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All images courtesy of Chipster PR/Header image credit: Ethan Miller

By Andrew Daly
andrew@vinylwriter.com

As Judas Priest’s lone constant member since its inception, bassist Ian Hill knows what it takes to bring the thunder.

Hill initially made himself known amongst a swarming scene in 1969, with Judas Priest’s first incarnation, which would shapeshift multiple times over the next several years. In 1973, Hill would prove instrumental in bringing longtime vocalist Rob Halford into the fold. And in 1974, axe-wielding slasher Glenn Tipton would emerge, rounding out Priest’s classic lineup.

This lineup would change the face of heavy metal music forever. Judas Priest proved to be a forerunner of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal with its twin-guitar attack, soaring vocals, and deafening rhythm section. And as the ’70s came to a close, the group set a course for infamy, releasing a string of now-classic records that would define a generation of metalheads.

In the wake of British Steel (1980), and Point of Entry (1981), Priest found itself fully defined. Now firing on all cylinders, the group rolled out a duo of watershed records in Screaming for Vengeance (1982) and Defenders of the Faith (1984), breaking open an emerging scene. Through it all, Ian Hill proved a steady, guiding influence, perpetually laying a rock-solid groundwork for his cohorts to work off of, allowing the eternal greatness to manifest seamlessly.

Some 53 years after the band’s formation, Ian Hill has never wavered, showing defiant devotion in the face of changing tides, shifting trends, and various lineup changes. And while it may have taken longer than it should have, Hill’s reliability and divine musicianship have been rewarded, as Judas Priest has recently garnered enshrinement in one of rock music’s most polarizing institutions, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

As he prepares for his latest jaunt across US soil, Ian Hill beamed in via Zoom to discuss the upcoming 50 Metal Years Tour, the significance of Judas Priest’s Hall of Fame induction, the group’s early years, the legacy of Screaming for Vengeance, and what lies ahead in 2023 and beyond.

Andrew:
I wanted to congratulate you on your Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction. How do you quantify the significance of that accomplishment, Ian?

Ian:
It’s always great to be recognized by your peers. It’s a lot different than when a fan likes what you do because a fan can love your work and be into the music, but your peers understand the work that goes into what you do. They know what it takes to produce and perform, so to be recognized by them is a bit special, and it’s a real honor.

Andrew:
I’d say it took a bit too long to induct Judas Priest, finally. Do you feel there’s a bias there?

Ian:
I think it’s metal in general, really. When it comes to heavy metal, apart from the ’80s stuff, it’s always been something that’s sort of bubbling somewhere underneath the surface of the mainstream. You’ll get the major forms of popular music like pop and rap that are in your face all day, every day, but not metal. That stuff is there all the time while you’re driving to work; it’s on the radio, it’s on the TV, and it’s very, very prominent. I suppose jazz is a bit similar to metal in that it’s very easy to overlook, but aside from that, metal is and always has been the overlooked genre in terms of what’s popular. Although heavy metal is rock at heart, it always has been and always will be, and I think that’s the primary reason it’s been overlooked. In terms of metal, I think Metallica, Black Sabbath, and ourselves are in the Hall of Fame, I guess. If I’m wrong, I stand to be corrected, but maybe our getting in will open the doors to a few more metal bands. And I hope that’s the case because there are more out there who deserve to be inducted.

Andrew:
What are your thoughts on the idea that rock is dead?

Ian:
Well, I don’t know. I’d ask anyone who feels that way, “What are you going to replace it with?” Because that’s the thing; like I said, it’s always been there, bubbling underneath. And it’s always there for people who are more music orientated, rather than focusing on what’s popular, you know what I mean? People who like to think about things when they listen to something, not just tap their foot, nod their head and sing along. [Laughs]. So, if you take heavy metal and rock music away, then what’s left? What are you going to replace it with? Is it going to be more pop? More rap? Country and western music? I feel that it will always be there for that reason alone. There will always be that bit of an underclass who want more from their music and are willing to dig underneath. You can’t take it away because rock and heavy metal can’t be replaced by anything else. And if you do, it won’t carry the same meaning.

