K.K. DOWNING On JUDAS PRIEST's Jugulator And Demolition Albums Being Unavailable To The Public - "It Doesn't Make Sense"

Guesting on The Jasta Show, hosted by Hatebreed frontman Jamey Jasta, former Judas Priest guitarist K.K. Downing commented on the fact that the band's Jugulator (1997) and Demolition (2001) albums - are no longer available to the public. Both records feature vocalist Tim "Ripper" Owens, Rob Halford's replacement.

Downing: "CMC (International) and the guys that were the labels are defunct now, so the rights to the albums reverted back to us, Judas Priest. I'm a 25 percent shareholder (in the band) but I don't have a say in what goes on. I was a director and they kicked me off the board because there's three of them and one of me, which is a bit mean. I would fight for the right every day to have those albums (available) because I'm a part of them. The ongoing fight to have those albums in a public domain is something I feel very, very strong about, and obviously Ripper does, and everybody should that played on those records. Why would you denounce albums that you spent years working on or were a part of? It doesn't make any sense."

Back in 2018, a Facebook user and fan of former Judas Priest vocalist Tim "Ripper" Owens recently posted the following message on Owens' official Facebook page:

Dear Mr Owens, it has come to mine & thousands of other fans attention that there are Judas Priest albums on Vinyl that has been deleted off the production print line for quite a number of years now & 4 out of the 5 albums are yours that have been deleted from print production are as follows :

1. Jugulator - 1997
2. 98 Live Meltdown - 1998 
3. Demolition - 2001 
4. Live In London - 2003

Could you please get onto the record companies & ask them to re-release all ( 5 Priest Albums ) on vinyl again for the fans?

Many thanks

Kind Regards,
Mr Alexander King

To which Owens responded:

"Yep. Great to see my time in JP has erased and my CDs and ME from their past! Well, I haven’t forgotten my past and I will be working on re-recording the studio CDs and releasing them myself! Why not?"

(Photo - Mark Gromen)