JUDAS PRIEST's TIPTON: 'We're Very Lucky That Our Compositions Have Stood The Test Of Time'

Adam Gold of Nashville Cream recently conducted an interview with guitarist Glenn Tipton of British heavy metal legends JUDAS PRIEST. A few excerpts from the chat follow below.

Nashville Cream: Right, how would you say the "British Steel" record has aged after three decades?

Tipton: Well, hopefully not very much. I mean one of the best compliments that's ever been paid to PRIEST is that our music is fairly timeless and I think ["British Steel"] falls into that category. We can still go on stage and play "Steeler" or "Rapid Fire" or "The Rage" and the audience really enjoys it, so I suppose in a sense we're very lucky that our compositions have stood the test of time.

Nashville Cream: Do you feel that the band gets better critical reception now than it did 30 years ago?

Tipton: I wouldn't say it's a better reaction now, it's as good, but you know we've always been a live act. It's never been us and the audience, it's the whole thing and if you're going to watch a PRIEST show, you know the audience sings along with the chorus, the verses, and even the lead breaks. So, we've been fortunate, the reaction has always been good for PRIEST.

Nashville Cream: The short film "Heavy Metal Parking Lot" obviously cemented your audience as part of rock 'n' roll lore, 23 years later how is the audience you see at your shows today different from that audience in 1986?

Tipton: Well, we've been very fortunate that we've had a lot of young people coming to the shows and we've got the older PRIEST fans that have been there from day one and have been very loyal throughout the years, but we've got a lot of young kids in the audience and some are brought by the parents or turned on by the parents but others have discovered the band in their own right and it's really surprising just how many young people are at PRIEST shows.

Nashville Cream: Do you listen to any contemporary metal bands?

Tipton: I listen to everything really. I listen to everything across the board: melodic music, pop music, heavy metal, classical music, film themes. There's not one area of music I concentrate on. I've always been the same, I have a very wide attention span, if you like, for music and I pull my inspiration from many areas.

Nashville Cream: On "British Steel" I noticed there are a lot of elements of other genres besides metal, even reggae comes to mind. What would you say the band's most un-metal influence was?

Tipton: You know it's difficult to say because obviously there are three main writers in the band, Rob, K.K., and myself and we're very fortunate that there's a very unique chemistry there on a writing level and we all draw inspiration from different areas you know. I can't speak for Ken or Rob, I know that my tastes are very diverse; I listen to film themes and things like that, so I think that's the secret really. It's quite magical when we get in a room together because we all have such diverse influences and we draw from many areas, so when we get together there's a massive selection to draw from and some pretty magical things happen when we get together.

Nashville Cream: I noticed you did a double record last year.

Tipton: That's right, yeah, Nostradamus.

Nashville Cream: Are you playing some songs off that at the show?

Tipton: Yeah, we're doing one at the moment. We use an intro, which is "Dawn of Creation" and we play "Prophecy" but obviously that isn't what this tour is all about, this is a 35-year celebration of PRIEST and that's why we're playing "British Steel". As we've said before in one or two interviews the ambition, the intention we have is to at some point play "Nostradamus" in its entirety. It's something we'd really love to do. It's an mammoth task and we'd need to do a lot of rehearsals, production rehearsals, but it's something we really would like to do possibly next year or the year after.

Nashville Cream: Have you played the game Guitar Hero?

Tipton: I haven't played it myself, no...I've never played the game, but I think it's a great idea. I think that in this day and age when you get video games that advocate bad things like guns, violence, and drugs a lot, I think it's great to have these games based around musical instruments like the guitar and to encourage kids to pick up an instrument you know. I'm very much for that and it's a great way to introduce kids to our music. It's an excellent idea.

Nashville Cream: The next reader wants to know if you have any preliminary plans for the next studio album, and how many more albums you think you guys have left in you.

Tipton: We haven't got any plans at the moment, but only because we never do. We always finish a touring cycle first and this one will finish in Japan in October and then we'll probably take a break through Christmas. Then next year we'll sit down at the table and decide what we're going to do next. How many more albums have we got in us? I'm not sure, you never know what's around the corner but at the moment we've got a lot of energy and enthusiasm and we love every minute of it. So, I'd be quite optimistic about that, but I can't say at the moment we never do plan ahead, we've always been very spontaneous.

Read the entire interview from Nashville Cream.