Original JUDAS PRIEST Singer AL ATKINS Interviewed On BBC RADIO; Audio Available

July 9, 2009

Original JUDAS PRIEST singer Allan Atkins and his HOLY RAGE bandmate Chris Johnson (guitar) were interviewed on July 5 by radio presenter, history professor and author Carl Chinn on BBC Radio. According to a posting on Atkins' MySpace page, "We launched Al's new book, 'Dawn of the Metal Gods', spoke about old-school metalists such as LED ZEP, SABBATH and PRIEST and 'Give Them Hell' [from HOLY RAGE] was aired. A little shock was Bruno Stapenhill from JUDAS PRIEST Mk1 also called in to say hi at the end of the show!"

The program is now available for streaming at this location.

In a recent interview with Express & Star, Atkins stated about his 1973 split with JUDAS PRIEST, "I was the only one in the group married and with a child, but money was a struggle. We had signed a recording contract and were playing with groups such as BLACK SABBATH, STATUS QUO, SUPERTRAMP and THIN LIZZY. We were getting bigger, but so were our overheads and we were not making any money — some of the band members were not eating much as they couldn't afford the food. In 1972 JUDAS PRIEST did 150 gigs around the country, but we didn’t take any money home. Also travelling all over the country meant I hardly got to see my family and any spare time we did have was taken up with doing photos and rehearsing. I was replaced on vocals by Rob Halford, who is now called the Metal God, and I got a job at Sutton Coldfield Cost Office garage. At that time JUDAS PRIEST were working really hard, going into Europe and it was fantastic to see that something I had started was doing so well. They had become one of these bands that we had dreamed of being. Then their album 'British Steel' came out and they were on 'Top of the Pops' and before I knew it they were a household name."

JUDAS PRIEST bassist Ian Hill has penned the foreword to Al Atkins's autobiography, titled "Dawn of the Metal Gods: My Life in Judas Priest and Heavy Metal". The book, which was written with Neil Daniels — a freelance rock writer and heavy metal fan who befriended Atkins during the writing of Neil's book "The Story of Judas Priest: Defenders of the Faith" (Omnibus Press) — is available via Iron Pages.

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