In a new interview with DigBoston's Rob Duguay, Judas Priest bassist Ian Hill discusses how he started playing the bass, the early days of the band, his proudest moment as a member of Judas Priest, a new album that’s almost fully completed, and more. An excerpt from the chat follows...
Q: Being the sole original member of the band now, how would you describe the band’s evolution from the early ’70s to the present day and what are some of your proudest moments and accomplishments?
Ian Hill: "We’ve evolved a hell of a lot since the early days and we still are evolving, you never stop learning. If we have any sort of idea when we go into the studio to make a new record, we just try to make things different from the last one and make it better. Some bands find that formula, they stick with it and people love them for it, but we’ve always tried to be a little bit different with each album. Just listen to our first album Rocka Rolla and then listen to our latest one Firepower and the difference is immense. I’m not just talking about production either, the style of music, the way we played and even the scales we used are different.
"For proudest moments, there’s been loads of them over the past 50 years. I think the one that always stands out is when you see your record on the shelf, the first record. I remember walking into Turner’s Record Store on Paradise Street in West Bromwich and there it was on the shelf, Rocka Rolla right next to Cream, Hendrix, the Beatles, and the Rolling Stones. It was all the bands you love and all of your heroes, that’s when you know that if it all stops right now that’s never going to go away and I think that’s probably my proudest moment. There’s been other things along the way, playing the US Festival in the early ’80s was enormous with 340,000 people. Doing Live Aid was another one and we’ve won Grammys, had gold records, and things like that. They’re all very proud moments but that record, as poorly produced as it was, being placed among the greats in record stores was an immense thrill."
Read the complete interview at DigBoston.
Next month, Judas Priest will be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in the "Musical Excellence" category. The 37th Annual Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony takes place on Saturday, November 5, at 8 PM, PST at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California. The Ceremony will air at a later date on HBO and stream on HBO Max alongside a radio simulcast on SiriusXM’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Radio channel 310 and Volume channel 106.
Judas Priest's team have been in touch with former guitarist K.K. Downing and former drummer Les Binks - both of whom are also being inducted - and Rob Halford tells Ultimate Classic Rock, "everybody's been very cool and agreeing. There's just been [an attitude of], 'Let's just relish this opportunity and jam and put everything on 11.'"
Neither Halford nor Judas Priest's representatives could confirm yet whether Downing or Binks will be joining the band onstage during its Rock Hall performance, but Halford says both former members will be involved in some capacity, as well as late drummer and fellow inductee Dave Holland.
"We are gonna play live because there is all this roar: How are we gonna do it? Because we want to try and make the best things happen," the singer says. "So the best things to happen are to bring in all of the people that are included in the induction — which includes, obviously, K.K. and Les, and Dave. So, we've been able to work things out, so we will be playing live. We've got, like, eight minutes and 24 seconds and a half-second to play live."
He says, "We've got a couple of cool things that are gonna take place on the night that will be held under wraps like most people do because you don't want to give everything away. But yeah, look: A bunch of guys from the U.K., from the West Midlands, a Birmingham band of heavy metal, is being inducted into this great institution. So we're gonna make the most of it and have a great night out and live a lot of metal memories."
Read more at Ultimate Classic Rock.
The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame ceremony honors this year’s Inductees: Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo, Duran Duran, Eminem, Eurythmics, Dolly Parton, Lionel Richie, and Carly Simon, along with Judas Priest and Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis for Musical Excellence, and Harry Belafonte and Elizabeth Cotten for Early Influence, as well as Allen Grubman, Jimmy Iovine, and Sylvia Robinson for the Ahmet Ertegun Award.
Speaking with 107.7 RKR radio's Rocker Morning Show host Mark Frankhouse, Judas Priest drummer, Scott Travis, discusses the upcoming induction.
"Naturally, it's a super honor," says Travis. "I always felt that Priest would get in eventually, only because you can't have something called the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame and not have Judas Priest in it. So there were a couple of events prior to this year where we were nominated, I think that's the right word, I'm not sure... but we were in the running. And we didn't quite get in, but I was always confident. Priest will get in eventually, and same thing with some of the bands that aren't in yet, they will get in. But yeah, it's a super honour. There's not much else you can say about it, really. It's pretty cool."
Asked if the band will be performing at the ceremony, Travis reveals: "Yeah, we are. They give you a limited amount of time 'cause there's obviously lots of artists that are gonna be performing. So they gave us a set amount of time to perform. And we decided we're gonna try and work in,l ike a medley and do some of the Priest classics and put 'em all into a medley, which we've never done before. So it should be interesting."
(Photo - Chipster PR)
