Tagged: Judas Priest
Last conversations with K.K Downing
Now that K.K Downing has “OFFICIALLY” left the building, I went back to my latest interviews with him, trying to find clues…Did he say something, imply something, was there even a way to know that it would come to this?
I can’t find anything. I’m horribly angry and disappointed by the way Judas Priest and their management have handled this, but I won’t get into that. I guess it doesn’t even matter anymore. It’s all about money and business. Ideals don’t exist anymore, nothing matters but the mighty $$$$.
I suppose people are ok with that, I’m just a dinosaur who expected so much more from people I have loved my whole life. Judging from the comments on the judaspriest.com message board, people don’t care about being tricked into buying tickets under false pretenses.I’m a fan, not an idiot. I can’t imagine how I will ever be able to look at that band feeling that they are genuine.
Anyway…. The sound quality of this interview is pretty bad – because I pushed the “Long Play”-button by mistake. Very very annoying when you’re talking to one of the Metal Gods, but nothing you can do about it unfortunately. :-(
“I live and breathe Priest” – was one of the quotes in this interview.
He also wanted these words to be on his tombstone: “The sinner rider has ridden into the storm”. How very true.
And this interview (below) was made just a few months before the one above.
This is from Sweden Rock Festival, I remember how it was like a Fort Knox to even get to the area where Priest were. You had to pass one security gate after another, have people escorting you, it was like going to meet the president or something.
When I stepped into the portakabin where K.K was, it was like entering a SAUNA. For some reason he was freezing and had heated the place up and seemed to think the temperature was perfect. Ugh! :)
Didn’t have much time, other people were waiting to talk to K.K and the others, just a short hello-and-see-ya. Just another interview to add to my “rearview mirror”….:
K K Downing retires from Judas Priest
I’m in shock… Went for a walk at lunch and checked Facebook on my phone before I went back to the office.
One of the headlines in the news feed said: K K Downing retirement press release
I’m at a total loss for words right now. Will have to get my thoughts together and try to accept yet another sad fact about the band that’s #1 in my book and always have been.
Not only did I have to accept that this tour will be the last with Priest. Now I also have to accept that the man who’s been in the band from the beginning, who founded Judas Priest – is gone and we won’t see him on stage again.
We get to say goodbye to Judas Priest – but not to all of them. Doesn’t feel good at all.
What the reason is, I don’t know. As usual just a bunch of secrecy around the band. It’s always been like that – just shut up and come up with something diplomatic to say.
What REALLY happened will be left for fans to speculate on.
I’m just speechless.
Ozzy is still alive
Words seen on Twitter last night: R.I.P Ozzy Osbourne…
I started shaking when I saw that. I could litterally feel the cut to my heart, the shock that felt like it slapped me in the face!
You should never believe shit you read on the internet without questioning it, but even if it hadn’t been true – this time – just seeing the words was horrifying.
It couldn’t be true, but what it if was? When Gary Moore passed recently, I couldn’t believe it either.
First there was only one source sharing the news and I chose to believe that it was just some sort of sick hoax. But it didn’t take long before it was confirmed from other, more trustworthy sources and it dawned on us all that yet another one of our heroes had left us.
This is what’s happening now, and we will see more of it in the years to come.
Our idols, who are like family to those of us who grew up with their music, are leaving this earth one by one. They get older, die of illness, accidents or age.
Ozzy, with his 62 years of age and anything but healthy background, would definitely be one of those who ought to be at risk.
The anxiety that I felt during the thirty minutes that I spent checking Twitter and other sources for possible more info…was ridiculous. I had to get peace of mind, find out for sure what was true and what wasn’t.
Thank god Sharon Osbourne had something to share on Twitter during that time, that had NOTHING to do with the macabre “news”. I could finally relax.
But I was still sick to my stomach. I felt physically upset for the rest of the evening and ended up going to bed early.
Minutes after Sharon’s Twitter-message, I heard back from the person who had gone out with the macabre “news”:
– HAHA! April fools!!
What – the………
I was so PISSED OFF…!!! I have never been angry with this person before, ever. Never thought I’d even have a reason to, but I was so mad that I couldn’t even talk.
If I could have hit something or someone in that very moment….
What the F****!!!!!???
What the hell is wrong with people?! That is just so fucking retarded! Not funny by any means, in any way, for any reason. I had to leave the computer for a few just to try to calm down, cause I was so upset.
