JUDAS PRIEST's SCOTT TRAVIS On 'Nostradamus' Album: 'I Don't Think It Was Our Strongest Release'

In a new interview with Chris Akin of The Classic Metal Show, JUDAS PRIEST drummer Scott Travis was asked if he and his bandmates still look back fondly on their controversial symphonic heavy metal concept double album about Nostradamus, which came out more than a decade and a half ago. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I think it would depend on who you talk to in the band. [Laughs] For me personally, yeah, I don't think it was our strongest release, and it was meant to mimic — not mimic, but it was meant to go after the sort of, not the crowd, 'cause it was definitely for the PRIEST fans, but the… What am I trying to say? It was trying to go after something that could be made more than just a rock band doing a rock album and releasing it and doing a tour. In other words, it was meant to be something that maybe could have been turned into some kind of theater show or could have gone on to be a bigger production. I'm not really sure. I just remember hearing the talk about the idea initially to do an album based around Nostradamus's life and things like that."

Referencing the fact that "Nostradamus" arrived three years before the departure of founding PRIEST guitarist Kenneth "K.K." Downing and a decade before the retirement from the road of fellow PRIEST guitarist Glenn Tipton, Travis added: "Thinking back on it, it was also near the end of the K.K.- Glenn relationship. Do you know what I mean? 'Cause they were still in the band, but there was a lot of fracture there. And again, I was witness to it. And I could tell things probably weren't gonna last. I didn't know what would happen or that K.K. would actually leave the band — I certainly didn't predict that — but I could just tell that they weren't getting along and everybody as a group was kind of just spreading out and living in different parts of the world."

Last October, JUDAS PRIEST bassist Ian Hill told Chris Akin Presents about "Nostradamus": "It was probably something we needed to get out of our system. But it's one of those albums — it's very long, very complicated as well, and it is designed to be listened to in one sitting, which is one of the reasons that we don't play any songs from that record. It's great — I mean, it is, at heart, a great heavy metal record; it really is — but it's picking out the songs that would fit into the set at the moment. And there's not anything there that would enhance the set. But for the sake of it, we could do that — [play a song] from 'Nostradamus' — but it wouldn't have helped the set in any other way. And it is difficult to do, when you're getting a setlist together, because you have to find that blend of new material, obviously old favorites that you'd get lynched if you didn't play, and then you've got a whole melting pot there of stuff that we can pick out of. And it gets more difficult with each album, because every time you put a new song in, you've got to drop someone's potential favorite. But we do our best, and I think we've got it pretty much right up until now anyway."

Released in 2008, "Nostradamus" was criticized by fans for not sounding like classic PRIEST and for consisting almost entirely of slow, doomy, operatic, keyboard-heavy anthems, apart from a token couple of mid-tempo songs.

The two-CD, 23-track journey through the life of the controversial, 16th-century prophet "Nostradamus" shifted 42,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at No. 11. At the time, this was the band's highest-ever chart position in the U.S. In Canada, the CD opened at position No. 9 after moving close to 4,000 units.

In a 2020 interview with The Flying V Documentary TV Channel, Downing said about "Nostradamus": "A lot of people probably don't understand or quite get 'Nostradamus', but it was great for us — it was great for us to express and to exhibit what we could actually do as musicians. And also it was something original. And I love it. The downfall of 'Nostradamus' was probably the one thing that I actually thought, naively, was gonna be the best thing about 'Nostradamus', and that is the fact that I wanted to take people back to how it used to be," he continued.

"Years ago, when you had a big concept album, like when I first got [THE JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE's] 'Electric Ladyland', for example, we used to go in our bedroom, close the curtains, put the headphones on and just disappear into our world for however long it took to get through the album and just absorb it and just be at one with it. And I wanted people to experience 'Nostradamus' like that."

Back in 2018, Downing described "Nostradamus" as "our chance to create something different in the music place that we don't always go to. We have lots of great musicals, and we go into great, prestigious venues, like the Royal Albert Hall or Carnegie Hall — great theaters around the place," he said. "To create something and not let everyone else have all of the spoils — 'Phantom Of The Opera' and 'Cats' and all of these musicals and stuff like that. Why can't we, JUDAS PRIEST, put something that's rock and metal into that musical and entertainment place?

"Okay, we might have been going off on a tangent, getting on the wrong track as far as everybody wanting a [classic-sounding] JUDAS PRIEST record, but looking at the bigger picture of broadening the scope and the horizons of what a rock and metal band can do, it's an opportunity kind of missed through no fault of anyone's except our own record company and management, or whatever, decisions," he continued. "It wasn't to be, and probably it was a good decision. But it's a dream — it's a dream for me. I often think about it."

In a 2009 interview with PyroMusic.net, PRIEST singer Rob Halford also defended "Nostradamus", saying: "For us in the band, it was just a wonderful opportunity to complete an idea that we'd had and we'd talked about for many, many years. Growing up as we did, there were a lot of those types of concept records around in the '70s and we always wondered how we would tackle that kind of endeavor. So 'Nostradamus' turned out to be a real satisfying experience for us all."