Judas Priest

K.K. about the rivalry with Maiden -> http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/k-...s-rivalry-with-iron-maiden-it-got-a-bit-ugly/

During a brand new interview with SiriusXM's Eddie Trunk, former JUDAS PRIEST guitarist Ken "K.K." Downing spoke about the the contentious rivalry that developed between PRIESTand IRON MAIDEN when the two bands toured together in the early 1980s. "We'd just finished the 'British Steel' record in England, and we were going out on tour [in early 1980 with IRON MAIDEN]," he recalled. "And then the next thing I know, I read in a music paper that [IRON MAIDEN said] something like, 'Yeah, we're gonna blow the bollocks off PRIEST,' or something like that. And I went, 'What the hell is this shit?' We were still in the recording studio, tidying up the last mixes or something. And I said, 'Well, who are these guys?' Why should we have [them] on tour if they're gonna create this type of vibe before we've even met them, let alone done a show together?' I said, 'Let's get rid of them and get somebody that really appreciates the gig' [laughs, of which there would have been an awful lot of bands. But anyway, everybody talked me into going with it, and I said, 'Well, fine,' obviously being democratic. And the next thing I know, we were at the rehearsals at some theater in London somewhere, and this bunch of guys walked in and just sat down in front of me. And I said to my guitar tech, 'Who are those dudes there?' [Laughs] And he went, 'Oh, that's the support band.' And I said, 'Well, who the hell invited them into our rehearsal?' I was thinking about what I read in the papers. And I said, 'Well, just go and tell them that they weren't invited and they need to leave.' I didn't see an invite; nobody told me they were coming in — when you're trying to work out songs and this and that and the other. So that's what happened."

Downing continued: "Anyway, we went on tour [together], and can I just say they didn't blow the bollocks off JUDAS PRIEST — we were pretty well established at the time, and those guys were coming up through the ranks. So that happened. But it wasn't a good atmosphere on the tour, and it's not something I like to have happen — it shouldn't be that way. And next thing I know, somebody [said], 'Oh, IRON MAIDEN is opening up for you on their first U.S. tour [in 1981].' And I went, 'Oh, no! Not again. Can we just not have those guys on [the tour]?' But they came on the tour [anyway], and they created upsets, is what they did, for different reasons and it led to a confrontation and it got a bit ugly. I don't know how it all happened, but I did meet [former IRON MAIDEN singer] Paul Di'Anno so many years later, in about 1995, and he said, 'Hey, K.K., we're sorry about that quote in the paper.' And that's all you need.

I watched quite a lot of the MAIDEN shows, but the reaction of the audience wasn't very explosive — because the fans were waiting for us. Okay, MAIDEN became one of the biggest bands of the metal scene — and I'm proud of them. We made a big mistake by focusing more on the U.S. than on Europe after releasing 'British Steel'. [I mean], we lost a lot of attention at home. In the U.S., we were quite big — and MAIDEN asked us for a support slot on our U.S. tour. We said yes — and the same old story happened again. It had a lot to do with rivalry and jealousy."

"But, anyway, like I said, it's all water under the bridge," K.K. added. "Those guys were young, coming up through the ranks, a bit delinquent, but at least they had balls, they got on with it, they knew what they wanted to do."
 
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CriedWhenBrucieLeft said:
So he reads a newspaper quote & only on this he's already like "let's get rid of them". Jesus, what a fanny.
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It's obvious that Maiden became bigger than Priest, but already then, their debut album was at number #4 on the charts, while Priest had to wait for their sixth album to achieve this, so I think he was worried that Maiden will take the spotlight from Priest.

And for me it is important for a young band that just had started and that is related to every person really - you should have that desire for what you're doing, that appetite to achieve big things in your life, you have to believe in you. Priest had 6 albums then and Maiden only one(it is a bit unfair to compare), but as it turned out to be, Maiden totally blow the bollocks off Priest in the following years...
 
Well Ripper is completely right. They recently released a bunch of Priest albums on vinyl and shafted Ripper era again. The band definitely acts like that period didn’t happen.
 
Mosh said:
Well Ripper is completely right. They recently released a bunch of Priest albums on vinyl and shafted Ripper era again. The band definitely acts like that period didn’t happen.
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Yeah. Maybe Rob doesn't want to sing songs from this era - songs that he hasn't sing on them originally.

In contrast with Bruce, who is responsible for bringing SOTC and The Clansman back in the setlist.
 
It seems that the artist (Claudio Bergamin) who has done the Firepower album cover also had created artworks for the previous album cover, Redeemer of Souls. He even had draw 3 covers(unfinished sketches, as he says) for this album, but maybe the band has rejected them. Here's what he says about each one of them:
(https://twitter.com/bergamin_art?lang=bg)

1 - This was the first of 3 unused sketches I proposed to Judas Priest for "Redeemer of Souls" back in 2013. I wasn't entirely happy with it so I made two more. The working title was "Metalizer" at the time and the inspiration came from the "Killing Machine" album cover.

2 - NEW ARTWORK! (well, not new but certainly unseen) This is the second of three unused concept sketches I proposed to Judas Priest for "Redeemer of Souls" back in 2013. The idea was to recapture the metal creatures that made Judas Priest legendary worldwide in the 80s.

3 - NEW ARTWORK! This is one of three unused concept sketches I put together very quickly and proposed to Judas Priest for "Redeemer of Souls" back in 2013. Although the working title was "Metalizer" at the time.

 

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