Was Priest's Ripper Owens period still Priest, or a band in neutral waiting for your return?

You could say the same thing when Bruce [Dickerson] was away from Iron Maiden, or Vince [Neil] was away from Motley Crue; it was still the band, it just didn't have all the wheels on the vehicle. That's not insulting, that's just...  I would never want this misconstrued as a bitch-slap, because Tim [Owens] is a great friend of mine, and he did wonderful things for Priest. Priest was still Priest. Priest was still going ahead. Thankfully it's all roaring on eight cylinders now.