JUDAS PRIEST frontman Rob Halford has fired back at his
replacement, Tim "Ripper" Owens, over the latter's remarks to the
French magazine Rock Hard in which he accused Halford of
returning to his metal roots in order to cash in on metal's popularity and
attempt to save face following the commercial failure of his FIGHT and
TWO projects.
"I don't consider it that I turned my back to metal with FIGHT and
TWO," Rob told Rock Hard. "It is a very negative way to see things. I
look at it [FIGHT and TWO] as a necessary moment in my career
that helped me find my way back. It's like, if you go to the same place
for a vacation each time, when you get there you know you're gonna
feel comfortable. Then you say one year, 'I'm gonna go to a different
place.' You go to a different place and it's exciting, and it's unusual but
you don't feel comfortable. So you end up going to the same place you
used to go. That's basically how I felt with my departure from
PRIEST. You are not me, you can't possibly understand what was
going through my mind, my spirit and my soul at that time. What you
got was the music but I still don't feel that conveyed what was really
going on in my head and my heart. So, I think I had a lot of fucking
balls to do what I did! But it was not about saying, 'Fuck you, I'm
gonna do this.' It was just a necessary process as a creative musician.
So, if Tim says I turned his back on metal because FIGHT was a
failure and TWO was a failure, two commercial disasters, that I just
went back to metal because that's where I make my money and my
living⦠Fuck you, Tim! Because that's not what happened, and
without me you would not be in JUDAS PRIEST."
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replacement, Tim "Ripper" Owens, over the latter's remarks to the
French magazine Rock Hard in which he accused Halford of
returning to his metal roots in order to cash in on metal's popularity and
attempt to save face following the commercial failure of his FIGHT and
TWO projects.
"I don't consider it that I turned my back to metal with FIGHT and
TWO," Rob told Rock Hard. "It is a very negative way to see things. I
look at it [FIGHT and TWO] as a necessary moment in my career
that helped me find my way back. It's like, if you go to the same place
for a vacation each time, when you get there you know you're gonna
feel comfortable. Then you say one year, 'I'm gonna go to a different
place.' You go to a different place and it's exciting, and it's unusual but
you don't feel comfortable. So you end up going to the same place you
used to go. That's basically how I felt with my departure from
PRIEST. You are not me, you can't possibly understand what was
going through my mind, my spirit and my soul at that time. What you
got was the music but I still don't feel that conveyed what was really
going on in my head and my heart. So, I think I had a lot of fucking
balls to do what I did! But it was not about saying, 'Fuck you, I'm
gonna do this.' It was just a necessary process as a creative musician.
So, if Tim says I turned his back on metal because FIGHT was a
failure and TWO was a failure, two commercial disasters, that I just
went back to metal because that's where I make my money and my
living⦠Fuck you, Tim! Because that's not what happened, and
without me you would not be in JUDAS PRIEST."
****************************************
