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Judas
Priest was the most influential, groundbreaking band besides Black Sabbath in
the formative days of metal and here it is 2006 and they are still with us.
There would not be the same kind of guitar players, bands, styles of singing
etc. if it were not for Judas Priest. I got the chance to talk to one of the
most influential guitar players in history in Glenn Tipton about the reissue of
his solo CD Baptizm Of Fire. Along with that reissue is the issue of the lost
tracks from that era in the form of Edge Of The World, which featured the
original incarnation of his post Judas Priest act. We talked about the issue of
these discs, Priest and his thoughts on longevity. The results of that
conversation are before you.
Jeffrey Easton interviewing Glenn Tipton
Jeff: Why did you pick now to have Baptizm Of Fire reissued?
Glenn: Back in 1994 there was no Priest so I wrote a batch of songs with no
direction in mind. After awhile I approached Cozy Powel and asked if he wanted
to be involved and he said yeah. We sat down and discussed bass players and
through our manager Bill Curbishley (who managed The Who) John’s name cropped
up and we sent him some tapes to see if he was interested. Atlantic approached
us about a deal but they wanted to use some younger guys to make it more
marketable in their words so I had little choice at the time. A good album
emerged in Baptizm Of Fire but we could not really merge the two batches of
songs together. As you can tell from listening to them they have two very
different characters.
Jeff: Yes I can.
Glenn: It was nice to mix it up with young guys like Robert Trujillo, Brooks
Wackerman and C.J. De Villar. It was a little bit of a test for me and we had
mutual respect for each other.
Jeff: How was it a test for you?
Glenn: These are guys who practice and play everyday.
Jeff: But you are one of the most accomplished metal players in the world.
Glenn: (laughter) There was mutual respect there.
Jeff: You were playing before those guys were born.
Glenn: Yes but they probably practice a bit more than me. I am joking but they
were great players and it was great playing with them. That is how all of that
came along and Warner’s/Rhino came along and wanted to re-release Baptizm as
it had been deleted. I was happy for it to come back out because it was a
well-kept secret when it came out so we decided to re-release with some bonus
tracks as well. At the same time they heard the original batch of tracks and
they felt like me that they should be out there for people to hear. There is
some great playing on there from John and Cozy, I mean you have heard them, they
are great and they are so unique. I always wanted them to see the light of day
so we decided to release the titles together?
Jeff: Did you have to do anything else to the tracks on Edge Of The World?
Glenn: I mixed them and did some overdubbing but in general the basic tracks
were there. It was just a matter of mixing them.
Jeff: When you were listening to the tracks what kind of emotions were you going
through considering that neither John nor Cozy are with us anymore?
Glenn: It is sad and I know this maybe morbid but I cannot believe that Cozy is
not with us anymore.
Jeff: He was still young and a great drummer!
Glenn: He such a nice guy and a great character and I feel that he is one of the
best rock drummers ever. He had so much depth and so much to draw from. I never
knew how good of a bass player that John was until he came down and played on
this record. I was absolutely flabbergasted at his talent. You know how good he
was with The Who and he had so many styles at his fingertips.
Jeff: I am sure his talent was overshadowed by the bigger names in The Who who
grabbed more of the spotlight.
Glenn: I feel the same way to and that is why this album gave him a chance to
shine. Take the track Friendly Fire, he played like a spider. When he started
playing there was no other player than John for these tracks. When I listen to
this album I have such great memories and I am happy that they are out for
everyone to here for good. The proceeds are all going to the Teenage Cancer
Trust so some good is coming out of all of it.
Jeff: Why did you pick that charity?
Glenn: The Who were involved with it so John did a lot for it. It is a very
positive environment for kids who have cancer and encourages kids to do battle
with cancer and beat it. I cannot think of a better charity to give to.
Jeff: I was a fan of Baptizm Of Fire when it came out but now upon hearing this,
I cannot decide which is better. Edge Of The World is a very diverse release
though, not as heavy as BOF.
