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Rock My Monkey: Hello, you are listening to the Rock My Monkey netcast on RockMyMonkey.com. Today we are speaking with Tim “Ripper” Owens, formerly of the band Judas Priest, now of Iced Earth and Beyond Fear. How are you doing today, Tim?
Tim "Ripper" Owens: I am very good, sir. How are you?
Rock My Monkey: I’m doing great. You sung many legendary classics as part of Judas Priest, but what song off of Framing Armageddon has the chance to become a legendary classic for Iced Earth?
Tim "Ripper" Owens: Oh, man, there’s so many of them, you know? It’s a great record. I think a song like A Charge To Keep is one of my favorites, and I think it could be a classic. But you know, I’ll tell you which one is going to be a classic, is the song The Clouding. It definitely is quite the amazing song. It’s got that mellow, the slow, the feel to it. It’s pretty amazing.
Rock My Monkey: To be honest, because the promos have the voice overs on them, that always give me a negative first impression, so I always wait to hear the real thing. But I’ve heard that that song has kind of like, almost like a darker, more evil version of a Pink Floyd kind of song.
Tim "Ripper" Owens: You know what, it definitely-I’ll tell ya, that’s definitely the vibe Jon was going for, was a Pink Floyd type of thing. It’s, to me, it’s almost like a Pink Floyd-ish, Judas Priest type of a thing. There’s a strange thing going on with it that kind of has that. No particular song from Judas Priest, but it just has this kind of a vibe going, you know?
Rock My Monkey: Kind of A Touch Of Evil kind of thing?
Tim "Ripper" Owens: Well, because it’s so slow it really doesn’t have-it’s hard to say. It doesn’t really resemble any song because it’s got this long, sludgy part at the beginning, then the back half of the song is really heavy. So it’s just a kind of vocal, the melodies, the approach, the way it’s sung. Maybe a Beyond The Realms of Death, or something even older. But the song sounds nothing like it, you know what I’m saying? It’s just kind of this-I think the vocals have such a great feel.
Rock My Monkey: Now, everyone loves to say that the newest cd is the band’s best. So what makes this the best Iced Earth release ever?
Tim "Ripper" Owens: I think versatility. I think, you know, I think a big thing about this album is it stays really, it goes all the way to the classic sound of Iced Earth. It really has this-you go back to early stuff. You could tell it’s stuff that Jon would have loved to have done, maybe with the choirs and different things, but he couldn’t probably afford to. Or the technology wasn’t there. But it has this classic feel that, it’s written so well and played so well, the story is so good. It’s definitely, it’s definitely quite the record. I’m never going to say something’s-I don’t always say something’s the best record. Everybody has their favorites for a reason. But it’s definitely a great cd.
Rock My Monkey: Well, I remember when way back, before you joined the band, when he was trying to tie off things with, basically finish up things with Century Media, he kept talking about this great and awesome thing that he had going, but that he couldn’t release it yet because he wanted to make sure it was a label that was worthy. I mean, this is something he’s been talking about since several albums back.
Tim "Ripper" Owens: Oh yeah, he has. He wanted to make sure. I mean, obviously it’s always a shady thing, I mean, as long as the album is good to the artist, I guess. It’s pretty hard in music nowadays to please all of your fans. I just have never seen in, in band that I’ve been in, or any other band. In the reviews of albums that bands do, you never find all, all the people who like it. But I guess it’s up to the artist to make what they want. For Jon, it was the right time and the right label and the right album.
Rock My Monkey: Do you think-a lot of people, a lot of Iced Earth fans have kind of hemmed and hawed about some of the past couple of releases. Do you think this is going to win a bunch of the older Iced Earth fans back?
