When it comes to Judas Priest and their vocalists, you’ve for sure got fans that only fuck with the Rob Halford stuff, you’ve got others that really love the Tim “Ripper” Owens era, and then you’ve got what I believe to be the majority of fans that love both.
Fans can recall a time when Ripper sang with the band and performed classic Judas Priest songs that Rob Halford originally performed, but in the roughly 22 years since his return to the band, Halford hasn’t really reciprocated by singing any of Ripper’s tunes. It’s become a bit of a point of contention with the former vocalist.
During a recent interview with Andrés Durán of El Expreso Del Rock (as transcribed by Blabbermouth), Judas Priest drummer Scott Travis shed some light as to why they don’t perform any of the Ripper-era stuff with Halford on vocals. And it turns out it’s a pretty simple reason.
“I just think it’s not something Rob [Halford, Priest vocalist] really wants to do, and I totally understand that. And the other thing is, with Judas Priest, we have so many great songs to play, it’s impossible to get to get ’em all in because, as you know, in concert, we’re always gonna have to play ‘[You’ve Got] Another Thing Comin” and ‘Living After Midnight’, ‘Breaking The Law’, ‘[The] Green Manalishi [With the Two Pronged Crown]’, ‘Victim Of Changes’ — you’re always gonna have to play those classics. ‘Cause as soon as you don’t play those, then people are screaming, ‘Why didn’t you play this song or that song?’ So you have to do those, and then you’ve only got so much time left to squeeze the other songs in during a live set. So, to be honest, there’s really just not time. And so we just decided to not mess with it.”
As a fan of both vocalists, I would love to hear Halford tackle songs like “Cathedral Spires” or “Burn In Hell”. Sure, both of Ripper’s albums Demoliton and Jugulator aren’t exactly shining moments in Judas Priest’s discography, but there are some gems in the tracklists for sure.
Either way, I’m sure you can hear those songs performed live when Ripper plays with K.K. Downing’s off-shoot band, KK’s Priest.
Source: www.metalsucks.net
