K.K. Downing interview: Ex-Judas Priest guitarist on new band, KK's Priest, Hall of Fame induction, more

The way K.K. Downing sees it, creating a setlist can be difficult, but he pretty much can’t make a bad pick.

Downing, a co-founder and longtime guitarist for British metal legends Judas Priest, is on the road now with his new band, KK’s Priest. That means he can choose from that band’s two albums, 2021’s “Sermons of the Sinner” or 2023’s “The Sinner Rides Again.” But he can also tap into the entire Judas Priest timeline, likening it to selecting from among a variety of luxury cars.

“It could be anything. Can’t really go too far wrong. If you’ve got the money to buy a Rolls-Royce, and the only problem is which color should you have, can you really go too far wrong?” Downing said with a laugh in a recent Zoom interview. “I don’t think there’s a bad color to put on a Rolls-Royce, doesn’t matter even if it’s like bright pink. It’s just the shape and the quality of it. You can’t go too far wrong.”

KK’s Priest visits Pittsburgh on March 17 for at show at Stage AE, alongside L.A. Guns and Burning Witches.

The new album, released in September, features singles likes “One More Shot at Glory,” “Strike of the Viper” and “Sons of the Sentinel,” none of which stray too far from the classic Priest sound.

“I think the two albums could have been a double album. I know the production is slightly different on the second album. It’s a little bit more edgy, which was intentional. The first album was a little bit more classic metal,” Downing said. “Obviously, in the many decades I spent in Judas Priest, we had everything from ‘Painkiller’ to ‘Before the Dawn’ and ‘Turbo Lover.’ It was pretty eclectic, the way that we produced everything. We were always willing to, not exactly experiment, but just take advantage of things as time moved on.

“That is also your mindset as well. Things change, don’t they? Nothing stays the same in the world. The ’70s are different to the ’80s. The ’80s are different to the ’90s. A lot of things can influence you. There’s definitely a stage of everything that’s happening in the world. Of course, music has to evolve. It’s good to keep the good pieces, isn’t it? It’s like Beethoven and Bach and Vivaldi, we want to keep all of that, but we’re happy to have other artists create other great editions of new work in the same genre.”

In Downing’s opinion, the new material stacks up favorably against older Judas Priest albums, of which he played a major role in writing.

“It all sounds the same and I like that, because it’s kind of bringing it into the present and taking it into the future and the classics and the history and the legacy, you know, that is me first and foremost, you know, KK Downing,” he said. “I started the band in 1969, writing and playing and recording, so I’m keeping that going and keeping that alive and enjoying it along the way.”

Also on board in KK’s Priest is singer Tim “Ripper” Owens, who fronted Judas Priest from 1996-2003 after being discovered while playing in a Priest cover band, British Steel. Owens’ two albums with the band, 1997’s “Jugulator” and 2001’s “Demolition,” don’t get the attention they deserve, according to Downing.

“For some reason, Judas Priest refused to market them and advertise them and sell them. So they’ve been out to the marketplace now for many, many years,” Downing said. “So sadly, obviously, that’s a part of my history, a part of Tim’s history, so that’s exceptionally unfair to do that really, to try to erase Ripper as being a vocalist in Judas Priest, because he was, as was Al Atkins, for the first three or four years of the band’s career. You can’t erase facts, can you really? Facts are history.”

Downing exited Judas Priest in 2010, shortly before the band’s Epitaph world tour, which had been intended to be their farewell tour. When longtime guitarist Glenn Tipton retired in 2017, Downing thought there might be a chance to reconcile and take his “rightful place” but that never happened.

“I’d always been loyal to the band, stayed loyal, never wanted to play with anyone else, never recorded with anyone else, never doing multiple albums with anyone else,” he said. “I always stayed loyal to Judas Priest, and that’s what happened. So, unfortunately, that’s what happened.”

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Leading his own band has been a different experience, a “breath of fresh air,” according to Downing. “Don’t get me wrong, I totally love everything I ever did with Rob (Halford) and Glenn.”

Downing did take the stage again with Judas Priest on Nov. 5, 2022, at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, but there were mixed feelings.

“I think that was just something that we felt that we should be a part of, but it’s a great accolade,” Downing said. “It’s sad that I was kept to, myself and (former drummer) Les (Binks) were kept segregated from the rest of the band, but we just went there and did what we do in a way that we know how to do it, and that was it. I got to say hello to Andy (Sneap) and to Richie (Faulkner), those guys are very gracious, nice people, which was good. But it was sad that myself and Les were told before we went that we were guests of the band. But we didn’t think that that needed to happen at all really. But anyway, so yeah, I guess that was closure. So it’s great now.”

Downing doesn’t see a rivalry with Judas Priest (which is making its only local stop on April 27 at the Covelli Centre in Youngstown, Ohio).

“It’s not about any competition or whatever. Some bands seem to perceive that,” he said. “We’ve got two bands playing great music, and there’s lots more to come. It’s healthy as far as we’re concerned, because us dinosaurs — I’m talking about me now, not the other guys — we’re not going to be around forever. So let’s enjoy it all while we can.”