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steve harris
ELLEFSON: ‘STEVE HARRIS Opened My Eyes To What A Bass Player Could Do’
In a brand new interview with TheMusicBiz.org, MEGADETH bassist ...
IRON MAIDEN: STEVE HARRIS Signature Bass Strings Improved By ROTOSOUND
Top British string manufacturer Rotosound has improved its Steve Harrissignature bass strings using a new burnishing process. The new upgraded strings have a sm...
Steve Harris – British Lion
No introductions needed for Steve Harris, the leader, bassist and soul of the Heavy Metal Gods, Iron Maiden. The debut album took it's name by the band that Richard Taylor and Grahame Leslie were members of
STEVE HARRIS Doesn’t Think IRON MAIDEN Has Another 10 Years Left
John Doran of The Quietus recently conducted an interview with IRON MAIDEN bassist Steve Harris.
DOWNING DOESN’T REGRET LEAVING PRIEST
Former JUDAS PRIEST guitarist Kenneth "K.K." Downing says that he has no regrets about leaving the band but admits that he misses "being at the pinnacle" of the group's career.
Downing, who is a founding member of the British heavy metal legends and was part of the group since 1969, announced his retirement from PRIEST in April 2011. He has since been replaced by Richie Faulkner, most recently guitarist in the backing band for Lauren Harris (daughter of IRON MAIDEN bassist Steve Harris).
Speaking about his decision to leave PRIEST, Downing told DigitalJournal.com: "I felt that a lot of the spark wasn't there — for whatever reason — anymore on stage. I felt that I had it, but I felt it wasn't what I originally signed up for...
"I always thought that JUDAS PRIEST should have been a high-energy outfit and ultra-sharp, but I wasn't enjoying it as much on stage as I should have been.
"All that travelling and living out of a suitcase and spending so much time in planes, vans, cars and trains, you have to really enjoy the concerts. You have to musically get on a high and that carries you through, but if you're not enjoying it like you should, then it becomes a lot of hard work because you've still got to do the interviews and be pushed and pulled around the place."
Asked if he has ever regretted his decision to leave, Downing said: "I don't regret leaving, because, to me, I thought that it had run its course. I miss what we had, but I don't particularly miss what we had become when I left… You can look at YouTube and see JUDAS PRIEST playing at the US Festival, or at Live Aid, and I miss being at the pinnacle of the band. I miss that energy and youthfulness and just delivering all of that up.
"You become a certain age and I think that I would have been happy if, as I said, I was enjoying the shows. There's disagreements with how things should be done and I thought if I'm outnumbered, then it's time to go...
"But I suppose we did fantastically well. I mean 40 years is great and I commend the guys for going back out. I was just watching a bit of their first concert of the tour in Rochester, New York, and it was great. Band sounded good and I'm happy that they continue.
"I sent an email saying 'good luck with the new tour, guys' to the management office. I do wish them well and I commend them highly for being out there and carrying on the legacy."
Downing also revealed that he is about to release a new line of fragrances called Metal For Men and Metal Pour Femme through a partnership with the UK digital radio station Planet Rock. "That's something else I've thought of in my sleep," he explained. "Don't ask me why! You see these people do a fragrance from the pop world and stuff like that, but nobody's actually catering for rock and metal fans, so I thought I'd solve the headache of what to buy for Christmas type of thing..."
JUDAS PRIEST singer Rob Halford and guitarist Glenn Tipton recently said that there were no plans for Downing to rejoin the band on the road anytime soon, despite Internet chatter to the contrary. Asked by New York radio personality and VH1 Classic "That Metal Show" co-host Eddie Trunk if there was any truth to the rumor that Downing was at one point going to contribute to the songwriting process for the band's new album, "Redeemer Of Souls", and possibly play some shows with the group alongside his replacement, Faulkner, Tipton said: "There's no plans for that. Ken didn't get involved in the writing of the album and there are no plans for him to join us on tour."
He continued: "I mean, Ken was quite honest when he left. He made it clear to us that he wanted limited conection with us because he didn't wanna try and get us to talk him into going back into the band. And we honored his request, really."
Added Halford: "That's the way the social media works. People think if they read something on the Internet, it's true. [laughs] 'Well, it's on the Internet. I mean, it's on the Internet.' It's just one of these unfortunate rumors that kind of put things into people's minds."
Downing in 2011 shot down as "inaccurate" reports that he left JUDAS PRIEST because he chose to concentrate on running the 18- and nine-hole golf courses on his property.
GLENN TIPTON On ‘Epitaph’ Tour Being JUDAS PRIEST’s Farewell: ‘We Lied’
JUDAS PRIEST singer Rob Halford says that the addition of guitarist Richie Faulkner to the band's lineup largely contributed to PRIEST's decision to hit the road again four years after the legendary British heavy metal group announced its "farewell" tour.
