Former JUDAS PRIEST and ICED EARTH singer Tim “Ripper” Owens joined the Ohio metal band FRACTURE on stage on January 30 at Tim Owens’ Travelers Tavern in Akron, Ohio to perform the PRIEST classic “Electric Eye”. Video footage of his appearance can be seen below.
Owens recorded two studio albums with JUDAS PRIEST — 1997’s “Jugulator” and 2001’s “Demolition” — before the band reunited with Rob Halford.
Asked in a recent interview about being accused by some JUDAS PRIEST fans of changing the band’s sound to a more brutal, modern direction on “Jugulator”, Owens said: “Listen, if it’s my fault that JUDAS PRIEST changed, then whose fault is it….? Every record JUDAS PRIEST puts out is different. I mean, ‘Nostradamus’ sounds nothing like JUDAS PRIEST ever wrote, ever. ‘Turbo’ sounded nothing like JUDAS PRIEST. You know, JUDAS PRIEST changes. They wrote ‘Painkiller’, and ‘Jugulator’ was a transition; it was kind of following what was going on. You’ve gotta remember, JUDAS PRIEST always went with the times a little bit. Glenn started playing arpeggios. PANTERA was really big [at the time]. [On the] ‘Painkiller’ [tour], they toured with PANTERA; PANTERA opened for JUDAS PRIEST. ‘Painkiller’ was a heavy record, and this was a natural progression. The difference is I probably had a few more different layers to my voice that they could tap into — some deeper, death metal kind of undertones to do backups and some different types of voices that they might be able to try. But it was JUDAS PRIEST. You’ve gotta remember: I’m a big fan of JUDAS PRIEST — still am and always was — so me listening to ‘Jugulator’ and ‘Demolition’, as a fan, I would be, ‘This is great. This is great JUDAS PRIEST stuff.’ And as JUDAS PRIEST continued without me, as a fan, I would really look back on the ‘Jugulator’ record and [go], ‘Man, that was some great stuff.’ It was JUDAS PRIEST, you know. I mean, not everybody liked ‘Turbo’. Some fans did; some didn’t. I love JUDAS PRIEST, because they change.”
Tim Owens’ Travelers Tavern is the bar and restaurant co-owned by Owens.
Tim Owens’ Travelers Tavern (formerly Ripper’s Rock House) was featured in a November 2015 episode of “Bar Rescue”, the Spike TV series in which bar consultant Jon Taffer dispenses advice to the owners and staff of struggling operations.
Source: Blabbermouth