Nowadays I realize how precious those “last moments” are with our heroes.
Didn’t we all think that Dio – the Man on the Silver Mountain, the King of Rock’n’Roll, would live forever? Don’t they all feel immortal?
I cried all day when I heard the news that he lost his battle against cancer.I will always remember when I heard it, where I was and how I felt that day. It was such a shock.
I almost started crying on the train the other day when “The Last in Line” started playing in my iPod. We will never hear Ronnie sing for us live again.
The only thing that’s left of him is his legacy, the songs he gave us.
It just breaks my heart.
[Me and Ronnie, Malmo, Radisson Hotel, late 90’s]
The worst thing I can imagine, would be seeing the words “R.I.P Rob Halford” on Twitter, at any time. I can’t even get into it. It’s just so strange how these people are a huge part of your life and your whole identity in a way.
It’s not easy realizing that they are not immortal, they will all die in the coming 20, 30 years…Remember how fast 20 years passed…? It was only 20 years ago that Skid Row released “Slave To The Grind” for instance. I still remember that very clearly.
My point is that eventhough we feel that the legends will go on for all time and eternity – they won’t. This is a time we should treasure and not take for granted.
People are shaking their heads when i say how many shows and festivals I will be going to this summer. But when Judas Priest announced this tour as their “Epitath“-tour (whether or not it’s true…) I didn’t want to miss a minute of it.
And Ozzy is Ozzy. Period.
I love these people and their music, it pisses me off when I see tasteless jokes, I’m still mad, what the f***, I don’t even see the funny part in that “April fools”-crap from yesterday.
Or maybe I’m just too sensitive..??
ROB HALFORD – My memories (the final part 3)
[Continued from previous post]
February 2, 1991 – Sheraton Hotel, Stockholm
It was a very cold day and I felt sorry for the poor rocker guys who were standing outside the hotel freezing their butts off, waiting for a chance to get their Judas Priest-albums signed.
I knew what it was like to stand out in the cold like that. I had done it myself on a few occasions. But this time, I actually had an appointment with The Metal God.
My friend Janet was with me as moral support, cause I was pretty much crapping my pants, if you pardon the expression. I was only 21 and I had never met Judas Priest before – and this band had changed my life 8 years earlier. It’s a big deal. And now, I was about to meet Rob Halford, it was mindblowing. I couldn’t have been happier if anyone had offered me a million bucks.
We walked into the hotel-bar/restaurant and I immediately spotted the people from CBS (now Sony Music) and Jayne Andrews, who I had met in Copenhagen two days before, who had arranged this interview for me.
Just as we were about to walk over to the CBS-table, I noticed two familiar faces in the bar. Anders Tengner, a well known Swedish journalist who wrote for musc magazine OKEJ, and…Rob Halford. I was struggling with myself, cause I had to remind myself of one very important fact:
I was there as a journalist, not a fan, I had to fake that typical “journalist-look”.
The “I’m not-impressed“-professional-expression. But believe me, that was the LAST thing I felt like. I felt like I was 13 years old all over again.
Janet and I took a seat at the table with the CBS people and Jayne, for a casual conversation while we were waiting for Rob to finish his interview. I was dead nervous and probably said my “yes” and “no’s” in the totally wrong places but I wasn’t really listening to the conversation. I couldn’t, my heart was racing.
Then, I saw Anders packing his things. He shook hands with Rob and left. I was next…
I wasn’t doing the interview alone – and thank god for that! I felt a lot more confident with the other dude being there, for a change. Normally I would want an exclusive, but in this case, I probably needed Valium more than anything…! :-D
I’m surprised I even managed to say anything at all. And another short piece of info that I still remember very clearly before moving on to the actual interview:
We originally only had about 15-20 minutes to our disposal, and when we were running out of time, I saw Jayne walking towards our table. But for some reason she stopped half-way and went back to the CBS-table.
Later, I asked my friend Janet, who had been sitting there with them, if she knew what that had been all about. She said that Jayne’s intention had been to tell us to finish off the interview, but when she saw the expression on my face, she couldn’t bring herself to interrupt me. So she gave me another 10 minutes. I must have looked like I was talking to god or something. Heck – I WAS! :-)
So, not only did we talk for almost 40 minutes (5 minutes were edited out though, off the record stuff) then there was photos taken, albums signed – and Rob didn’t care that Janye was stressed to get him to the sound check.
