TIM 'RIPPER' OWENS Says Life After JUDAS PRIEST Has Been 'Great'

October 3, 2014

ADM recently conducted an interview with powerhouse American singer Tim "Ripper" Owens (JUDAS PRIEST, ICED EARTH, YNGWIE MALMSTEEN). You can now watch the chat below.

Asked what life has been like after JUDAS PRIEST, Owens said: "Great. I mean, I get to do what I want musically. And I travel more places and do more things. I play with musicians from all over the world and musicians that I grew up listening to. So it's really good. I haven't died."

Owens also spoke about the inability of certain artists to reproduce their music live as it was originally written and recorded in the studio. He said: "As a fan of music, I like to see music performed how it should be performed, close to the versions or better.

"I don't like to hear singing that's… or guitar playing, or whatever, that's different, that they can't actually play what they've actually done on the record. And I know that I always try to give as much as I can in a performance like that…

"The biggest part for me is to hear a band, their sound. I don't care if they're jumping around on stage or running or they're acrobats or whatever. I mean, I would love if I could do some backflips, but…"

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

Asked in a recent interview with Russia's Classic Rock magazine whether it was ironic that the the 2001 Warner Bros. movie "Rock Star" — starring Mark Wahlberg as a salesman-turned-rock star styled after Owens, who fronted a JUDAS PRIEST cover band before being tapped to become the new lead singer of the actual group — became almost prophetic in the sense that Wahlberg's character in the film ends up playing small clubs with his own material after the band's original lead singer rejoins the group, Owens said: "For me, the movie was almost [like real life]. Rob came back [to JUDAS PRIEST], which was good for me, to be honest. My career, I went on to do a lot of stuff. It was better for the band, it was better for Rob. So it was kind of funny. I think I became a little bit bigger than the coffee shop singer that Mark Wahlberg was in the movie in the end, just playing there. I still get to play in front of thousands of people in Russia. But it is similar how he went on to do his own thing."

In a 2012 interview with Loud magazine, Owens stated about his departure from JUDAS PRIEST: "Well, you know, we all knew that Rob would come back eventually. That was a given. I love the guys in PRIEST, and if there's anything where I look back and wish, 'Oh, man, I wish it could have worked out,' that would probably be it. I was glad to see Rob come back, [but] I do wish they would play some of my material when they're out there [on the road]."

Find more on Judas priest
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

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).