Tim "Ripper" Owens: I would think, but I’m confused by them anyways. I’m confused by what they want. Because you know, you do an album like this one, that to me is a classic, like I said, a classic Iced Earth cd. If you go, if you mix all their stuff where you hear Iced Earth, this is Iced Earth. I can’t figure out why it’s not. You know how some people say ‘Well, it’s not aggressive enough.’ Well, when I go back and listen to Iced Earth cds, which I have been a lot lately to get ready for tour, you know, you find a cd with a couple fast songs, a bunch of slow stuff, a bunch of mid stuff. And that’s what this album has. I think the last couple albums-I mean, to me, Gettysburg was the best Iced Earth ever done. The Gettysburg piece. Just that piece. To me, that was the best Iced Earth out of anything ever done. And it still is, I think, as just a piece. But as an album, this one is amazing. That album was amazing for what it was. I thought Horror Show was a great record. Everybody’s always different. You still have people that absolutely love Burning-what was the one before Dark Saga? I can’t remember the name of the album. My mind is blank now. But still say that is the best cd, and that’s Jon’s least favorite, you know? So it’s like, you know, they always get mad because we won’t play anything off of it live-Burnt Offerings. Jon’s is like, ‘I just don’t like the cd, so what can I do?’ So it’s one of those things. I like all the albums for different reasons. I love songs off of Dark Saga. I’m not a giant fan of-I’m a fan of a couple mellow things, but I’m not a giant fan of a bunch of mellow stuff. I actually like the balls out stuff. I want to sing low and heavy. A little easier.
Rock My Monkey: Me personally, I like it better when you mix things up, because you don’t get velocitized. You don’t get being pummeled to death. It all kind of sounds, to me it gives it almost a monotone feel to the record. But it you mix it up, it gives you a break. You got to reel back the hammer to really slam it down hard.
Tim "Ripper" Owens: Don’t get me wrong. I love the slow stuff. But I don’t like it all the time. I’m just like you. That’s the thing about Iced Earth that is nice. And it was the same thing why I fell in love with Judas Priest. I like versatility in music, so I like Heaven and Hell with Black Sabbath, Heaven and Hell. It’s why I like Judas Priest. It’s why I like Iced Earth. I like versatility a lot. A lot of different characters in the voices. It’s why I enjoyed doing the Beyond Fear cd. There wasn’t a shitload of slow stuff, but there was different tempos. There was fast, there’s slow, there’s medium, there’s the Sabbath, there’s nowadays, you know, everything. I enjoy that. And this record, Iced Earth has always done that, and that’s what’s great about it. That’s what’s funny when someone says ‘Well, it’s not heavy enough. There’s not enough fast stuff.’ Well, I think it’s still there. I mean, Iced Earth’s always been like that. They’ve never been a thrash band. They’ve always been a band that’s-I was so surprised when I joined them to really study it and hear all the mellow stuff. I mean, I’m listening to the albums now, in the background, and there’s so much mellow stuff. It’s like ‘wow.’
Rock My Monkey: Even Iron Maiden has some mellow tunes.
Tim "Ripper" Owens: But Iron Maiden had versatility, as well. You have to learn their songs like Hallowed Be Thy Name where it starts slow, and has pieces of this and that. Exactly.
Rock My Monkey: I want to clarify something that you actually said before. Is Gettysburg, in your favorite Iced Earth albums, is Gettysburg actually above this album?
Tim "Ripper" Owens: Well, the piece is, not as an album. Gettysburg is the last three songs on it. As a three song, as an epic, giant-and I don’t mean it being a favorite epic song of mine. This is an epic three piece, piece. This is trilogy type thing. It’s a story. As that goes, it’s unbelievable, with the 55 piece orchestra and the cannons and the story and the characters. It’s just like a musical. I’ve probably never recorded a thing that was like that before, and it’s going to be hard to ever do it. As far as an album goes, I definitely like Framing Armageddon better than Glorious Burden, as an album. I love Glorious Burden. I mean, when Glorious Burden was recorded, it definitely was my favorite Iced Earth record. I was the new singer, so it should be. But this album takes, this album takes what I did in Gettysburg, and puts it on a whole type of an album, you know what I mean? But it’s not as epic, as epic and over the top with the orchestras and the cannons and the stuff all the time.
Rock My Monkey: How much were you able to contribute to this cd as far as writing goes?
Tim "Ripper" Owens: Very, very little. First off, it’s a story in Jon’s head. With it being the Something Wicked story, I really don’t know about that. I mean, and I’m not a sci-fi guy, so it was even harder for me to understand it for quite a while what he’s trying to get out of it, and all the ins and outs. So I can’t help lyrically. I helped with the melody of one song. I helped with The Domino Decree. I wrote that with with Jon. So I hope to write more. My goal is to have Jon send me everything and have me come up with as much melodies as possible. I’m a melody machine. I love to do it. It’s just a matter of having somebody let me do it. That’s what’s great about Beyond Fear is I’m allowed to do whatever I want. I’m allowed to write music. I’m allowed to write melodies. So it’s nice. But I will do more and more as we go on and grow together, and have the confidence to do things, and we have a system. But also, as you kind of learn to do, to have a system, the thing I like is to have him give me a cd of this song and say ‘This is kind of where I want the verse and the chorus,’ and then I just go home and start writing melodies to it and send it back to him. So that’s kind of a fun thing. It’s a nice way that we’re starting to do it.