Asked if people may have misconstrued what JUDAS PRIEST said in late 2010 about not wanting to do any more extensive touring ever again, PRIEST guitarist Glenn Tipton said during an appearance on last week's "Rockline": "We, uh, lied. [laughs] The statement we made was we’re gonna do no more world tours. As we said before, it takes a massive chunk out of your life. It's pretty arduous out there — almost two years, the last one, playing two and a half hours every night, four or five shows a week. But we enjoyed every second of it. And we said that at the end of it, we weren't gonna do any more world tours, but we didn’t' rule out any dates. And we just got so enthused with the new album and everything that we put some dates in and we'll see where it goes from there."
Asked by "Rockline" host Bob Coburn if it's fair to say retirement didn't work out for the band at all, Tipton replied: "We lied. We lied. We didn't mean to." Halford added: "Actually, it's Richie Faulkner's fault; let's blame Richie. We can't overemphasize the importance of having Richie with us at this point in our career."
He continued: "When Richie joined us for the 'Epitaph' tour, extraordinary things were happening night after night after night. And that, accompanied with some of the things that Richie was doing backstage before the show, laying down licks with his little portable recording gear, it was just this energy that was just out of control. So, naturally, when you come off a tour like that and you digest everything, you're just raring to go and we couldn't wait to get into the writing mode and start making music for [the new JUDAS PRIEST album] 'Redeemer Of Souls' together."
Faulkner joined PRIEST in 2011 following the departure of the band's founding axeman Kenneth "K.K." Downing.
Prior to hooking up with PRIEST, Faulkner was the guitarist in the backing band for Lauren Harris, daughter of IRON MAIDEN bassist Steve Harris.
JUDAS PRIEST's 17th studio album, "Redeemer Of Souls", sold around 32,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 6 on The Billboard 200 chart.
The band's 2008 double-disc concept album, "Nostradamus", shifted 42,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at No. 11.
JUDAS PRIEST's 2005 CD, "Angel of Retribution", premiered with 58,000 copies in the U.S. to enter the chart at No. 13.
JUDAS PRIEST To Reveal First Details Of Their New Studio Album Next Week?
British heavy metal legends JUDAS PRIEST have launched a countdown suggesting that they will reveal more information about their much-anticipated new studio album in five days via their official web site, JudasPriest.com.
Speaking to Artisan News at last month's VIP listening party for the Ronnie James Dio tribute album "This Is Your Life" and awards gala at the Avalon in Hollywood, California, JUDAS PRIEST singer Rob Halford stated about the band's new CD: "The record is finished; it's absolutely finished as of today." He added: "It's a relief. It's a relief because whenever PRIEST makes an album, like any band, you put your heart and soul into it; it is that typical 'blood, sweat and tears.' It's not an easy thing to do 40 years later. But PRIEST has always been up for the challenge of that, and it's one of things that we love to do more than anything else as we move on through our metal years. So this is a great time for PRIEST: 40th anniversary, a brand new record. Life couldn't be better."
In a 2013 interview with Billboard.com, Halford described the new PRIEST CD's sound as "hard. It's heavy. It's something we think our PRIEST fans will be thrilled with. We know we have a reputation to maintain, and we know we have to deliver something really strong and solid. The album is going to be full of all the great things you love about JUDAS PRIEST — I don't think I can say anything more than that without being hung, drawn and quartered."
Speaking to VH1 Radio Network's Dave Basner, Halford said about what fans can expect from JUDAS PRIEST's next LP: "We felt it was very important to follow up [2008's] 'Nostradamus', the last release, and that was a concept experiment and it was a real success for us and the fans loved it, but I think our fans and ourselves as a band, we want to get back to the side of PRIEST that we haven't heard for a few years and reemphasize and remake those big, heavy metal statements again."
PRIEST's next album will mark the band's first release with Richie Faulkner, most recently guitarist in the backing band for Lauren Harris (daughter of IRON MAIDEN bassist Steve Harris).
Faulkner joined PRIEST as the replacement for original PRIEST guitarist Kenneth "K.K." Downing, who announced his retirement from the band in April 2011.
Asked how it has been collaborating on new music with Faulkner, Halford told Guitar World in a 2012 interview: "Really, really strong. Exciting. He's riffing and saying, 'Robby, I'm thinking of this and this and this.' It's really exciting to have that kind of energy, because you feed off of it."
He added: "[Richie] went through the ritual on [the 'Epitaph'] tour, did great work on stage, the fans embraced him, so it's now time to see what we're capable of, the writing trio of Glenn [Tipton] and Richie and myself."
