Ian Hill Interview

Arthur Karras of Australia's Beat magazine recently conducted an interview with JUDAS PRIEST bassist Ian Hill. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow.

On the "Nostradamus" concept album:

"It's a massive piece of work for us. After the 'Angel Of Retribution' album we were glad to have Rob Halford back in the band after a decade away. He is JUDAS PRIEST. As a band we started to write new material, when our manager came up with the idea of a concept album on the life and times of Nostradamus. We all kind of laughed initially, but K.K., Glenn and Rob really got stuck into the project and it was like watching them go back to school. The research was exhaustive.

"We haven't all come out of it devotees to the man, and I still think a lot of it is possibly a load of crap, but as a story of a man, it's an immense one and musically it's been such a challenge and progression for us. After all these years in this business it's great to have that feeling. Oh… by the way the world ends in 2014, so don't bother paying off any mortgages or debts — go and have the time of your life."

"There are 14 definitive songs over the two albums, but there are several links and orchestral passages and the albums are designed to be listened to as a body of work. It's not a pop album with three hit jingles, it's a massive body of work designed to be listened to in one sitting. Fans might hear some things they haven't heard before with the choral pieces, the orchestration, but make no mistake about it, this is still a JUDAS PRIEST record and, of course, it's still going to be heavy."

On whether it's true he discovered Rob Halford by dating his sister:

"I was definitely dating his sister many moons ago. She told me she had a brother who wanted to sing and after a few trials and tribulations K.K. and I decided to check out this Rob guy, purely as a favour to my girl at the time. I did more than date her, I ended up marrying her. Although we're divorced now, we do have a beautiful son in his 20s called Alex."

On why he doesn't bother writing songs anymore:

"I leave it to the trio of core songwriters. I used to write in the early days and some of my songs made it onto the albums. I think Glenn, K.K. and Rob form a great writing relationship and I don't want to upset the apple kart. Even on this project I didn't really get too heavily involved. I waited for them to tell me what bits I needed to play and off we went. Even Halford showed up pretending he's interested, but left most of the work to K.K. and Glenn who were immersed in the project."

On being part of a band that has defined a genre and spawned countless imitators:

"We are very proud of what we have achieved. When I formed this band way back in 1970 I had no grand plan. K.K. Downing and I were just mates from school that wanted to play some music. We have a great family among us and like family we have our good and bad days, but without sounding nostalgic, yeah, it's pretty cool what we have achieved." 


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