Former Judas Priest guitarist K.K. Downing spoke with Dean Pedley of The Midlands Rocks about why he left Judas Priest and how the music industry has changed over the years. Highlights from the article appear below.
Discussing British Steel:
“It’s always the hardest thing in the world to follow success, if I had a pound for every time someone has said to me why don’t you write another album like British Steel but the thing is you can’t – those songs have already been written. If the people that wrote it tried to sit down and write another one you would end up with a watered down version; you wouldn’t better it because it’s already out there, it would just sound like a poor copy.”
On why he left Judas Priest:
“I’ll never get away from this retirement thing, but what happened was that I quit, retired implies that I am not physically able to do it. I am able to do it but I didn’t want to do it; I just wasn’t enjoying it any more, a lot of things had changed. I think I counted about thirty reasons why I didn’t want to do it at the time and that is an awful lot of reasons. In all honesty, I think that in so many respects it had run its course. If you’re part of a songwriting team you get the recognition and reward for creating something, but for me Priest became about going out and playing live and replicating exactly what people had enjoyed ten, twenty or thirty years ago. The fans would be just as happy if they could see us bin all of the modern guitars we now play and take them on a walk down memory lane because I think that’s what people enjoy most. And I understand that because if I could go out now and see Eric Clapton with Cream then I would be the happiest person in the world.
One of the beautiful things about being in the industry was the ability to continue to invent and create, constructing songs and making good records. You do feel the need to be creative and that was taken away with the downloading thing and as you get older the balance of the scales starts to tip. So if you can’t be creative why would you want to continue to dedicate the time into something. I suppose if the industry was still healthy and people still had to spend their hard earned money buying a record it would be different, but if you give something away then it has no value. We used to buy an album and think well it’s not that good but I’ll play it a million times I’m sure I’ll get into it and now it doesn’t really get a second chance. In the past there was always the opportunity to create a record like Dark Side of the Moon or British Steel or Back In Black that would be one of those albums that would be indelible and people will always come back to. And I think that opportunity has gone now and I think it would take a miracle for one of those to happen again. If you consider an album like Nostradamus then if that had been released in 1978 then it would have been another Dark Side of the Moon but it is all about the timing. When you think about it in the early days we had the opportunity to write great songs, play great solos and have great vocal performances but people get used to it and it is hard now to get the reaction of “Wow, have you heard the new Priest album.” The industry has changed so much… I see companies that are repackaging and rehashing and that started happening to us and that was not a pretty thing to be a part of. It’s kind of duping the fans a bit because there are fans around the world that have got to have everything to complete their collection so even if there are only a few thousand of them if you put out a box collection it might be $100, which is a lot of dollars, and so for me that is something that I didn’t get into music for.”
Read the entire article at The Midlands Rocks.
source: themidlandsrocks.com
24 Responses
I agree with the general sentiment here about the bad effects that downloading, especially “free” downloading (i.e., stealing) has had on the industry and artists. However, I do enjoy my mp3 in one way. I use it to download (and yes I pay for the songs via Rhapsody or Amazon) songs that I like from bands that I don’t like or songs from bands that I like who put out a disappointing album. For example, I was never much of a fan of either Kid Rock or Poison, but like a few of their songs, so I’ve bought those 8 or 10 songs that I like for my mp3 player. Same with the few songs that I like on Judas Priest’s Turbo and Dio’s Lock Up the Wolves. I never bought either CD because I was disappointed with both. However, both CDs have a few good songs, and I’ve downloaded them. I really enjoy listening to the 450 or so songs that I’ve downloaded while I ride my bike, do yardwork, or clean up my man-cave/basement area downstairs when necessary.
I completely agree wtih K.K….downloading has killed the industry and has made it so difficult for bands to make any money selling “albums”. (it’s no shock that concerts are so expensive now a days..how else are they to make any money?) I will always buy the full cd. I want to know everything about the band, down to the type of bass guitar used. I used to love going to tower records and shopping for the best of metal and rock…now I can barely find anything unless I go to Amazon. it sucks!
On some level, the digital outlets for music could be a good thing – if people cared enough about buying a whole album. I’m talking about actually making a purchase, the whole pirating thing is a different animal and was happening long before the ITunes era. People just seem to buy the one song they hear on the radio. I couldn’t tell you the last time my wife bought a full album, it’s all singles. I’m the opposite, I never buy a single and always buy the album – but that’s how I grew up. Most of my favorite songs are “deep” album tracks. I can’t deny there is a benefit to the instant availability of music – don’t even need to get in the car just open up Amazon and a few clicks later it’s on my hard drive. But….. I think I’m going to go back to buying CDs. I do like having the artwork and liner notes, and since my car isn’t new I don’t have an IPod interface or USB port so I’m always feeding the CD changer. CDs burned from MP3’s don’t sound as good as “real” CDs. But, that might work for me and other people over 30 but I GUARANTEE you won’t get people younger than that to break away from just going to ITunes or other digital outlets. I really think in less than 10 years (maybe much sooner) you won’t be able to buy a physical copy anywhere. I wonder how many artists will even continue to produce full albums anymore. Just release a couple of songs now and then and tour? It could happen.
get rid of the internet and bring back record stores
Well said Steve, that why ticket prices are average 90-100 clams and a t-shirt is like another 40-50 . I miss those days walking into a record store and picking up what a wanted at the same time and more, Now its like logging on Amazon, going through purchasing process and then waiting almost like a week for it to come in the mail .
Good luck to you K K …thank for all you gave metal