The Rise Of The 'Ripper' Team Owens Sees Singers Like This

JAKARTA - In a new interview with DJ Ramo (a.k.a. Omar Rodriguez) from The Metal Mixtape, Tim "Ripper" Owens reaffirmed his commitment to singing all songs like the original recording, be it material from the former Judas Priest band or KK's new project Priest.

Speaking specifically about the recently released second album KK's Priest, The Sinner Rides Again, Owens said everything we heard on the album he could sing live. Like the original.

"I'm so sick of watching singers, and I don't care - I'm 56 years old, [and] I've seen singers in their 50s still can't do it. I'm sick of watching singers - I know they can do it, but they changed their songs; they took it down, made new melodies and reached a high tone for a moment," Owens opened.

"And it's like, 'Bung, sing what you wrote. Sing what you wrote.' I understand this is getting more and more difficult. But I can sing Sermons Of The Sinner. And these songs, the song KK's Priest is harder to sing from the classic Judas Priest song, unless maybe Metal Meltdown," he continued.

"I'm proud of whatever I did in the studio, I can do it live. I mean, listen, we opened the gate with Hellfire Thunderbolt, and if anyone hears it from this concert, from Hellfire Thunderbolt to One More Shot At Glory, and they sound like I'm getting on record."

"And that's another thing about singing like this one minute I want to be aggressive, one minute I want it to be high and clean, I want to be gentle and beautiful, but I can do all that directly."

"These songs are great for live, my friend," he added. I like to do this [in The Sinner Rides Again] even better than the first album [Sermons Of The Sinner in 2021]. One More Shot At Glory, Reach The Whirlwind, Strike Of The Viper - I mean, friend, it sounds good on live, guys. It's hard to believe. "

Regarding what he did so that he could sing the songs faithfully, Owens said: "Listen, I'm not warming up. It actually started with, are you a good live singer or not?... There's a song I just heard recently that it sounds made up. It doesn't mean it's a bad song, and it sounds good, but it doesn't even I can only hear where the song is put together and hears where the song uses an autotune. And that, like, you won't be able to sing it on stage. "