JUDAS PRIEST Bassist Discusses Illegal Music Downloading

Greece's Solid Rock recently conducted an interview with JUDAS PRIEST bassist Ian Hill. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow.

Solid Rock: Do you think that a double concept album is rather dangerous or risky during the days of downloading?

Ian Hill: "Everything is a risk during the days of downloading. If it's downloaded legally, that's fine. But illegal downloads are the problem. It sounds like a good idea, music for nothing, but unfortunately, it doesn't cost nothing to produce, it costs a fucking fortune to produce. And it's not really bands like ourselves who lose out, because we've got a huge back catalog and we've got a lot of fans who will go out and buy the album anyway. But the up-and-coming bands, they don't get a chance, they have no option but to give their music away. Record companies aren't giving out many contracts anymore, simply because they're not making any money. It's as simple as that."

Solid Rock: Does JUDAS PRIEST like to try new things?

Ian Hill: "Yeah, we do. We always try to embrace new technologies, new gadgets, and new recording techniques. If it's there we'll try it, if it's good we'll use it, if it doesn't, we don't and we just move on. But I think that it's always been there, it's something that we've always done. Some bands get a certain formula and they stick to it and people love them for it, but we've never done that. We'd stagnate if we did and become predictable and we've always liked to try and be a little bit different and move on and push the envelope a little bit, musically. We've always tried to do that."

Solid Rock: Do you think that there will be future if bands like JUDAS PRIEST, IRON MAIDEN, KISS, AC/DC, MOTÖRHEAD, BLACK SABBATH quit someday?

Ian Hill: "Yes! I think, like I said, that there's a lot of interest in traditional metal. As I said, you often come to find bands that are getting a bit more versatile. Even when the day comes that we can't carry on, for one reason or another, either it's us or MAIDEN or KISS or BLACK SABBATH or many other bands, I think it will carry on. There's another couple of generations there already, waiting in the wings."

Solid Rock: After the tour what will be the next step for JUDAS PRIEST?

Ian Hill: "This tour will go round the world with us now with a similar setlist to what we have now. We're playing two from the new record, 'Prophecy' and 'Messenger Of Death'. And then, when we've done that, we are planning to try and do 'Nostradamus' in its entirety, go out and do a tour and just play whole album. It'll be interesting. It's something that we're looking forward to and it's a lot of work. It's in the future; so we don't have any timeslots yet. We're still at the beginning of this tour, but towards the end we can start to make plans."

Read the entire interview from Solid Rock.