Chad Bowar: Give us a little background on the original recording of Edge Of The World and Baptizm Of Fire.
Glenn Tipton: Back in 1994 there was no Judas Priest. The future looked bleak. Rob left in '91 to be honest we all needed a break. We had been on the road relentlessly. So we all took a break from music. Then I decided I couldn't just crawl in the corner and die, so I started putting pen to paper and wrote some songs. I had no idea what for or who I was going to work with. I tried to find my way and direction. There was no way in the world that I ever wanted to try to do a solo project that was an attempt to sound like Judas Priest. There was no way I could even come close to the talent that was in that band. I moved in a slightly different direction and just worked on instinct.
Once I got a bunch of songs together I approached Cozy Powell and asked if he would be interested in working with me, and he said yes. I've always thought Cozy was the ultimate rock drummer and had ultimate respect for him. We talked about bass players and John Entwhistle's name came up. We had the same manager. I got in touch with John and played him some tracks and he said he'd like to get involved. So we went down to a little studio in Wales and began recording. It was magical, really. I've always known Cozy's talent, but when John showed up he amazed me. His versatility and knowledge of the bass guitar and music in general was just overwhelming. His sound is just unique. It was brilliant. We knew straightaway that there was a magical little formula there.
I was with Atlantic at the time and played the tracks for them. They loved the music but thought it would be difficult to market. In their words it was a bit old school and they encouraged me to work with some young musicians and blend everything so that it would have a more modern appeal. Baptizm Of Fire emerged from that. I went and played with Billy Sheehan, Robert Trujillo, Brooks Wackerman, Shannon Larkin, C.J. DeVillar, all great young musicians. I was very proud of it as well, but it left the original batch of songs on the shelf. I always thought it should see the light of day. Recently when Warner Brothers and Rhino wanted to re-release Baptizm Of Fire they heard these other tracks and agreed with me that it has to come out. There is some valuable playing there from two legendary people that have inspired people for years. So I mixed the tracks and lo and behold, we have two albums ready to release.
There are a couple of bonus tracks that you added to Baptizm Of Fire. One is "New Breed," which you did with your son and daughter, right?
It's a heavy metal version of the Osmonds.(laughs) I wrote the song with my daughter years ago and we were just messing around one day. They used to come to the studio and she was playing this thing on the keyboard and we decided to make a song out of it. When I came to finish it off I needed a drummer. My son is actually a guitar player, so I played drums on it. He's away at university so I don't know what he's been doing. But he can play drums! He came up with a fantastic drum track. It blew me away. I'm very proud of him. He played like Keith Moon in places. He suddenly blossomed into a pretty good drummer. That track means a lot to me.
How did you like doing the singing on the albums?
A few people have described my vocals as "interesting," "a lot of character," "easy to distinguish." They're very guarded in the adjectives. My vocal ability is very limited, but I'm fortunate in that I can write the songs around my vocal limitations. I've got the luxury to tailor make the songs so I can sing them. Of course when you've been on stage with someone like Rob (Halford) for so many years, I'm a million light years away from him. There is a certain strength of character in my vocals and it took me a long time to find my strength in areas. You have to get to know your voice and its strengths and play on those. It took me quite a long time. In my first bands I was a singing guitar player, but if you heard any of those songs you wouldn't describe me as a singer. But I can make it work.
