TIM 'RIPPER' OWENS: Why I Would Consider Re-Recording JUDAS PRIEST's 'Jugulator' And 'Demolition'

Tim “Ripper” Owens says that he would consider re-recording the albums he made with JUDAS PRIEST because he wants to make sure that the music they created together is available to the public.

The Ohio-based singer created two studio albums with the British heavy metal legends — 1997’s “Jugulator” and 2001’s “Demolition” — before the band reunited with Rob Halford.

Asked by “Rock Talk With Mitch Lafon” about his recent claim that his time with PRIEST has been “erased” from the band’s history, Owens said (hear audio below): “Every time I end up saying that, it’s because I get two, three, four, five messages or texts or tweets or whatever in a row saying, ‘I can’t find this, ‘They don’t play that,’ and I think I always go, ‘Ah, man. I’m not even there.’ I think the last time I said something, they just totally erased me off the web site.

“My issue is I would like to buy the records,” he continued. “I’d like to buy some to even sell when I’m touring solo, but you can’t when they’re kind of gone. And that’s only the thing I talk about… If they were out there, I could maybe buy ’em at cost and sell ’em at my concerts. That would be kind of cool. Then I’d have my whole catalog.”

Tim went on to say that he “understands” why PRIEST doesn’t go out of its way to promote the records he produced with the band. “I’m not asking to have my face on a backdrop, and I don’t think any fan is either,” he said. “They just kind of wanna have a little glimpse of it, maybe a little mention of it.

“When there’s a 50-year kind of reunion or whatever, when you have these things come up, you would like to hear some previous bandmembers mentioned in a breath along that,” he added. “That being said, though, I’m friends all of ’em. I love all the guys — Rob included. We’re all friends. But I only say that when the fans come at me all the time and bombard me with it.”

Owens also lamented the fact that the current version of PRIEST has never performed any songs from his time with the group.

“No band goes back and plays a ton of stuff, but it would be nice to hear, every now and then, ‘Burn In Hell’ live,” he said. “I mean, that would be kind of cool. ‘Cause, listen, it was a pretty big song. Of course, we weren’t as big as when Rob was in the band, because it was 1997, 1998, 1999 when no [metal] bands could play anywhere. That’s how it was in that era.”

He continued: “I play the songs live. You wanna see the songs live? You wanna see ‘Cathedral Spires’ or ‘Blood Stained’ or ‘Burn In Hell’ or ‘One On One’ or ‘Hell Is Home’, just come to my show. All you JUDAS PRIEST fans, you wanna hear the stuff? I play them at my show, along with ‘Scream Machine’ and all my songs. You can come to my concerts, ’cause I do play ’em.”

As for his previous comment that he would possibly re-record the material from “Jugulator” and “Demolition” and release it independently under his own name, Owens said: “I would only do it because you can’t buy [the original records]. You can’t get ‘Jugulator’ unless you find a used copy. But I probably wouldn’t. First of all, I’ve gotta have time to do it. I do play it live, so I’d probably record it in the U.K. with my band. SANDSTONE is there, from Ireland — I’d probably do it with those guys, ’cause they already know almost the whole both records. But that’s the only reason I would do it, so those songs could be bought again.”

Fonte: Blabbermouth.net