As if the title wasn't obvious, this is a sort-of autobiography by former Judas Priest guitarist Kenneth Kevin Downing, aka "K.K. Downing". The reason I say sort-of is because he wrote it along with the help of a biographer named Mark Eglington.
This book was very interesting. It was very eye opening, however. One thing that stood out to me is that KK did not seem to care for Glenn Tipton. Sure, they got along, but then again, they had to-they both played guitar in the same band. He seemed to regard Glenn as an outsider who seemed to bully his way into deciding what went down with in the band. He seemed to think of Glenn as a pretty boy showoff who always tried to top KK, as if he was trying to outdo him. Later on, when a woman named Jane offered to help manage the band, KK seems to think that when Glenn hooked up with her and eventually married her, they both seemed to run the band with an iron fist. And in interviews later on, when KK left the band, they would avoid at all costs, answering questions about where KK was, what he was up to, etc.
You'll find out all sorts of stuff that went on with not only KK as he grew up, but how he came to help define the band known today as Judas Priest, his relationships both inside and outside the band and more. He will often put his own little random thoughts and comments on different situations, so it becomes a little funny and you can imagine him saying it while laughing or smiling
Kenneth Kevin Downing was born on Oct. 27, 1951, in West Bromwich, England. This is part of the area of England known as The Midlands. This whole area just seems to be steeped in metal history, not only because of all the steel mills and foundries, but because one other major metal band was born here-Black Sabbath. He talks about his siblings growing up, how his father was a heavy gambling addict who would spend any money he got on the local horse tracks. He describes his childhood as abusive, watching as his father would often beat his mother nearly to death sometimes. He often thought that when he got older, he would really clock his father. He jokingly said something to the effect of "when you get older and you start seeing hair on your chest, you think you're mature and can give someone a beating. I thought about doing that to my dad for all the times he hit my mother." The thing that inspired him to take up music was hearing the Rolling Stones. Whereas other teens might have been influenced to take up music because of the Beatles, KK was more in to the edgier Rolling Stones.
He was friends with future Priest bassist Ian Hill. In fact, their friendship didn't start off rosy. In fact, Ian Hill and a friend had committed a crime and KK and one of his friends ended up being the ones accused of it. Growing up, he had helped to form the band known today as Judas Priest. He said it was more or less interesting working with all the personalities within in the band. Later on, when Rob Halford came out as homosexual, KK was not shocked. He knew right from the get go that Rob was gay and he thought it was the worst kept secret in music. When KK suggested that the band get some kind of uniform look, he thought of leather and studs. And he said that the hardest part would be getting everyone in the band to agree to it. Rob seemed to go for the leather and studs look the easiest because of his then secret homosexuality.
One thing that seemed to really irritate KK is in 1990 when the band was hauled into court to hear for the deaths of two young men. Two young men had gotten intoxicated and high on marijuana and had formed a suicide pact, claiming that there were backwards messages in the songs of Judas Priest, specifically the song "Better by You, Better Than Me". This was not even the band's original song. The band who originally did this was an art rock band called Spooky Tooth.
One thing that surprises me is that KK does not have kids. He's been in a multitude of relationships, but no kids. He said he always wanted kids, but with his work as a musician and being on the road so much for so long, that put a strain on a lot of the relationships he was in. As the 1980s gave birth to the 1990s, he seen that the times were changing and so was the music. No one seemed interested in bands like Priest. They all wanted a more flashy, more aggressive sound, like something you could get from bands like Anthrax, Pantera, Slayer, Megadeth, Metallica and new up-and-comers like Fear Factory, Type O Negative, Sepultura, etc.
One major and I mean EXTREMELY MAJOR bone of contention he has is with the band Iron Maiden. Almost everyone knows how extremely bad things had started off between then newcomers Iron Maiden and then-still-getting-big Judas Priest. Maiden vocalist Paul Di'Anno had said, very cocky, that he and the rest of Maiden would blow Priest off the stage. During a sound check that Judas Priest was doing one night, they had seen a group of young kids in the audience. Not knowing who they were, KK asked around and found out from someone that those "young kids" were in fact Iron Maiden. No one had told Priest's management that the band were coming down to see them, to learn from the masters. KK took an offense to this. He thought the band was being snotty for showing up after saying they would blow Priest off the stage. He even talked to the guys in Priest and the band was smiling as Paul Di'Anno still told them they would blow Priest off.
Later on, when Bruce Dickinson entered the picture, KK still remembers the band as having a very cocky, very arrogant air to them, as if the world owed them a favor and owed them a chance at being something. Despite the fact that now the two veteran bands are good friends with each other, it's sad that two great bands had to have a rocky start to their friendship only because management of both parties failed to communicate with each other. One thing related to this is that when he would look at pictures of Iron Maiden, specifically guitarist Dave Murray, he would have to do a double take. Early Iron Maiden had adopted the leather and studs look. And with Dave Murray having long, flowing blonde hair, people often mistook him for KK Downing. Even KK himself had to do a double take to see if pictures in magazines were of him or Dave Murray. He said he didn't understand why Iron Maiden were wearing leather and studs when it was Judas Priest who introduced that look into the band. In fact, it was KK Downing's idea to introduce the leather and studs look.
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| Dave Murray, Iron Maiden |
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| KK Downing, Judas Priest. As you can tell, it would not be hard for some to think these two men resemble each other because of the blue eyes and light blonde hair |
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