Rock My Monkey: How does it feel to be the second most senior member of the band already?
Tim "Ripper" Owens: I know, huh? I knew it wouldn’t take long. (both laugh)
Rock My Monkey: How sure are you that this lineup will stick around for a few albums and tours?
Tim "Ripper" Owens: I can’t see why it wouldn’t. We’re going to be busy. There’s the hard reason right there, in my mind. When the band ends it’s hard to, they have to make a decision. Do you want to be a professional musician? Do you want to go home and get a job that’s going to let you leave? And a lot of these guys they need to have jobs, and we need to let them get off, and then make decisions about what they’re going to do. And I think that’s been the problem in the past, being able to-to be realistic, that’s how it is with them. I know Dennis is in Beyond Fear with me, and he has a great job to come home to when he’s off the road. Troy will probably give lessons and work at a guitar shop and a music store. Brent gives lessons. So we’re going to be pretty busy this next couple years, so that’s what’s great about it. I can’t see how it can’t work with them. Unless someone doesn’t want to do it, that would make sense. But I know that Dennis-the only one that I could probably speak for is Dennis, and I don’t see how Dennis could-unless you have to stay home. You get a good enough job where it just doesn’t make any sense to do it anymore. You have to have passion. I know that Dennis has the passion and wants to go out and do it. It’s kind of like the guitar player in Beyond Fear, John Comprix, he has the passion that he wants to do music. He has a great job at a Guitar Center, and he’s a manager. It’s a wonderful job. But his passion is ‘I want to be a musician. I want to travel and do this. That’s all I want to do. I will make no money and do it.’ And that’s the kind of guy that’s kind of nice to have that passion. And these guys seem to have it. They’re awesome musicians. They’re great guys. We get along well. There’s no silly drug or alcohol problems. There’s no one that drinks too much. I mean, Dennis likes to have some beers after the show, but we don’t drink before or during. So there’s nothing interfering, so I couldn’t see why not. Who knows? Unless one of them all of a sudden becomes the devil.
Rock My Monkey: Dennis Hayes was in both Beyond Fear and Winter’s Bane with you. How hard did you have to push the idea to Jon to get him in Iced Earth?
Tim "Ripper" Owens: Well, you know, I didn’t-it wasn’t really-I think finally he had to go to him. I mean, even though the bass player didn’t work out, and he’s like ‘I got to try someone out now.’ Jim Morris was in the studio with us and said ‘What about Dennis?’ Originally I suggested to him-I had two guys that I thought were perfect at one time for Iced Earth. And John Comprix-now this is kind of weird, because it would have been two guys from-but the perfect fit. And I got sick of hearing on the road Beyond Fear by monitor guys like Lorenzo and all these guys in the industry, and guys from SPV, and all they were saying ‘Man, why don’t you get John Comprix in Iced Earth?’ Because he is one of the best guitar players, lead, and just a great guitar player, lead guitar player. And Dennis Hays. And it just so happened that it finally became an option, I think they had no choice to go, ‘Hey, can we try Dennis out?’ And it all worked out. I mean, we got the guitar player with Troy that is a perfect fit for the band. And Dennis came out and just blew us away when he auditioned, so it was great.
Rock My Monkey: With Jon and Eric starting the band Laws of Destruction, and you and Dennis doing Iced Earth, do you think this will affect Beyond Fear at all, or will you guys just all regroup as soon as the Iced Earth cycle is done?
