The legendary British heavy metal band, which largely defined the sound of the 1970s and had a great influence on the further development of the style, has been around for more than 50 years. Finally, this year Judas Priest will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the Music Excellence Award, as opposed to the Standard Performers Award, in their full current lineup plus former guitarist K.K. Downing and former drummers Les Binks and Dave Holland. And now, for the first time since his departure in 2011, Downing has confirmed that he will perform at the ceremony with Judas Priest.
The Rock Hall 2022 ceremony itself will take place Nov. 5 at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.
Downing said he feels pretty confident about the upcoming performance and hopes it will make fans very happy:
It’s what I’ve done so many times. It’s almost like cracking a beer, let alone riding a bike. It’s embedded in me. It’s what I do. So it’ll be quite something to look forward to, just to get up there and crank the amps up and just do it once again, for that short moment in time.
As for the ceremony performance itself, as drummer Scott Travis said, the band is discussing a medley that will contain a bunch of classics:
They give you a limited amount of time ’cause there’s obviously lots of artists that are gonna be performing. So they gave us a set amount of time to perform. And we decided we’re gonna try and work in a medley and do some of the Priest classics and put ’em all into a medley, which we’ve never done before. So it should be interesting.
Recall that Downing left Judas Priest in 2011 amid allegations of conflicts in the group, poor management and a decline in the quality of performances.
In 2019, Downing said he had approached Judas Priest about participating in the band’s 50th anniversary tour, but they responded that they were not interested in his participation in the celebration. Little was heard of the guitarist’s activities until 2020, but since the musician’s thirst for creativity never left, he returned to the stage with his new band with the very unambiguous name KK’s Priest. In addition to KK, former Judas Priest vocalist Tim Ripper Owens joined the band. After spending several months in the studio and releasing several singles during the spring and summer of 2021, the “young” but promising band released their debut album, Sermons of the Sinner, on October 01. And at the moment KK’s Priest is finishing work on their second album. The band is also planning an extensive world tour, which is currently in the planning stages.