Andrew:
With Judas Priest preparing to embark on its 50 Metal Years fall tour here in the US, what are you most looking forward to?

Ian:
Oh, well, we’ll be doing what we always do, which is great fun. And this really is a landmark tour in my view, celebrating 50 years. But essentially, it’s another tour; it’s what we do and what we love. Honestly, it’s the only reason we do what we do these days, simply because we love it so much. So, I’m looking forward to going out there, starting to perform, and getting back at it. We’ve had about seven or eight weeks off since the European leg ended, and we’ve been itching to get back on stage where we belong.

Andrew:
What’s the most significant difference when performing in the US compared to the U.K. and Europe?

Ian;
As far as the fans, there’s not much difference. No matter where we are, metal fans seem to be crazy. [Laughs]. I will say that things in America tend to be more convenient than in other places, which makes a difference. If something breaks or goes wrong, it’s easier to get a hold of someone to fix it and get it sorted out. Also, the transport system is much better, and it’s much easier to get around. But purely from a fan’s point of view, it’s pretty much the same worldwide. But I must say, we love it because we’ve been coming to America now for over 45 years, and we love you guys. America has become a second home for us, and we always look back on our time here fondly. We’ve got many great friends in America from all over; we’ve met great people over the years, and they’re still our friends to this day. So, it’s great to get back on the road and bump into these people again. And I think that’s probably something I look forward to just as much as the performances, seeing all the friendly faces we’ve been missing.

Andrew:
As one of the founding members of Judas Priest, what are your earliest memories of the band and its formation?

Ian:
Well, I can remember all the way back to day one. When it started, it was myself, K.K., and the drummer, John Ellis, and we were all essentially just learning the trade. It was one of those fortunate things in that we were all loose ends at the same time, and we came together. We were all very new to it all, and we just got together, rehearsed, picked parts from our favorite songs, and played them as best we could. We kept doing that, and we progressively got better and better. Early on, we were rehearsing at a place in the Midlands called Holy Joe’s, and many bands would go there along with us. It was an old school complex, and the buildings and grounds had been converted over and used as a rehearsal space. So, one day, the vocalist from the first version of Priest, Allan Atkins, sort of walked past the room we were in, and he liked what he heard. So, Allan came in and asked us if we needed a vocalist, which we did, and that was the start of something great. It was great because suddenly we were a complete band. So, Allan joined late in the summer of 1970, and then we began rehearsing a whole new set. And by early 1971, that version of Judas Priest was ready to go.

Andrew:
Can you recount Judas Priest’s first gig?

Ian:
Yes, I do. It was at Essington Working Man’s Club. It was like a social club located just outside of a town called Walsall, and we managed to secure a spot there for a show. It went about as well as we could have hoped, but there were only about 12 people there, I think. [Laughs].

Andrew:
How did you first meet Rob Holford, and how integral was he to the band’s evolving sound?

Ian:
Rob had an incredible impact on the band; Rob would have impacted any band he joined because he’s such a formidable singer. But I was dating his sister at the time, and Allan, the original vocalist, he had to leave because his wife was pregnant and going to have a baby. At the time, none of us were making any money, so he had to go out and get a job. So, after Allan left, it was suggested that we give Rob a listen, so we did, and the rest is history. But before then, the drummer John had left, and Chris Campbell had joined, so the drums were in flux too. So, at the same time Rob came along, John Hinch joined, and he played on the first record, but not too long after that. Anyway, that was in ’73, and then some months later, Glenn [Tipton] joined in early ’74, and then was it, aside from some more shifts in drummers. [Laughs]. But that was the beginning of the trademark lineup, and it stayed the same for a long time, and we created a lot of incredible music.

