Sweden's Metalshrine conducted an interview with ICED
EARTH/ex-JUDAS PRIEST singer Tim "Ripper" Owens on
October 25, 2007 in Stockholm. A couple of excerpts
from the chat follow:

Metalshrine: Do you see any fear of not being able to
make a living out of releasing records and playing
live, since people are just downloading these days and
artists don't sell as many records as they used to?

Owens: Definitely, yeah! It's definitely something
that hurts. I don't think people realize what they're
doing to the industry. It gets silly, really, that
people even think that it's right to download stuff
for free. But I think it's starting... now they have
so many sites where you pay to download, so I think
that people more and more have done that. You have
iTunes and the sites where you pay to download. It
hurts. I mean, it definitely takes more away. It
scales down touring budgets and they don't realize how
much it scales down everything. It's a shame. You just
release them and see what you can do.

Metalshrine: Do you see it like totally getting away
from the record companies and releasing stuff by
yourself, through a website or whatever?

Owens: I don't know. Maybe there will end up being
more specialized companies that sell records. Maybe
labels are gonna try to be more "online labels." I
think they are trying to do both now. Labels obviously
have to focus on the Internet and making albums. I
don't know. It's hard to say. I think there will
always be CDs for quite a while. People still want
some CDs, they want the artwork, so people will still
buy them. It's hard. I buy a lot of my stuff, the
majority of it, from iTunes, but I'm still buying it,
though, that's the difference.

Metalshrine: Do you have any other projects going on?
Have you ever thought of releasing a solo album?

Owens: I have been kind of contemplating it. Maybe
trying to make some type of album and get a bunch of
different musicians to do it with me. My idea would be
kind of neat to just try and get 5 or 6 different
guitar players, or just different people who each of
them write a song for the album and then I write the
lyrics and the melodies. Just try to release an album
like that, would be kind of cool. Try to get Scott Ian
[ANTHRAX] on a song.

Metalshrine: Yeah, I read about that. Scott Ian and
Jon Oliva [SAVATAGE].

Owens: Yeah, Jon Oliva. Have him do some songs with me
and maybe get Michael Wilton from QUEENSRŸCHE to do a
song and maybe even Jeff Waters from ANNIHILATOR to do
a song. Get Chris Caffery [SAVATAGE] to do a song. I
think it would be kind of neat. I'd also like to make
an album with Jon Oliva. I think that would be fun.
But I've got the BEYOND FEAR thing now and I have some
other things in the works. I have some people who have
sent me some music and I've worked on some songs with
them, so we'll see what happens with that.

Metalshrine: You've got an awesome voice, did you ever
take lessons or are you totally self taught?

Owens: I started singing when I was a kid and I was in
choirs and had some good teachers. Something I was
born with, you know. I think I would've rather been
born to be a brain surgeon, then my wife would've been
a little happier (laughs). It's something I was born
with and had the natural ability to do it, but then
I've taken care of it and worked on it. It's not I
just took for granted. OK, I've got this gift, but I'm
not gonna run it into the ground, which I've seen a
lot of people do. A lot of practice have gone into it.


Metalshrine: Just a few things about your JUDAS PRIEST
days. Do you know if there's anything recorded with
you that hasn't been released?

Owens: No, I think everything's been released. There's
nothing. No extra tracks or no extra things that
hasn't been released. I'm certain that nothing's left.


Metalshrine: If you got the chance, would you open up
for JUDAS PRIEST?

Owens: Ah, man, we would open for them any day. I
mean, I think it's a great combination and I think the
fans would love it. I think ICED EARTH supporting
JUDAS PRIEST on a tour would be a good thing and I
know Jon says the same thing. There are bands that you
want to open for. JUDAS PRIEST, IRON MAIDEN, HEAVEN
AND HELL. Anybody that's big. You know, METALLICA,
that would be the opportunity of a lifetime to open up
for anyone of them.


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