TIM OWENS: 'I Would Never Rejoin JUDAS PRIEST'

Former JUDAS PRIEST/current ICED EARTH singer Tim Owens spoke to FoundryMusic.com Friday (January 16) about his departure from PRIEST, the "drinking incident" with ICED EARTH guitarist Jon Schaffer that was spotlighted in the current issue of Revolver magazine, and his plans for a solo project. Asked if he would ever consider rejoining JUDAS PRIEST for a six-month tour that would feature the band playing only the classics (nothing off the "Jugulator" and "Demolition" albums that Owens sang on),Tim said, "Depends on how much money [they would offer me]...(laughs). I would never rejoin JUDAS PRIEST, ever. . . You know, that's a different scenario though. If they would ever call me, and say, 'You wanna do a tour?' but they would HAVE to play 'Jugulator' and 'Demolition'...There's no way they'd do it WITH me without doing them. I mean, it all depends on what I was doing. I would never quit ICED EARTH, and I never would rejoin JUDAS PRIEST. But if they did say, 'Listen, we're gonna do a couple of month tour, and you wanna do a tour with us, just being the guest Ripper here,' then I'd probably do that if it fit in my schedule. But I would never rejoin them [permanently]."

Regarding Owens' interview in Revolver magazine where he mentioned going on a press tour in Europe and noticing Schaffer's drinking habits one night," Tim said, "Yeah, that... You know...that thing has become a pain in the ass. That Revolver article, to me, on my end, was crap. They messed up everything I said. Never had that happen, but even some stuff I said about PRIEST was like, 'No, that's not even...' What happened was, we had an interview, and they spread whatever I said out wherever it fit into the article. After Jon would say something, they'd fit my thing in there. And it wasn't like that, it was a funny experience, because Jon doesn't drink. . . It was a funny experience because he got drunk, you know... So it was like, it was... But it made it a lot worse than what it is… And I think it's amazing how they put it in there, I was just amazed, because it was during a conversation and whatever I said built up to it that we were a little crazy, that it was a good time until one night Jon drank at the hotel bar...and they didn't say this, I don't think...'cause I read a little bit in the magazine and threw it down like, 'You gotta be kidding me.' He was with the magazine that we were doing the interview with. So him and the guy from the record label were sitting at the lobby bar, and I went to bed after the interview. So, and then that was it. he was with the guy from a big magazine in Spain. It just made it look a lot different, and made it look like I was just irate, like 'This is it,' and that's the problem with these things. And then there was even something else I said about the... PRIEST not letting me write, and that wasn't how it was said...I know because I never say it like that... I say PRIEST didn't let me write, but I had nothing against it. It was cool, I just sat back." Read the rest of the interview here. FoundryMusic's entire 31-minute conversation with Tim Owens can be downloaded in MP3 format at this location (file size: 22 MB).