Andrew:
Early Judas Priest music wasn’t nearly as heavy as what came later. What prompted the sonic shift in the late ’70s and early ’80s?

Ian:
It was a natural thing, really. Early on, we weren’t a heavy band, and heavy metal, on the whole, didn’t just happen overnight.; it took a while. We started gigging in about ’71 or ’72, and while we were beginning to get into our stride, we weren’t really a true-blue heavy metal band. That honestly didn’t happen until ’79 or ’80 when British Steel came out. Early on, we all had influences as individual members that we each took and drew upon from artists like Cream, Jimi Hendrix, and others. And, of course, there were a lot of those influences in the band’s early recordings, but that wasn’t heavy metal. But as we went on, we were taking steps forward with each album and trying to get better as we went along.

Of course, as we took those steps forward and found our sound, those influences started to fade, and we became our own influence. So, it started slow with heavy metal, and as we moved forward, it just got heavier and heavier until the early ’80s when it broke wide open. Because to us, that was a whole point; trying to get heavier, be more intricate, and a little bit more complicated. And then, with that, eventually came the image as well, with the leather. I remember early on, we were trying whatever we could find in our girlfriend’s closets to build outfits. [Laughs]. Eventually, we found our sound and our image, but it took a good while for all of that to develop.

Andrew:
As I understand it, early on, you played fingerstyle, but you eventually switched to a pick. What prompted the change?

Ian:
I started using a pick in the mid-70s, not long after Glenn came along. Really, it was only to get some definition on the bass notes. People who don’t play the bass might not know this, but you get a softer tone when you play with your fingers. And while playing with your fingers can give you a richer tone, it’s still softer, so I wanted it to stand out more. So, when you’ve got one distorted guitar, it works great; it fills in beautifully. But when you go two distorted guitars, a very loud drummer, and a very loud vocalist, as a bassist, you need a bit of clarity. So, I started using a big triangular pick to get that sharper sound to cut through a bit better.

Andrew:
Screaming for Vengeance celebrated its 40th anniversary this year. What are your recollections of the initial writing sessions and recordings?

Ian:
The writing sessions went as usual; K.K., Glenn, and Rob got their heads together, and then we had the basics of the songs together. And then, our drummer at the time Dave Holland, and I added our parts to the songs. I remember that we started the recording in Ibiza, a little island just off the southern coast of Spain. There was a great vibe about the place; it was like being on a holiday island with a studio in the interior. And while it was ideal for the vibe, there were multiple distractions. [Laughs]. After we got back from Ibiza, we finished off the record in Florida, in Orlando, at a studio called Beejay Studios, which sadly is no longer there. But we knew that we were onto something good and felt that we had strong material. Like I said, we were getting better with each album, and things started to roll from there with mainstream radio playing the hell out of “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’.”

Andrew:
Can you recall the inception of “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’?”

Ian:
It’s funny because that song only came to be because we were one song short for the record. It was pretty much just thrown together where I think we wrote and recorded it within the span of a day. It was just one of those lucky shots, but we had no idea that anyone would care when we recorded it because it wasn’t intended to be there originally. And this was in the days of vinyl, and you can only get so much information on vinyl; you had about 40 minutes and not much more before things started to deteriorate quite drastically. Because the more you go around, the more the grooves become shallower, and you can’t make them deeper initially because they will push through to the other side of the record. So, long story short, you had that finite 40 minutes, give or take, and we found that we could get another song on there. But we thought we had pretty much finished it and had no more material, so K.K., Glenn, and Rob got their heads together, and of course, David and myself were involved too. Like I said, it was put together in a day, and it took another day to mix it. And to our surprise, it was picked up, and it really connected with everybody, which broke things open for us.

Andrew:
How would you describe the impact of Screaming for Vengeance on Judas Priest’s sound thereafter?