Glenn:
It was a difficult time then, the metal was darker, more rugged and I leaned in
that direction but not too much as it would not have been me. The writing and
performance of Baptizm leaned towards that where as EOTW has a more classic rock
feel. They are two distinctly different records and will not say that one is
better than the other but I do favor Edge Of The World a little more. I am proud
of both albums but you can’t call Edge Of The World a solo album.
Jeff: More of a band album.
Glenn: Yes, more of a band album so in a sense that is the biggest difference.
Baptizm is more of a solo record and Edge has more of a band feel, three great
musicians blended together.
Jeff: You did get one track on Baptizm.
Glenn: The healer, yeah.
Jeff: It does stand out from the rest.
Glenn: Yes it does and we were going to blend the albums but once they were
recorded it was two different animals. I did want to get one on the record and
The Healer was closer to the others.
Jeff: Considering your stature in the music business, why did you not stand your
ground when they asked you to use different people?
Glenn: I had no choice really, it was down to I got a deal or I did not get a
deal. People think that if you are in a band like Judas Priest that you can just
walk into any record company and get a deal and that is just not the case. I am
just a guitar player and not really flavor of the month with record companies.
Some companies were not that interested but Atlantic did show interest so I did
what they wanted me to do. In retrospect it did turn out well though because if
I had not of done that I would have only one album but now I have both of them.
In a way it got more out of me and it enabled me to be able to work with other
musicians. Solo albums are really about exploring other areas than what you
aren’t used to, in my case Judas Priest.
Jeff: There is nothing on either of these albums that sounds remotely like Judas
Priest.
Glenn: Exactly and that is what this was all about.
Jeff: I do hear a lot of solo projects that sounds just like their own bands and
I wonder why did they ever bother.
Glenn: Exactly, why would I ever in a million years to not just sound like
Priest but even be as good as Judas Priest. I am only a small part of that band
and if I tried to sound like them I would fall well short. So there is no point
unless you wanted to prove a point if you are talented enough and I am not. The
thing to do is your own thing is what I tried to do and so I just explored areas
that Priest would not dare go down to but far above my ability.
Jeff: But you do have ability; just listen to your catalog.
Glenn: Yes but it is not Priest.
Jeff: Exactly, which is why I am enjoying it. I love Priest but I love what you
were doing here.
Glenn: Thanks very much.
Jeff: Is there another solo album in the future?
Glenn: At the moment no, with Priest reunited and with a new record starting my
full attention is on that. In the future I will but probably when Priest is over
as I do not want to compromise anything with Priest. After waiting for 14 years
I would not want to get in the way of what we are doing. I am very fortunate to
be in a band like Priest, to be a band where everything fits and a great writing
formula. There are many musicians that are way better than me that just have not
been fortunate enough to be discovered yet. I like film soundtracks and at some
point I would like to do something on that level as I love the big dramatic
sounds but at the moment I am focused on Priest. It needs to be the priority as
that is what the fans want.
Jeff: You said they have been waiting for 14 years for this Priest to be
together. Do you consider the Ripper years to be a black part of the career?
Glenn: No not at all as I love what we did with Ripper. The other thing that
people forget, Jeff, is that if it were not for the Ripper years we would not
have been together now. There are two very good studio albums that I am very
proud of, Jugulator and Demolition, they are not Halford albums so you have to
look at them in the right light. There was a great live album and two great
tours so with Ripper stepping into the band to keep everything going I think the
light would have faded by now.
Jeff: I honestly think Bullet Train and Cathedral Spires are two of the best
Priest tracks of all time.
Glenn: I think there are some great songs there and I am proud of those albums.
I think some people missed the point of those albums. With Jugulator we had to
prove the point that Ripper could sing like Rob and that we were fiercely back
but Demolition had more subtleties and wanted to showcase more of Tim’
abilities. It was a harder album to do than Jugulator.
Jeff: Why was it more difficult?
Glenn: Jugulator was furious, fast, it was Ripper sounding like Rob but with
Demolition we wanted to cross over some while maintaining it was Judas Priest.
