior to the launch the European leg of the "Epitaph" tour:

Tipton: "We wanted to take metal more mainstream, and what better opportunity than to introduce metal to a lot of younger kids who watch 'American Idol'? We just felt that it was an opportunity that we couldn't miss, with so many people watching it. Plus ['Idol' contestant] James [Durbin] is a metalhead. He's really sincere. We did it for those two reasons. We always do what we want to do, and we don't follow rules, as you know. We felt it was a great opportunity to fly the flag for metal and get music across to mainstream America, or the mainstream world, really. People can misinterpret it or say what they want about it, but we still don't regret it and really enjoyed doing it."

Faulkner: "It's interesting to see how people who are metalheads or fans of the genre constantly say, 'This is the greatest music ever, people don't get it.' And when a band sometimes breaks through like that and gets into the mainstream, they should be saying, 'There you go! Look, this is what we've been trying to say. This is amazing music.' But for some people, it's not theirs anymore, which I sort of understand, but at the same time as Glenn said, PRIEST has always been about flying the flag for metal and pushing boundaries. I think it's an amazing thing to do."

Tipton: "Plus it was Richie's debut, so we thought we would throw him in there. We figured if he could come through this, he could come through anything."

Faulkner: "Apart from that [nervous moment before the band took the stage for their warm-up gig in Holland], and without sounding pigheaded or arrogant, I don't think you can afford to let nerves or doubt get in the way of an opportunity like that, and 'American Idol' is just another one of those. To play to 30 million people, you get an opportunity like that and go ahead and do it."

On what they think is the most underrated PRIEST song ever:

Faulkner: "I think 'Blood Red Skies'. We know that one, but not many people that I know know about that one. They know about 'Breaking The Law', 'You've Got Another Thing Comin'' and 'Living After Midnight', but that one is such an epic song."

Tipton: "I think one of the most underrated albums is 'Ram It Down'. It sold really well eventually, but it never gets cited as a great album. It's got some great songs on it."

Halford: "What I think could be completely different from somebody else. I think that that the tracks that get lost maybe halfway through a record, like 'Saints In Hell' [from 'Stained Class'], for example, are interesting to reconnect with, and even songs like 'Dying To Meet You' from 'Rocka Rolla'. When we put the big projection slides up between songs, and I say we're going to do a song from this record and this record and this record, you suddenly feel that your favorite track from 'Screaming For Vengeance' is probably 'You've Got Another Thing Comin'', but there's a ton of other good material on there as well. Again, you just reflect and think about the [other] songs."

On JUDAS PRIEST's next album:

Tipton: "Our next album will be right from our instincts and what people want from PRIEST. We know what they want from PRIEST, and again it will be an interesting process because we're writing with Richie as well. 'Nostradamus' was a mammoth task. It was a mountain to climb. We knew it was slightly risky, but we wanted to do a conceptual album, and what better person to do it on than 'Nostradamus'? He inspired us a lot. We're all really proud of that album, and a lot of fans have subsequently come back and said that they didn't get it at first, but it's one of those things you have to step into the world of 'Nostradamus'. You can't just play it when you've got two minutes to spare. You've got to sit down and listen to it from start to finish. I think most fans get it now, and even if it's not their favorite album, they know we always experiment and try to do different things. That was no exception."

"'Turbo' came under criticism because we used synth guitars, but you watch us play 'Turbo Lover' now, and it's one the most popular songs we do onstage. People eventually see these things in a different light, particularly when we perform them. We haven't performed 'Nostradamus' yet, but who knows, maybe one day."

Read the entire interview at The Aquarian Weekly.