Tim "Ripper" Owens: Oh, we’ll regroup. We’re writing-John Comprix and I are-as a matter of fact, I think he’s coming over Friday, or Saturday, and he’s got some more ideas for me. He’s been giving me ideas. Our goal is, when Iced Earth is done, we have a Beyond Fear album that’s done and recorded. So when I come home, we kind of get together, once we have ten songs written and good, which we already have about three, that we come and rehearse, and we’re ready to go in the studio. Maybe when I come in one month we’ll do some drums. We’ll go in and record the drums for the album. Next month then we’ll go and record rhythm guitars for the album. So that’s kind of the goal. It won’t change anything. I’m glad for Jon and Eric, and Jon’s also been doing some playing with somebody else. Ringworm. He’s been doing some shows with them as their guitar player. So I’m really excited for him. I told him before, I said, you know, when you were on the road and we were with the Metal Church guys and we were with all, meeting all these different bands, I said, you know, you should give them a business card and let them know. Because when you’re off the road from Beyond Fear and I’m doing Iced Earth, you can be out there playing music. There’s no need to. We know that when the time comes, it’s time to come to Beyond Fear, it’s time to come to Beyond Fear. I mean, my main concern is Iced Earth. And when I’m done with Iced Earth, Beyond Fear is the main concern after that. I want to get done and move right into Beyond Fear when I’m done with Iced Earth. I want the label to be ready, because we can ride those coattails of Iced Earth, and while everything’s hot and we’re out there, let’s get Beyond Fear going.
Rock My Monkey: There seems to be a storyline-there’s obviously a storyline that goes along with the video for Ten Thousand Strong, but I’ve only been able to see it once. Can you fill in the details on what that story is, and how it fits into the larger story of the trilogy?
Tim "Ripper" Owens: Well, it shows the humans, the The Setians waste that was on the ground there. On Earth were the original people that inhabited the planet Earth, the Setians were. The humans, us humans weren’t the original people. We were actually the aliens in the video attacking the Setians that are on the ground. You can tell by the way they look. The humans look normal in the video, and the people that kind of funny looking faced were the Setians. And if there was a funny looking human, then that just means he was an ugly person playing the part. That was the humans attacking, and then in the circle with The Elders, which were going to get the ten thousand strong, go hide-ten thousand strong-they had ten thousand people go hide in the mountains and they come back and blend in. But the video’s showing the attack, and the humans attacking. Because the Setians had no weapons. Ten thousand years ago they lived on the earth and they had no weapons. And they had all the knowledge in the world. They knew everything. They had all the knowledge. So the humans wanted that knowledge. They wanted to attack. They knew they could destroy them, take over the earth and gain all their knowledge. So that’s kind of what the video is showing.
Rock My Monkey: Do you think there’s going to be any more videos from this album to help further explain the epic story being told?
Tim "Ripper" Owens: I hope so. That’s the plan. And the plan obviously is to do it the same comic book type of look, I think would be nice, to kind of make it continue on and make this story of-I mean even the video says ‘to be continued.’ It has kind of this cartoon, comic book look. Unfortunately a lot of people haven’t liked it, which is quite surprising to me with all the crappy warehouse videos. I don’t mean crappy, but all the same videos that are out there. I mean, all the videos are live type stuff, and blah, blah, blah, and this is a very big, for us, it’s a big budget video. You know, when you do green screen, you’re doing it in Gothenburg with a well known director. It took a lot to do the video.
Rock My Monkey: I think maybe when it plays on Headbangers Ball or Fuse, or maybe even if there’s a way that SPV can offer the video up for download so they can do-because I think it loses something on YouTube, and I think it does make it look low budget when you watch it on YouTube. So maybe when people see it in it’s more proper format.
Tim "Ripper" Owens: Well, obviously the goal for the video is to put it on MTv and all the outlets, all the hard rock shows. Obviously the goal to make a good budget video is not to go on YouTube. It’s to go on tv. Which if you would make one to put on YouTube, you’d never do it. We would just use our live-I mean, I love YouTube, but you would just use the live-like they just shot a live-there’s one that we found on YouTube from the Wakken Festival. I mean, that’s a pretty cool looking video. You just do that.
Rock My Monkey: What’s the-what are the chances of the band doing a full coast to coast tour in the U.S. any time soon?
Tim "Ripper" Owens: Well, hopefully January and February we’ll start. I’m not sure what we’re going to do yet. I know we’re looking at touring then, so we’ll just have to see if we can do the tour then. I mean, I know we’re looking at it. That’s the goal. We’re in Europe in October and November, and hopefully we’ll finish up the second album in December, and then be back out January, February.