It was an experimental album in that respect and not as straight forward as
Jugulator. The Ripper Owens years were very important and were instrumental in
keeping the name alive.
Jeff: Even if the fans were arguing the Ripper/Halford thing people were still
talking about you and any press is good press.
Glenn: I have a lot of time for Tim; he is a great guy and a fantastic singer.
Who else could have stepped into Halford’s shoes and he did pull it off you
know.
Jeff: What are your thoughts on the response to Angel Of Retribution since it
came out last year?
Glenn: I think it is good but I think that there was a lot of pressure on us and
after 14 years people expected a lot from us. Over expectations is a very
dangerous thing because no matter how good the album is people can be
disappointed and I have said this many times in the way we went about it was to
enjoy ourselves. We decided to write the album and just enjoy it. We revisited
certain areas, went back in time, revisited certain lyrics, just took the
pressure off of ourselves and enjoyed everything. It is a very natural sounding,
very Priesty sounding album.
Jeff: It was a great album, I liked it. As you go through the record, you can
pick out which era you were visiting but at the end of the day people were
expecting Painkiller. I do not think people were expecting this. You said you
were about to do the next Priest record, what do you have planned for it?
Glenn: We have something special planned for the next Priest record. Until we
start writing it next month it will be top secret. I think everybody is going to
love the next record, it will be Priest.
Jeff: You are reissuing the Priest Live ‘82 home video. What made you decide
to release that right on the heels of Rising In The East?
Glenn: The one from Dallas, correct? It has been deleted for quite awhile and we
gave it away with the box set but we decided to put it out on its own so people
did not have to go out and buy the box set just to have the DVD.
Jeff: Rising In The East is your first document from Japan in quite awhile, why
did you wait so long to document Japan?
Glenn: With the reunion we thought it was appropriate to revisit Unleashed In
The East.
Jeff: You cannot beat the Set list for it.
Glenn: We wanted to record a concert, not a selection of shows. We only recorded
2 shows and the first night was a bit shaky but we ripped the second night and
that is the one we used. There may have been a few bum notes on there but it was
a great Priest concert from start to finish.
Jeff: A few bum notes here in there is part of being a musician.
Glenn: Exactly, there is plenty of room for bum notes but what there is no room
for is a halfhearted performance. We wanted it to be an experience that you can
put on and watch from start to finish.
Jeff: Where do you think Judas priest fits in right now?
Glenn: Hopefully we have come back in fashion and I say that because and you
have seen this yourself Jeff, is that there are a lot of young kids at our
shows. Their parents have turned some on but others have discovered us on their
own. I think we are fashionable again and it is good to be in fashion, Jeff.
(laughter)
Jeff: I will say this, when I was at the pre Halloween Long Beach show, there
were a lot of kids ten and younger there with their parents and they were
enjoying themselves.
Glenn: If you see kids that young enjoying themselves you know you got some of
it right. If we can get some of it right after 30 years that is as much as we
can ask for.
Jeff: When I was younger my parents were wondering why I was listening to stuff
like this and now those kids have kids and they are telling them that they will
listen to this. You guys have transcended several generations.
Glenn: The best compliment that has ever been paid to us is that we are
timeless.
Jeff: If you put on Stained Class, it still sounds good. Same with Sin After
Sin, Screaming For Vengeance and Painkiller amongst others. They all still sound
great and this is why you guys can still tour and put out records that do well.
Glenn: Like I said, that compliment means more to us than anything. It is luck
really and it is a rising star but it has and it is still working for us.
Jeff: You guys have always had your signature style but you always evolved with
each record. Each record sounded different in some way, you changed with the
times.
Glenn: We consider each Priest album a chapter in the book of Judas Priest.
Jeff: If you read the same story each time you would not go back, which is what
happened to most bands.
Glenn: Don’t let the sands of time cover you over and we are still here and
not going away.
Jeff: On that I will close this out and say thanks!
Glenn: Pleasure talking to you.
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