Regarding whether technology has changed JUDAS PRIEST's songwriting process at all, Halford said: "It's dangerous to walk around with a flash drive on a bunch of keys. [Laughs] To a great extent, it doesn't really change. The technology is amazing in terms of the advantages it brings to music now, some of it good, some of it very bad. It's all about discipline and self-belief, determination, wanting to do the best you can do and not accepting anything that's below par. We've always had that attitude in PRIEST. We've always felt really strongly about any track that goes out for our fans. We're still doing it like we always have: firing up the riffs and finding a vocal melody to go with it, me going into me wonderful world of the Roget's Thesaurus and trying to come up with a new lyric and a new idea. And that's what we've been doing for four decades."
Photo credit: Stephanie Cabral
ROB HALFORD: New JUDAS PRIEST Album Is ‘Absolutely Finished’
British heavy metal legends JUDAS PRIEST have completed work on their brand new studio album, to be released later in the year.
Speaking to Artisan News at last night's (Monday, March 17) VIP listening party for the Ronnie James Dio tribute album "This Is Your Life" and awards gala at the Avalon in Hollywood, California, JUDAS PRIEST singer Rob Halford stated about the band's new CD (see video below): "The record is finished; it's absolutely finished as of today." He added: "It's a relief. It's a relief because whenever PRIEST makes an album, like any band, you put your heart and soul into it; it is that typical 'blood, sweat and tears.' It's not an easy thing to do 40 years later. But PRIEST has always been up for the challenge of that, and it's one of things that we love to do more than anything else as we move on through our metal years. So this is a great time for PRIEST: 40th anniversary, a brand new record. Life couldn't be better."
In a 2013 interview with Billboard.com, Halford described the new PRIEST CD's sound as "hard. It's heavy. It's something we think our PRIEST fans will be thrilled with. We know we have a reputation to maintain, and we know we have to deliver something really strong and solid. The album is going to be full of all the great things you love about JUDAS PRIEST — I don't think I can say anything more than that without being hung, drawn and quartered."
Speaking to VH1 Radio Network's Dave Basner, Halford said about what fans can expect from JUDAS PRIEST's next LP: "We felt it was very important to follow up [2008's] 'Nostradamus', the last release, and that was a concept experiment and it was a real success for us and the fans loved it, but I think our fans and ourselves as a band, we want to get back to the side of PRIEST that we haven't heard for a few years and reemphasize and remake those big, heavy metal statements again."
PRIEST's next album will mark the band's first release with Richie Faulkner, most recently guitarist in the backing band for Lauren Harris (daughter of IRON MAIDEN bassist Steve Harris).
Faulkner joined PRIEST as the replacement for original PRIEST guitarist Kenneth "K.K." Downing, who announced his retirement from the band in April 2011.
Asked how it has been collaborating on new music with Faulkner, Halford told Guitar World in a 2012 interview: "Really, really strong. Exciting. He's riffing and saying, 'Robby, I'm thinking of this and this and this.' It's really exciting to have that kind of energy, because you feed off of it."
He added: "[Richie] went through the ritual on [the 'Epitaph'] tour, did great work on stage, the fans embraced him, so it's now time to see what we're capable of, the writing trio of Glenn [Tipton] and Richie and myself."
Regarding whether technology has changed JUDAS PRIEST's songwriting process at all, Halford said: "It's dangerous to walk around with a flash drive on a bunch of keys. [Laughs] To a great extent, it doesn't really change. The technology is amazing in terms of the advantages it brings to music now, some of it good, some of it very bad. It's all about discipline and self-belief, determination, wanting to do the best you can do and not accepting anything that's below par. We've always had that attitude in PRIEST. We've always felt really strongly about any track that goes out for our fans. We're still doing it like we always have: firing up the riffs and finding a vocal melody to go with it, me going into me wonderful world of the Roget's Thesaurus and trying to come up with a new lyric and a new idea. And that's what we've been doing for four decades."
ANVIL: Entire ‘Hope In Hell’ Album Available For Streaming
"Hope In Hell", the new album from Canadian metal legends ANVIL, can be streamed in its entirety using the SoundCloud widget below. Due on May 27 in Europe and May 24 in Germany on SPV/Steamhammer, the follow-up to 2011's "Juggernaut Of Justice" will be available in four different formats: as a limited-edition digipak including two bonus tracks, as a jewel case CD, double gatefold colored vinyl LP and as a digital download. These are the first cuts featuring ANVIL's new bassist Sal Italiano, who joined the band a year ago.
"We're really happy with Sal. His style is powerful and amazingly imaginative," says ANVIL guitarist/vocalist Steve "Lips" Kudlow, who composed the entire album along with drummer Robb Reiner. "It's a little as if we'd enlisted Steve Harris."
"Hope In Hell" was written and recorded following an 18-month world tour which took ANVIL around the globe. "We hadn't expected this kind of extensive tour when we brought out 'Juggernaut Of Justice'," Kudlowconfesses. "Time just flew by. I could hardly believe it when I found myself in the studio again after the tour, ready to work on the next album. The reactions to 'Juggernaut Of Justice' and the shows had been so positive that we had plenty of ideas and inspiration for new material."