Judas Priest – Rock Stars of the Silver Screen  (Sept.16)

Imagine this story. By day you are an office supply salesman, by night you sing in a tribute band for your favorite rock stars. A tribute band is much different than a cover band. In a cover band you play songs by a wide variety of artists. A tribute band means you only play the music of one band. There are thousands of tribute bands across the world, and each night they pay homage to their idols. They dress like them; they act like them and play their music note for note. Granted, to some this might sound a bit weird, but these tribute bands take their job very seriously and spend countless hours perfecting their craft.

One of the most famous heavy metal bands of the past three decades is Judas Priest from Birmingham, England. The year was 1970 and a small garage band named Earth started jamming after work and on weekends. The two main members were the twin guitar team of K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton. Bassist Ian Hill soon joined the band along with a number of drummers, too many to mention here. Al Atkins was the original vocalist and soon renamed the band Freight, but soon changed it to Judas Priest. The new name came from his favorite Bob Dylan song, “The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest.”

Atkins soon left the band to take a normal 9 to 5 job and a local lighting technician by the name of Rob Halford was hired as his replacement. Halford’s incredible vocal ability soon earned the band the attention of several record labels. The band chose CBS Records and started work on their debut album, “Rock-A-Rolla.” Appearances at several major European festivals cemented their fan base in the UK so they set their sites on America. Several classic metal albums, “Sad Wings of Destiny,” “Sin After Sin,” “Stained Class” and “British Steel,” quickly conquered the American rock fans.

By the early 80’s, albums like “Point of Entry” and the multi-platinum “Screaming for Vengeance” made them the biggest heavy metal band in the world, inspiring countless other young acts like Metallica and Pantera. Little did the band realize just how important a part the “Vengeance” album would play in their future? After several more albums that saw Priest turn their music toward a heavier sound, singer Rob Halford shocked the music world with two startling revelations. He had decided to leave the band to pursue a solo career and he admitted for the first time that he was gay. Naturally this left the band in dire straits and they were suddenly saddled with the task of finding a replacement for the departing Halford

Across the Atlantic Ocean, a young music fan by the name of Tim Owens would hear a copy of the “Screaming for Vengeance” album and become a huge Judas Priest fan. Owens was a normal kid living in Akron, Ohio and after hearing Judas Priest; he formed a tribute band called British Steel. One night during a show in a small club in Erie, Pennsylvania a girl in the audience videotaped Tim and his band. As fate would have it, this girl was Christa Lentine, the girlfriend of Judas Priest drummer Scott Travis. Tim was a friend of Christa’s but was unaware that she gave the videotape to Travis. Travis was visiting Christa but was heading back to England in a few days to help the band audition singers to replace Halford. He took the videotape with him when he left. The band literally listened to thousands of singers from all over the country and had narrowed it down to about a dozen before Scott remembered the videotape from America.

As guitarist Glenn Tipton explains the series of events, “We had narrowed down the search to 15 guys. Then Scott said we had to hear this guy from America who sang in British Steel. We put on his video and he was amazing! We couldn’t believe it. We phoned him up and said ‘you can’t be this good.’ Tim said ‘Fly me over and I'll do any Priest song you want me to.’ We flew him over 2 days later and asked him what he wanted to sing. He said ‘Just put up the first song on the reel.’ We put up "Victim of changes" and he sang the first verse. We gave him the job. We went on to play other songs with him including "Ripper" That's why we gave him his name. He's unbelievable"

That’s how a normal guy from small town America became the lead singer for one of the most popular rock bands in the world. Tim Owens became “Ripper” Owens and his life changed forever. The band just released their third album, “Demolition,” with Owens as their front man. “Jugalator” and “Live Meltdown” were done prior to “Demolition.” Due to the new interest in Judas Priest, Sony Records, their old label, has re-issued the back catalog with bonus tracks and new liner notes.

Sound like a Cinderella story comes true? Hollywood thought so. When a story about Owens ran in the New York Times, Tinsel Town came calling. Soon a screenplay was written and Mark Walberg and Jennifer Aniston were hired to star in the movie version of Owen’s amazing story. The movie was originally titled “Metal Gods,” but Rob Halford threatened to sue unless he was paid a percentage. It seems that he was writing an autobiography and intended to use “Metal Gods” as the title to his book. So, the name of the movie was changed to “Rock Star” and filming proceeded. The movie was released this past week to rave reviews.

Though not entirely true, it does follow the Tim Owens story very close. Many references are made in a subtle way to Rob Halford and the reasons he left the band. Actual musicians were used so the music you see and hear is the real deal. Walberg and Aniston play their parts very well and naturally the movie has a happy ending. As for Owens, he’s doing just fine. The new album is out and selling well. A world tour with Anthrax and Megadeth starts soon; they will be in Texas later this month. As Walberg says in the movie, “I was once just a regular guy with big dreams and now I’m living those dreams everyday. So never give up on your dreams ‘cause one day they just might come true.” Just ask Tim Owens, he’s living proof.