JUDAS PRIEST - Video Interview With K.K. Downing

JUDAS PRIEST - Exclusive Video Interview With K.K. Downing On Nonelouder.com

Nonelouder’s own Iann Robinson got the opportunity to speak with JUDAS PRIEST’s own K.K. Downing about their new album Nostradamus.

In the 20 minute video interview they talk a lot about the life and times of Nostradamus, “He [Nostradamus] requested to be buried standing up, I think that’s pretty cool! I’ll have a guitar in one hand and pint of beer in the other!” –K.K.

Downing goes on to say about how great it is to be playing with the other bands on the upcoming tour, “If I go and see a band, I would like good value for my money, I would like to see a bunch of bands that I really want to see.”

You can check out the exclusive video on the main page of www.Nonelouder.com now, or search for Judas Priest in the Nonelouder search bar.

JUDAS PRIEST - Back-Stage With K.K. Downing In Munich; Video Available

A new video featuring JUDAS PRIEST guitarist K.K. Downing backstage at the band's June 24th concert in Munich, Germany is available online - watch it below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoxPr5IeV2A&eurl=http://www.bravewords.com/news/93544

BW&BK sat down with Downing and fellow Judas Priest guitarist Glenn Tipton recently to chat about their new conceptual monster Nostradamus. Both molten men discussed the possibilities of performing the album in its entirety on the road at some point in time in the future.

"We do want to perform it in its entirety next year at special venues around the world like Carnegie Hall (in Manhattan), the Royal Albert Hall (London), the Sydney Opera House (Sydney)," Tipton reveals. "If we can pull that off it will be very exciting. It's very ambitious - we'll need other musicians like backing vocalists for the choral sections, maybe a keyboard player or some sort of orchestration. Make the whole thing an event, not just a rock band with orchestration, but Nostradamus in his own character. If we can pull it off it will be very exciting. It's all based around his life story. Rather than his prophecies, the whole project is more about a guy from the 1500s who certainly left his mark. He was a special dude. Although he foresaw the plague, he couldn't save his wife and daughters, they died. And the church came after him which as inevitable - he got kicked out, exiled, then he found a new love and a new life. His life in itself was really interesting - that's what inspired us really. It really inspired us to go down paths we'd never gone down before, and couldn't have done on a normal Judas Priest album. But for some reason it's still a Judas Priest album. It's pretty awe-inspiring really. He foresaw it, he foretold it obviously."

Downing adds about the road-worthy nature of Nostradamus: "It's on our mind as well, the fact that some say we might be able to put on a fabulous production and perform the album in it's entirety, with some really cool visuals as a musical. That was always a possibility, not that it matters completely. What you get now is what you get to evaluate and not what might happen in the future. But this summer tour is going to be great. We'll be playing all the festivals in Europe and we have the Priest, HEAVEN & HELL and MOTÖRHEAD tour - we're pumped up about it. We'll be quite pacified by playing a coupla things from Nostradamus on that. We'll be playing some killer songs we haven't played in a long time, so the fans can go pretty wild over that. It's going to be a good world tour this year. A lot depends on how the record is perceived as to what we'll do in the future."

When asked if the band would be accompanied by orchestra, Downing comments: "It would be great initially to bring a fully-fledged orchestra with us, but for us to play a lot of the parts with the equipment we've got to do it, to showcase that would be good. In the Royal Albert Hall possibly, venues like that around the world. Whether it will happen or not, but it would be really good to film that. But we could also take it out on the road ourselves with a couple of really good keyboard players like Don Airey (DEEP PURPLE)."

JUDAS PRIEST - New Audio Interview With KK DOWNING

JUDAS PRIEST guitarist KK Downing is featured in a new audio interview conducted by K-97's Mike Diesel on July 27th in Edmonton, Alberta. Check it out below

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d66kntE7-7k&eurl=http://www.bravewords.com/news/94295

JUDAS PRIEST Guitarist K.K. Downing Comments On Current State Of The Biz - "The Main Thing Is We Keep Music Alive"


The Metal Masters Tour with JUDAS PRIEST, HEAVEN AND HELL, MOTÖRHEAD and TESTAMENT is in full swing across North America. BW&BK spoke with Priest guitar legend K.K. Downing recently about the tour.

"It's interesting times out there and tricky times and it's very important to put something together that the fans really want," he explains. "This is by no means an Ozzfest, but the live performance is really becoming a big part of everybody's life, the fans and the bands. It's a healthy situation - put the right package together and people will come. It's very important we work with promoters and keep music alive. We all know about the free music downloading that's been pretty crippling to say the least. It is a big worry for new bands moreso than anything else. For new bands to get signed it's virtually impossible, because the record companies don't have the funding. We're better off than most because people still buy our records, but for new bands, younger bands, their material just gets downloaded. It's just really, really tough. So how do we turn it around? It's going to be difficult, but the main thing is we keep music alive. That's what is important and that's why bands are working together promoters to try and make it all work and it's looking pretty healthy. This time around in North America we just wanted to put together as good a package as we can for people. Just for once we wanted to put a good, classic line-up together and have a really good tour. Some times we've gone out with younger bands on the bill and it hasn't been the best marriage. It's great to give an introduction to new bands - all the festivals we are doing in Europe, there are tons and tons of new bands. We just wanted to have a really good metal tour."

Judas Priest currently grace the cover of BW&BK #111 - click here for more info.

Check out a Metal Masters Tour gallery here.

(Photo by Mark Gromen)