TIM 'RIPPER' OWENS On VIP Meet-And-Greets: 'If You Don't Do 'Em, You Probably Won't Be Able To Tour'

In a new interview with Australia's Silver Tiger Media, KK'S PRIEST vocalist Tim "Ripper" Owens once again spoke about the band's decision to not do meet-and-greets on its recent tours. Addressing the fact that KK'S PRIEST has yet to make it to Australia, he said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "We probably could have got more run on touring. I mean, the touring was so successful and the shows were so good. It's just very costly to tour nowadays.

"I think the problem with, what's gonna be hard with getting KK'S PRIEST to tour is we don't do VIP meet-and-greets, and to be honest, it's probably about impossible to do any touring nowadays without doing 'em," he continued. "And if you don't do 'em, you can't expect to tour. I know bands that have made hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars on just a meet-and-greet, which actually goes to expenses of the tour. Yngwie [Malmsteen] was just in Sydney. I heard he had about a hundred meet-and-greets, and over 200 was the cheapest meet-and-greet.

"I said to Ken [KK'S PRIEST guitarist and leader Kenneth 'K.K.' Downing], I said, 'Let's do a meet-and-greet with 10 people — that's it — after the show.' [We would charge] 200, which would be — you know, they get stuff, but they come back, 10 people. We have pizza and beer and soda and water and coffee, whatever, we have that sitting there. We all just sit around. We're right off the stage and we talk, 30 minutes or whatever, take the photo, sign stuff, eat pizza. But he's not game on it. And you just can't do it [without meet-and-greets]."

Owens added: "Bands can't afford to come to Australia unless you're doing meet-and-greets. I mean, IRON MAIDEN can. JUDAS PRIEST can. But JUDAS PRIEST does meet-and-greets and they charge four or five hundred dollars a person and they don't even meet the band half the time.

"What people realize is doing these [meet-and-greets] is how you tour. If you don't do 'em, you probably won't be able to tour. And I think that's our dilemma right now. I think that's why it might be hard to come to Australia or a lot of these places, because we don't do meet-and-greets. Which is fine — I can go tour solo — but that's how people do it nowadays."

Elaborating why Downing isn't interested in doing meet-and-greets at any of the KK'S PRIEST shows, Tim said: "Ken doesn't like 'em, and I understand that — he's old school — but I think what people have to realize is you're not going to meet Ken anyways [without meet-and-greets], so you're not going to meet him anywhere else. And you're putting it out there. People don't have to buy it. And that's why I had that idea of 10 people —that is it. And they just come right backstage and we have pizza and beer and you get a poster and laminate and I'll bring some eight-by-tens [photos] of me and whatever and a t-shirt or whatever. But I think that's the way to do it. Because, man, touring is expensive. Gosh."

Owens added: "It's funny. There's a couple things. And this is what's so great about [K.K.] and so great about this. He doesn't want to not bring the screens and not have the crew and the production we have on these small budgets that we're getting paid. He still wants to look good. 'Cause I said, 'Ken, you could just have backdrops back there.' I see bands — SAXON, all these bands, ACCEPT — with just backdrops, and they look great. It's fine. It's perfect He's, like, 'No. Nope. I gotta do the right show. It's gotta be the right show.' And I love it. I love everything he does and talks about. I love his passion. He has such passion. KK'S PRIEST is such a success and it sounds so good that he wants it all to be right. And maybe someday we will do the little meet-and-greet package so we can tour more. But with the cost of touring, I think it's gonna be pretty hard to do it without it."

Owens previously talked about KK'S PRIEST's decision to not do meet-and-greets in October in an interview with Nikki Blakk of the San Francisco Bay Area radio station 107.7 The Bone. He said at the time: "[Some] people are against paid meet-and-greets. [They believe] fans shouldn't have to pay for it. But I have a different look at it. I mean, I don't wanna do them either, cause I wanna chill. But it's their opportunity. You're offering it to them. They don't have to [buy it]. And the one I wanna do is totally different than everybody else's. Now someone's going to steal this idea; I'm going to put it out there. But I said to Ken, we do 10 people — that's it — a night. Backstage, right after we're done on stage, we have pizza, beer, sodas in the room. They walk in with us. They have some pizza. They get a poster, an eight-by-ten [photo], a signed setlist and a laminate. But sitting and having pizza and beer and taking photos, I mean, how cool is that? It's great. And it would be pretty fast."

Owens continued: "The other problem nowadays [why] people have to do [paid meet-and-greets] is to fund the tour. I mean, it's so expensive to tour nowadays. We're out here with a semi and a bus and a full crew and screens and this and a stage setup. And it's really expensive. But [K.K.'s] got that and he doesn't wanna do it, and I think it's cool, because he has that right. It's, like, 'This is it. I don't want to make the fans have to pay for it.' That's his thinking… [But the fans] wanna pay for it. They wanna do it. I mean, that's all we get — people are so pissed off that we don't do it. Oh my God. We get [that question] just nonstop: 'Are you doing meet-and-greets?'"