He calmly walked out to the fans who had probably turned to ice outside, signed their stuff and talked to them. Then he came back, totally cool, and said he was ready to leave.Needless to say, I couldn’t sleep for DAYS.
I’ve met Rob many times since, and we are now on a first-name basis, which is totally weird to me. I still look up to this man a lot. This was my first meeting with him but hopefully not the last.
From one of my more recent conversations with Rob – 17 years later, many Priest-interviews later :)
ROB HALFORD – my memories (part 1)
As I was digging through my boxes of old cassettes, I found another, rather precious tape last night: My very first ROB HALFORD (Judas Priest)-interview!
I was so nervous, I could barely breathe that day. I was only 21 when that interview was made, and to this day, I still think of Rob as a “Metal God”. My love and respect for the man cannot be described in words.
But the truth is that the 1991 interview wasn’t really the first one I did with Rob. Indirectly, I “spoke” to him already 27 years ago, in 1984.
I was a 14-year-old fan and I used to listen to the only hard rock show there was on Swedish national radio back in those days – Rockdepartementet. I got in touch with one of the hosts, Marianne Christensson, and we became penpals. I’ve still got most of her postcards with the Rockdepartementet-logo on, and the letters.
I knew that Priest were coming, so I sent her a letter and asked her if she could maybe ask Rob some of my questions.
One evening, the phone rang. I still remember that grey plastic phone we had in the kitchen, it looked exactly like this:
It was Marianne. She said that she was meeting Rob in Gothenburg and figured why don’t I just come along and ask Rob whatever I wanted, myself?!
Seriously, I almost dropped dead! There I was, 13 years old, a HUGE MEGA SUPER-FAN of Judas Priest…A school-girl with no connections to the rock world whatsoever, other than sitting alone in my room listening to records in all my spare time.
And she tells me that there is a chance to actually MEET this guy? That was unbelievable. Her offer was like winning a million bucks in the lottery, but better!
My legs were shaking when I asked her to hang on for a second, as I went into the living room where my mother was watching TV.
– Marianne….Rockdepartementet….Rob Halford… Judas Priest… interview…. Gothenburg. Can I go?
– No you can’t. Are you out of your mind?? she said.
I begged and pleaded, promising that I would do ANYTHING if she just let me go. The answer was a coldhearted NO, she thought I was way too young, I could not just travel alone and that was the end of that discussion.
To this day, I still haven’t forgiven my mother for that. If I had had my own money, I probably would have eloped and met Rob anyway. But I was totally helpless, had no money and I realized I would not be able to go.
I went back to the phone and told Marianne that I was very grateful for her offer but I was not allowed to go.
God, I still remember how heartbroken I was. It was terrible. So close, yet so far away.
Well, Marianne was super-cool. She asked Rob every single question I sent her. The ones that hadn’t been on the air, she wrote down as a transcript and sent them to me. I was happy anyway.
It was quite a feeling to hear my name mentioned on the radio for the first time ever, in the same sentence as Rob Halford! I couldn’t sleep for days!
Here it is… Rob Halford, 1984. Note how he states that he’s 32 years old! And now, in 2011, it’s time for the Epitath-tour and for Judas Priest to retire. It’s been a long journey. Not just for Priest but also for many of their fans, myself included.
So far, I’ll be seeing 6 Priest-shows this summer. I just hope they will be back in the fall to do an arena tour as well.
I can’t believe that I’ve loved this band for 27 years. And their music still moves me, goes straight to my heart. Seeing Rob at Madison Square Garden back in December was fantastic. I was so glad to see him on stage again, I was crying throughout his whole set! I don’t do that with any other band or artist. But there’s something that triggers it when I see Rob live, I just love that music so much and it has meant the world to me.
Part two coming up soon – my very first in-person interview with Rob, done during the Painkiller-tour 1991. It was amazing finding that original tape – because I had a Judas Priest special on my own radio show that year, where the interview was included.
I’ve only been listening to the edited radio version of it ever since, cause I didn’t want to wear out the original tape. This is the FIRST TIME I listened to the original since then, and I realized that there was still a lot more that I hadn’t been able to include in the show because of the time limit. I don’t even remember most of this, and nobody else has ever heard it either!
So – 20 years later it sees the light!
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IN THE REARVIEW MIRROR 