Ian:
You could see the progression from Point of Entry to Screaming for Vengeance for sure. I think we felt that Point of Entry was a little bit more commercial, so we wanted to harden things up a bit with Screaming for Vengeance, and it shows, I think. It certainly helped that it was received very well by everyone, not just the fans but the music press as well. The fans, media, and radio stations all picked up on it. And once that happened, like I said, things broke open in a massive way in the States for us.

Andrew:
Would you say that Screaming for Vengeance is Judas Priest at its peak?

Ian:
Yeah, I mean, metal was at the top there for a while, and we were certainly right there too. It was a time when metal finally had an opportunity to raise its head above the parapet if you like, and it was riding high there for a while. Screaming for Vengeance kicked off things for us commercially in a big way, but the band’s peak was probably Defenders of the Faith, which came next. That was a more polished version of Screaming for Vengeance, and it was the last album along those lines. The album that came next, Turbo, was very experimental, with it the synthesizer guitars and what have you. And then, after that, we went with a much harder edge on Painkiller, which was probably a reaction to where we were in the late ’80s.

But the ’80s was a time when metal became very popular, which was a welcome change, and probably the only time that really ever happened. For Judas Priest, I’d say that it was the ultimate portion of that avenue that we would go down at the time, so yeah, it was sort of a peak. And like I said, we tried to get better, or at least be different, with each album, and I think we accomplished that quite well. But after Screaming for Vengeance and Defenders of the Faith, it became more difficult because we had reached our pinnacle with that. And then the guitar synths came along on Turbo, and we thought, “Well, maybe that’s it for us. We probably overdid it.” [Laughs]. So, it was probably the band’s pinnacle, but having said that, a lot of rock and metal band’s reached their peak in the ’80s, right?

Andrew:
How do you measure your influence on the sound of Judas Priest?

Ian:
First and foremost, a bass player’s job is to lay a foundation on which everything else is built. And what I mean by that is I try and keep things steady and do what is needed rather than what I’m capable of. It’s important to keep the song going and play what’s needed rather than over-exert myself. Like I said, that steady, rock-solid bass is what you need, along with tight drums. Add in tight bass and then the things that go on top of that, and everything usually works out well. And over the years, that’s not changed, but I have added some different things now and again. But like I said, it’s got to be what’s good for the song because that’s always my priority. That’s the rhythm section’s job, to do what I think will make the music powerful. And it’s those philosophies that have always worked well for Priest and probably always will.

Andrew:
Is Judas Priest working on new music?

Ian:
Yes, we are. There is an album in the pipeline, and it’s not far from being finished. Whether it’ll be out sometime next year or the year after, we don’t know yet. But there will probably be a little bit more touring next year in 2023, so we’ll wait for the dust to settle and let everybody catch their breath. And then we’ll probably start again in 2024; it might be sooner than that, but we’ll see what happens. As far as sound, we’ve taken it forward again; it’s gonna be a bit more intricate and maybe more complicated than Firepower. But like I said earlier, that’s what we’ve always tried to do, and hopefully, it’s another step in the right direction.

Andrew:
To what does Judas Priest owe its longevity?

Ian:
Well, probably our sense of humor and the fact that we started as friends and we’re still all friends. And it’s also the culture of this band, how strong it is, how we get along, and how we operate, all of which have made an enormous difference. I mean, obviously, guitarists have changed, drummers have changed, and vocalists have changed, but we’ve always made sure that we could get along with whoever has come into this band. I think that’s very important too, because if you’ve got any animosity between any one of the members, it’ll come to a head sooner or later, and you won’t last long. So, we just befriend everyone and take them as they are, and I think that’s the secret to staying together. If you do that, you won’t rub each other the wrong way too much. [Laughs]. That’s how things last; it’s what’s worked for Priest, so we’ll keep doing it until it doesn’t.

– Andrew Daly (@vwmusicrocks) is the Editor-in-Chief for www.vwmusicrocks.com and may be reached at andrew@vinylwriter.com