In December 2023, Owens told Kevin McKay of Florida's 99Rock WKSM radio station that KK'S PRIEST "usually [doesn't] do meet-and-greets. I know it's the big thing to do nowadays. And I would be all right doing meet-and-greets, but I know K.K.'s not a big fan of 'em," he said. "He likes to get in, do the show and get out."

When McKay noted that a lot of artists nowadays offer meet-and-greets as a way of making extra money on the road, Owens said: "Well, absolutely. And I'm all for that. [Laughs] Listen, I tried to talk [K.K.] into it. I said, 'Listen, we should do 'em. And we get some good money out of this and we can see the fans.' Listen, that's all I've been getting on social media is people asking, 'Is there gonna be meet-and-greets?' And I think everybody does it. I mean, it's a different era. You don't sell records like you used to and everything's so expensive and everybody takes a giant merch cut out of your merch. So it's ways to make extra money."

After McKay pointed out that a KK'S PRIEST meet-and-greet without K.K. "would kind of defeat the purpose," Owens concurred. "Yeah, we're not gonna do it like that," he said. "I think most of the people seem to want K.K. and myself to be doing them. And if I would just show up, some people would be all right, but K.K. is the [person everyone wants to meet]."

McKay then joked that "it doesn't even sound like" he can sneak backstage and eat KK'S PRIEST's food, to which Owens replied: "I imagine you can get back. I mean, we'll meet people and stuff like that. Ken and myself usually, [when] the show ends, we usually walk right out the door with our bag and go to the hotel. I do it because it's singing; I do anything I can to sing good. But yeah, we still get the people, especially people like the radio hosts and the people who [have] put time in the helping us out, we always love to say hello to all you guys."

KK'S PRIEST, which also includes guitarist A.J. Mills (HOSTILE),bassist Tony Newton (VOODOO SIX) and drummer Sean Elg (DEATHRIDERS, CAGE),and German/American metal legends ACCEPT recently completed a North American tour. The massive run began on August 31 in Los Angeles, California, visiting a slew of major cities in the USA and Canada — such as Toronto, Montreal, New York and Nashville — before coming to an end in San Francisco, California on October 7.

KK'S PRIEST's first-ever U.S. headlining tour, which featured support from L.A. GUNS and BURNING WITCHES, kicked off on March 7, 2024 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and concluded on March 24, 2024 at Keswick Theatre in Glenside, Pennsylvania.

KK'S PRIEST's sophomore album, "The Sinner Rides Again", came out in September 2023 via the Austrian label Napalm Records.

KK'S PRIEST made its live debut on July 6, 2023 at Downing's KK's Steel Mill in Wolverhampton, United Kingdom.

K.K. formed KK'S PRIEST after JUDAS PRIEST turned down his offer to rejoin the band for their 50th-anniversary tour. It followed a couple of celebrated stage appearances, first with former MANOWAR guitarist Ross The Boss in the summer of 2019, then with a one-off lineup that included former MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson and former PRIEST drummer Les Binks later that year.

KK'S PRIEST released its debut album, "Sermons Of The Sinner", in October 2021 via Explorer1 Music Group/EX1 Records.

Downing spent four months writing and recording "Sermons Of The Sinner" and, along with new ideas, he even resurrected a few archived riffs from the 1980s.

Downing was reunited with JUDAS PRIEST for a performance at the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony in November 2022 at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.

PRIEST received the Musical Excellence Award at the event, which honored Eminem, Dolly Parton, DURAN DURAN, Lionel Richie, Pat Benatar, EURYTHMICS and Carly Simon in the Performers category.

Downing left PRIEST in 2011 amid claims of band conflict, shoddy management and declining quality of performance. He was replaced by Richie Faulkner, nearly three decades his junior.

In 2019, Downing said that he reached out to JUDAS PRIEST about taking part in the band's 50th-anniversary tour but that their response was that they were not interested in including him in the celebrations.

In 2018, Downing revealed that he sent two resignation letters to his bandmates when he decided to quit JUDAS PRIEST. The first was described as "a graceful exit note, implying a smooth retirement from music," while the second was "angrier, laying out all of his frustrations with specific parties."

Downing later said that he believed the second letter was "a key reason" he wasn't invited to rejoin PRIEST after Glenn Tipton's decision to retire from touring.

Owens joined PRIEST in 1996 and recorded two studio albums with the band — 1997's "Jugulator" and 2001's "Demolition" — before PRIEST reunited with Rob Halford in 2003.