During a recent conversation with SiriusXM, classic Judas Priest guitarist KK Downing was asked about the band’s rivalry with fellow heavy metal icons Iron Maiden.
He replied (via Blabbermouth):
“We’d just finished the ‘British Steel’ record in England, and we were going out on tour [in early 1980 with Iron Maiden].
“And then the next thing I know, I read in a music paper that [Iron Maiden said] something like, ‘Yeah, we’re gonna blow the b*llocks off Priest,’ or something like that. And I went, ‘What the hell is this sh*t?’
“We were still in the recording studio, tidying up the last mixes or something. And I said, ‘Well, who are these guys?’ Why should we have them on tour if they’re gonna create this type of vibe before we’ve even met them, let alone done a show together?’
“I said, ‘Let’s get rid of them and get somebody that really appreciates the gig’ [laughs, of which there would have been an awful lot of bands. But anyway, everybody talked me into going with it, and I said, ‘Well, fine,’ obviously being democratic.
“And the next thing I know, we were at the rehearsals at some theater in London somewhere, and this bunch of guys walked in and just sat down in front of me. And I said to my guitar tech, ‘Who are those dudes there?’ [Laughs] And he went, ‘Oh, that’s the support band.’
“And I said, ‘Well, who the hell invited them into our rehearsal?’ I was thinking about what I read in the papers. And I said, ‘Well, just go and tell them that they weren’t invited and they need to leave.’ I didn’t see an invite; nobody told me they were coming in – when you’re trying to work out songs and this and that and the other. So that’s what happened.
“Anyway, we went on tour [together], and can I just say they didn’t blow the b*llocks off Judas Priest – we were pretty well established at the time, and those guys were coming up through the ranks. So that happened.
“But it wasn’t a good atmosphere on the tour, and it’s not something I like to have happen – it shouldn’t be that way. And next thing I know, somebody [said], ‘Oh, Iron Maiden is opening up for you on their first US tour [in 1981].’ And I went, ‘Oh, no! Not again. Can we just not have those guys on [the tour]?’