Glenn Tipton reportedly offered Judas Priest gig to Ugly Kid Joe frontman and drummer
Glenn Tipton reportedly offered Judas Priest gig to Ugly Kid Joe frontman and drummer
Ugly Kid Joe frontman Whitfield Crane was recently interviewed by Marko Syrjala for Metal-Rules and the former was asked if he ever had been asked to join some “really big bands.” Crane succinctly replied: “Judas Priest.”
In terms of when this happened, Crane advised (with slight edits): “It was when Glenn Tipton was doing his Baptizm of Fire record, and I got Shannon Larkin, our then drummer to play on it. He played two songs and replaced some badass drummers on that because it was click tracked. And Glenn pulled Shannon and me aside and said, “You boys can have the Priest gig if you want it.” And Shannon and I were pretty much into Priest. I mean, we loved Priest. And we went, “Ah!” and all I said was this, “Say it again.” And Glenn’s a pretty fucking brilliant– I mean, he goes, “What do you fucking mean, ‘Say it again’?” And I’m all, “Just say it one time?” And he’s like, “You can have the fucking Priest gig mate” And, well, I was thinking, we can’t do it, because you can’t be Rob Halford. You can’t be David Lee Roth. You can’t– it’d be cool, and considering my love for Priest, which is immense, that would have been cool to do it, but not really. It’s not a good move. But to jam with Tipton and to know those guys or – I mean, those are my fucking heroes. Judas Priest, I mean, fuck, they– fuck. But man, old school Priest, Jesus, God. So, yeah, I got offered Priest, back in the day. I never said that to anyone.”
Wikipedia states the following about Baptizm of Fire (with slight edits): “Baptizm of Fire is the debut solo album by Judas Priest guitarist Glenn Tipton released in 1997. It was recorded and mixed at Devonshire and Ocean Studios, U.S.A. and Monnow Valley, Battery, Olympic and The Gazebo Studio, U.K. Written and recorded in years 1994-1996. Management done by Bill Curbishley and co-ordination done by Jayne Andrews.” Crane is credited as having contributed backing vocals on one song (“Voodoo Brother”) on that record while Larkin is credited with having played drums on five of the 11 songs. Larkin has been Godsmack‘s drummer since 2002.
Tim “Ripper” Owens was eventually chosen as Rob Halford‘s replacement in Judas Priest. Wikipedia indicates the following about Owens‘ time in the band (with slight edit): “Tim “Ripper” Owens, who had previously sung in a Judas Priest tribute band called British Steel, was hired in 1996 as Judas Priest‘s new singer. This line-up released two albums, a groove metal album – Jugulator (1997) and a nu-metal album – Demolition (2001), as well as two live double-albums – ’98 Live Meltdown (1998) and Live In London (2003), the latter of which had a live DVD counterpart. Although Jugulator sold relatively well, it was given mixed reviews. Demolition received poorer and more polarized reviews than Jugulator and sold less than previous releases.”
You can read the rest of the interview with Whitfield Crane at Metal-Rules‘ website.