JUDAS PRIEST Guitarist: 'It Would Be A Privilege To Be Included' In ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME

Tracey Lukasik of BackstageAxxess.com recently conducted an interview with JUDAS PRIEST guitarist Glenn Tipton. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

BackstageAxxess.com: Do you feel that technology, like Pro Tools, for example, has helped or hurt the creative or recording process of songwriting?

Tipton: It's obviously a helpful way to record. I got a Pro Tools system at home. It gives you a chance to edit stuff and change things around much more easily. But in the overall picture of things, it sort of spoils everybody a little bit, ya know? It's given everybody too many options, I think. When we first started to write songs, I used to record them particularly. We didn't have all these options. I think Pro Tools can give you a little indecision in certain ways, and it takes just a little bit of the classic strain away that used to drive through a song. So, I think it's good and bad. Technically, it's a very helpful way to record; it gives you the option to try different arrangements, etc. But I think it probably gives you too many options.

BackstageAxxess.com: Do you have plans for a third solo album once this tour wraps up, or perhaps another project?

Tipton: Um, I don't have any plans at the moment. I did write two solo albums, as you know, "Baptizm Of Fire" and "Edge Of The World". That was still at a time when PRIEST was inactive as well. So, I was like, "What do I do? Retire or go do some solo projects?" And being quite a crazy person, I decided to go out and do it, and I was privileged to work with people like John Entwistle and Cozy Powell, great musicians, and some great young musicians as well. I really, really enjoyed doing it, but my heart and soul is in PRIEST, and when PRIEST is on a roll, PRIEST has my full attention. There might be another solo album out there somewhere I did enjoy making those two solo albums.

BackstageAxxess.com: What's you're feelings about the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. There are a lot of bands in there that shouldn't be and bands, like PRIEST (and others),that haven't been inducted yet.

Tipton: If we ever were to be included, clearly it would be an honor. To be totally honest with you, I'm not really sure who evaluates or how it's decided who gets in and who doesn't get in. Anyway, it would be a privilege to be included, but it wouldn't make me unhappy if we weren't. And you're right, there's some people that absolutely should be in there and some people that don't really have the accolades. In the end, I'm not really sure what it means.

BackstageAxxess.com: Being in the this business for 40 years, being pioneers of the genre, did you ever in your wildest dreams think that it would last this long and that there would still be new band's emerging today that were influenced by PRIEST?

Tipton: If you were to have asked me 40 years ago, would I still be on standing on stage now playing heavy metal, I'd have thought you were a raving lunatic! I mean, who'd have thought that longevity would be a part heavy metal? When I started to play the music, it was progressive blues, originally, which turned into metal, and I'm still here, ya know? I think one of the greatest complements JUDAS PRIEST gets is that our music has become timeless. That's not something where we can pat ourselves on the back and say, "We intended it to be timeless," we just played from the heart and it's still there. I never would have thought my shelf life would have been this long.

Read the entire interview from BackstageAxxess.com.