Adam Gold of Nashville Cream recently conducted an interview with guitarist
Glenn Tipton of British heavy metal legends JUDAS PRIEST. A few excerpts from
the chat follow below.
Nashville Cream: Right, how would you say the "British Steel" record has aged
after three decades?
Tipton: Well, hopefully not very much. I mean one of the best compliments that's
ever been paid to PRIEST is that our music is fairly timeless and I think
["British Steel"] falls into that category. We can still go on stage and play
"Steeler" or "Rapid Fire" or "The Rage" and the audience really enjoys it, so I
suppose in a sense we're very lucky that our compositions have stood the test of
time.
Nashville Cream: Do you feel that the band gets better critical reception now
than it did 30 years ago?
Tipton: I wouldn't say it's a better reaction now, it's as good, but you know
we've always been a live act. It's never been us and the audience, it's the
whole thing and if you're going to watch a PRIEST show, you know the audience
sings along with the chorus, the verses, and even the lead breaks. So, we've
been fortunate, the reaction has always been good for PRIEST.
Nashville Cream: The short film "Heavy Metal Parking Lot" obviously cemented
your audience as part of rock 'n' roll lore, 23 years later how is the audience
you see at your shows today different from that audience in 1986?
Tipton: Well, we've been very fortunate that we've had a lot of young people
coming to the shows and we've got the older PRIEST fans that have been there
from day one and have been very loyal throughout the years, but we've got a lot
of young kids in the audience and some are brought by the parents or turned on
by the parents but others have discovered the band in their own right and it's
really surprising just how many young people are at PRIEST shows.
Nashville Cream: Do you listen to any contemporary metal bands?
Tipton: I listen to everything really. I listen to everything across the board:
melodic music, pop music, heavy metal, classical music, film themes. There's not
one area of music I concentrate on. I've always been the same, I have a very
wide attention span, if you like, for music and I pull my inspiration from many
areas.
Nashville Cream: On "British Steel" I noticed there are a lot of elements of
other genres besides metal, even reggae comes to mind. What would you say the
band's most un-metal influence was?
Tipton: You know it's difficult to say because obviously there are three main
writers in the band, Rob, K.K., and myself and we're very fortunate that there's
a very unique chemistry there on a writing level and we all draw inspiration
from different areas you know. I can't speak for Ken or Rob, I know that my
tastes are very diverse; I listen to film themes and things like that, so I
think that's the secret really. It's quite magical when we get in a room
together because we all have such diverse influences and we draw from many
areas, so when we get together there's a massive selection to draw from and some
pretty magical things happen when we get together.
Nashville Cream: I noticed you did a double record last year.
Tipton: That's right, yeah, Nostradamus.
Nashville Cream: Are you playing some songs off that at the show?
Tipton: Yeah, we're doing one at the moment. We use an intro, which is "Dawn of
Creation" and we play "Prophecy" but obviously that isn't what this tour is all
about, this is a 35-year celebration of PRIEST and that's why we're playing
"British Steel". As we've said before in one or two interviews the ambition, the
intention we have is to at some point play "Nostradamus" in its entirety. It's
something we'd really love to do. It's an mammoth task and we'd need to do a lot
of rehearsals, production rehearsals, but it's something we really would like to
do possibly next year or the year after.
Nashville Cream: Have you played the game Guitar Hero?
Tipton: I haven't played it myself, no...I've never played the game, but I think
it's a great idea. I think that in this day and age when you get video games
that advocate bad things like guns, violence, and drugs a lot, I think it's
great to have these games based around musical instruments like the guitar and
to encourage kids to pick up an instrument you know. I'm very much for that and
it's a great way to introduce kids to our music. It's an excellent idea.
Nashville Cream: The next reader wants to know if you have any preliminary plans
for the next studio album, and how many more albums you think you guys have left
in you.
Tipton: We haven't got any plans at the moment, but only because we never do. We
always finish a touring cycle first and this one will finish in Japan in October
and then we'll probably take a break through Christmas. Then next year we'll sit
down at the table and decide what we're going to do next. How many more albums
have we got in us? I'm not sure, you never know what's around the corner but at
the moment we've got a lot of energy and enthusiasm and we love every minute of
it. So, I'd be quite optimistic about that, but I can't say at the moment we
never do plan ahead, we've always been very spontaneous. |
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