Rock My Monkey: So maybe a late winter, but possibly spring or summer of next year?
Tim "Ripper" Owens: Yeah. I mean, all summer we’re going to be doing the festivals in Europe. We’re going to attack them all next year, as many as we can probably. We’ll be doing that. We’re going to tour the world before that. Hopefully South American and Japan and Australia and America. We’re going to try to do them all.
Rock My Monkey: I have not heard anything as far as a producer of this cd. Did Jon Schaffer actually produce this?
Tim "Ripper" Owens: It was Jon and Jim Morris again. Jim did it again. He’s great to work with, so he definitely did it with us.
Rock My Monkey: That’s from Morrisound studios, right, in Florida?
Tim "Ripper" Owens: Yes.
Rock My Monkey: Okay, okay. Cool. Now, do you prefer more real world style lyrics, or the epic fantasy based material?
Tim "Ripper" Owens: I prefer normal type every day lyrics. I mean, with the Beyond Fear stuff, it was just kind of-you did have a song like Scream Machine that was cheesy, tongue in cheek kind of classic metal, metal monster, metal machine coming down. But I like, I like lyrics about everything. I must admit, it doesn’t matter as much. If I’m going to write it, it’s going to be about just about anything. But that’s what’s great about metal is you can write about anything. I like kind of just normal, real life lyrics.
Rock My Monkey: When people go and see this tour for this album, will any of the theatrics of the cd be involved at all, or is it still going to be just a stripped down, American rock and roll band?
Tim "Ripper" Owens: It depends on how the tour is and where we’re playing. I mean, the problem is it becomes so expensive to do extra stuff, and bands on these tours aren’t on the budget to add a whole bunch of stuff. I mean it’s expensive to add-pyro is expensive. We’re going to be at theaters and House of Blues and stuff, and you’re not allowed to have that in there anyways. So to carry a whole bunch of extra stuff that you can only use at this show and not at this show becomes kind of hard. We’re going to do as much as we can. We’ll just have to see when it gets here, and see what happens.
Rock My Monkey: Before I ask my final question, is there anything you’d like to say to the fans of Iced Earth and Beyond Fear, or the readers of RockMyMonkey.com?
Tim "Ripper" Owens: Well, I mean, I’d like to say thanks. Beyond Fear was one of the best reviewed and accepted cds that I did. It was nice to have it. And this new cd, Framming Armageddon is definitely a classic, and as you would say, one of the best cds, it’s the best cd I’ve ever done, as you said earlier. It’s a classic. It’s what Iced Earth fans want. It’s a pure heavy metal cd. It tells a story. You could sit down and listen to it. And everybody go out and get it.
Rock My Monkey: I do have one final question. Every year we do choose one final question that we ask every single band from classic rock legends to the most extreme, brutal death metal bands. Partially to stump people, but also to separate the men from the boys. This year I’m asking people to look into their crystal ball and predict what political figure, world leader, musician, celebrity, anybody well known, anybody famous, who do you think might die before the end of the year?
Tim "Ripper" Owens: Man, I’d get myself in trouble.
Rock My Monkey: (laughs) Some big celebutaunte or world leader. I think those are pretty safe answers.
Tim "Ripper" Owens: Yeah, I was going to get myself in trouble with the first one I thought, so I’m going to say-who is going to die?
Rock My Monkey: And remember, it’s a prediction, not a wish.
Tim "Ripper" Owens: No, that was my first one. It wasn’t a wish. It was just a terrible decision, it was a terrible thing that I even thought of. But I’m going to say-who’s old?
Rock My Monkey: Or partying too hard?
Tim "Ripper" Owens: Yeah, that was the other thing. Yeah. I’m going to say it’s going to be Regis Philbin.
Rock My Monkey: Regis Philbin! Alright. Cool. You’re the first person to say that so far.
Tim "Ripper" Owens: He’s healthier than I am, so go figure I just said that.
Rock My Monkey: I thank you very much for doing the interview, and anybody that’s listening to the audio version can go to RockMyMonkey.com for the full featured version with clickable links, readable text, and many more wonderful features. I’m asking people to click on the album cover above and below this interview to purchase Framing Armageddon by Iced Earth. And I do hope to see you guys up on tour in the Northwest sometime soon. Thank you very much for your time.
