The Beacon Journal: TIM OWENS 'Not Available' To Comment On Split With JUDAS PRIEST

July 12, 2003

Kymberli Hagelberg of Ohio's The Beacon Journal reports that Tim "Ripper" Owens was "not available" Friday (July 11) to comment on the announcement that he has been replaced in JUDAS PRIEST by his predecessor, Rob Halford.

The announcement of Owens' departure apparently came as news to his former wife.

"As far as I know these are just rumors," said Leslie Anderson, who added that Owens was out of town with their daughter.

As previously reported, Tim has been has been passing time recently by making numerous live appearances with the Ohio-based cover band THE SICKNESS, whose lineup includes two of Owens' former bandmates, bassist Dennis Hayes (formerly of Tim's pre-PRIEST band WINTERS BANE) and drummer Tim Semelsberger (from an early Ripper-fronted cover band, U.S. METAL). THE SICKNESS' next live appearance is scheduled to take place on Friday, July 25 at Mangos in Alliance, Ohio.

Owens, who some fans believe would be a perfect fit for the currently singer-less ICED EARTH, joined JUDAS PRIEST in 1997 when he was picked to audition for the group on the basis of a grainy video of his performance in a tribute band.

A friend of the band saw Owens with his tribute act, BRITISH STEEL, and passed a tape of the live show to the remaining members of JUDAS PRIEST in England.

According to JUDAS PRIEST's official statement announcing Halford's return to the group, Owens' departure was amicable. "The band is very grateful for Ripper's work in helping them to continue to bring JUDAS PRIEST's music to their millions of fans and they expect big things from him in the future."

Find more on

Prev More News Next

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).