Making His Debut For Years Tim Owens Has Been In A Judas Priest Tribute Band; Now He’s Singing In The Real Thing

There are very few firsts in rock ‘n’ roll. But it’s probably pretty safe to say that Judas Priest has achieved one with its new singer.

Tim Owens, 29, had for years been lead singer in a Judas Priest tribute band called British Steel. Now he’s making his debut as “Ripper” Owens, the nickname given to him by the British band, on Judas Priest’s first album in seven years, “Jugulator.”

For a guy who’d made his living imitating Priest’s original singer, Rob Halford, it was a weird, wonderful twist of fate to join the band.

Owens is still getting used to the idea of introducing himself as a member of Judas Priest. “I think it’ll always be strange,” Owens said in a telephone interview from London.

Priest rips through “Jugulator” with a ferocity and excitement only hinted at on its last album in 1991 with Halford, “Painkiller.”

“We feel very much rejuvenated,” guitarist K.K. Downing said in a phone interview from his home in England, and he credits much of that rejuvenation to Owens.

“He’s a good-looking lad, he’s a nice lad and he’s got so much talent,” Downing said.

“We had to have a vocalist that could sing all the Priest records from day one as good as it’s ever been sung, and that’s a tall order in itself. When we jump up there on stage, it can’t let anybody down. It’s got to be that good. And this guy can do that.”

When Halford left the band in 1992, singers who hoped to replace him sent the band thousands of tapes. The remaining members - guitarists Downing and Glenn Tipton, bassist Ian Hill and drummer Scott Travis - got together once a month and dutifully listened to them all.

But it was a low-quality video of Owens performing at a club gig in Erie, Pa., shot by two young women, that caught their eye. One of the women, Christa Lentine, was dating Travis and passed the tape on to him.

Owens, who lives in Akron, Ohio, was then asked to audition in Wales, where the band was recording. He only had to sing the first few lines of the Priest classic “Victim of Changes” for the band to hire him.

Owens grew up singing. He performed madrigals in his high school choir and had several bands. He calls himself a natural mimic.

“I was blessed with a strange thing - being able to do impressions of singers,” he said. “That’s how I learned to have my style of singing be so wide.”

But his love of Priest ran deep no matter what he sang.

Once the band found Owens, it took nearly a year to get his “Jugulator” vocals down because of endless interruptions from record companies and the press. The singer’s story had spread via the Internet and metal magazines and everyone wanted to hear the new material.

“We knew that we had to be patient and go through the process so as to give the project some energy,” Downing said.

Owens said playing with Priest has been effortless.

“We bust into a song and it’s like … we feel so natural together,” he said.

Judas Priest has been a big cog in the metal machine since 1974 and its first album, “Rocka Rolla.” The band defined the genre’s leather-and-studs look and sound over the next decades with albums like “British Steel,” “Screaming for Vengeance” and “Painkiller.”

“We are here and we are heavy metal,” Downing said. “We have a firm belief in who we are and what we are and what we’ve done and what we’ve achieved, and we’re proud of it.”

And they’ve been successful, selling 20 million albums worldwide. But they’ve had their hassles, too. In 1990, a Nevada judge rejected a $6.2 million lawsuit filed against the band by the parents of two teenage boys who said the music of Judas Priest contributed to the 1985 suicide of one of the youngsters and an attempt by the other.

“The only piece of luck with Judas Priest we’ve ever had in our career is finding ‘Ripper’ Owens,” Downing said with a chuckle.

Downing hopes that luck will spread to the band’s upcoming tour, which starts at the end of this month. He says the success of the recent Ozzfest tour and KISS reunion are indicators that fans are ready for metal again.

“I have total confidence in our music, I have confidence in our fans, I have confidence in the band and us as performers,” Downing said. “It remains to be seen exactly how much we can achieve. We have to meet the challenge again.”

And Owens has an additional challenge, as fans adjust to him.

“I’m in a no-win situation,” Owens said. “I’m going to get criticized for sounding like (Halford) or I’m going to get criticized for not. I always make jokes that I’m going to have to be dodging the tomatoes being thrown onstage.

“But we’ll be well rehearsed. I think the only thing that I’ll be worried about is getting blown up by (the) explosions on stage,” he said with a laugh.