“I’m Going Through Exactly The Same Thing”

Founding Judas Priest guitarist Okay.Okay. Downing finally left the band in 2011 and issues have apparently been tough.

In an audio message despatched to Blabbermouth, Downing mentioned he sympathizes with Mötley Crüe guitarist Mick Mars, who is currently suing his bandmates over monetary disputes, allegedly pre-recorded reside exhibits, being fired from the band, and accusations of gaslighting. Downing mentioned he sympathizes with Mars as he is experiencing “precisely the identical factor,” and that he was requested to jot down an EP for Judas Priest round 2010 when the band was headed out for a farewell tour. Upon refusing to take action – “I definitely did not need to end my profession with an EP – Downing introduced his retirement from the band.

“I do sympathize [with Mick], as a result of I am going by means of precisely the identical factor. And it is fairly unsavory, to say the least. After spending a lifetime constructing the band’s identify, repute, reputation and worth, particularly model identify, it ought to be all proper for folks to retire, particularly by means of sickness.

“In my case, we have been gearing up in 2010 to do a ultimate world tour, the ‘Epitaph’ tour, which was meant to be the tip of the band. And since I used to be having stress placed on me to jot down for an EP to assist that tour, which I completely was not gonna be any a part of… I definitely did not need to end my profession with an EP. So I threw the towel in and despatched a retirement letter in.”

Downing then mentioned one of many causes he did not go together with the band on tour was that he believed Rob Halford was about to give up the band and do Halford full time.

Downing‘s sympathy for Mars appears to be rooted in the truth that he feels he was screwed out of the band’s legacy, as he by no means mentions (or it wasn’t revealed that he talked about) pre-recorded reside exhibits or being made out to be a poor guitarist. Downing additionally would not explicitly carry up monetary conditions or any accusations that he wasn’t paid correctly.

Downing mentioned he firmly believed that Judas Priest was calling it quits after their tour, and that his retirement was basically simply selecting to not do the tour. As he places it, “In any other case issues and choices could properly have been totally different.”

“There was an entire set of circumstances for me not doing the ultimate tour. And one of many most important issues [was] we have been attending to be involved about Rob and we thought that he was gearing up, prepared to go away [the band] once more. As a result of in 2010, when all this was happening, the planning of the farewell tour and ending the band, the justification was that Rob just about inside 12 months [in] 2010 had launched two studio albums together with his personal band and had carried out a world tour, together with Ozzfest. And we have been very a lot pondering that Rob, together with his personal supervisor, would go separate methods once more. And that was one other critical consideration.

“I actually needed to say that as a result of it actually wasn’t the band I used to be leaving; it was simply I made a decision to not do the farewell, ultimate tour of the band, as a result of that is what all of us agreed and that is what was supposed to occur. So basically my determination was simply to not do the ultimate tour of the band. In fact I did not know that the band would proceed, at the moment, proper up till immediately. In any other case issues and choices could properly have been totally different. However, as I mentioned, I sympathize with Mick as a result of the circumstances between the 2 of us appear to be just about… properly, similar.”

It is price mentioning that Downing just lately re-joined Judas Priest for their induction into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame.