Founding Judas Priest guitarist K.K. Downing ultimately left the band in 2011 and things have apparently been rough.
In an audio message sent to Blabbermouth, Downing said he sympathizes with Mötley Crüe guitarist Mick Mars, who is currently suing his bandmates over financial disputes, allegedly pre-recorded live shows, being fired from the band, and accusations of gaslighting. Downing said he sympathizes with Mars as he's experiencing "exactly the same thing," and that he was asked to write an EP for Judas Priest around 2010 when the band was headed out for a farewell tour. Upon refusing to do so – "I certainly didn't want to finish my career with an EP – Downing announced his retirement from the band.
"I do sympathize [with Mick], because I'm going through exactly the same thing. And it's pretty unsavory, to say the least. After spending a lifetime building the band's name, reputation, popularity and value, in particular brand name, it should be all right for people to retire, especially through illness.
"In my case, we were gearing up in 2010 to do a final world tour, the 'Epitaph' tour, which was meant to be the end of the band. And because I was having pressure put on me to write for an EP to support that tour, which I absolutely was not gonna be any part of… I certainly didn't want to finish my career with an EP. So I threw the towel in and sent a retirement letter in."
Downing then said one of the reasons he didn't go with the band on tour was that he believed Rob Halford was about to quit the band and do Halford full time.
Downing's sympathy for Mars seems to be rooted in the fact that he feels he was screwed out of the band's legacy, as he never mentions (or it wasn't published that he mentioned) pre-recorded live shows or being made out to be a poor guitarist. Downing also doesn't explicitly bring up financial situations or any accusations that he wasn't paid properly.
Downing said he firmly believed that Judas Priest was calling it quits after their tour, and that his retirement was essentially just choosing not to do the tour. As he puts it, "Otherwise things and decisions may well have been different."
"There was a whole set of circumstances for me not doing the final tour. And one of the main considerations [was] we were getting to be concerned about Rob and we thought that he was gearing up, ready to leave [the band] again. Because in 2010, when all this was going on, the planning of the farewell tour and finishing the band, the justification was that Rob pretty much within 12 months [in] 2010 had released two studio albums with his own band and had done a world tour, including Ozzfest. And we were very much thinking that Rob, with his own manager, would go separate ways again. And that was another serious consideration.
"I really wanted to mention that because it really wasn't the band I was leaving; it was just I decided not to do the farewell, final tour of the band, because that's what we all agreed and that's what was intended to happen. So essentially my decision was just not to do the final tour of the band. Of course I didn't know that the band would continue, at that time, right up until today. Otherwise things and decisions may well have been different. But, as I said, I sympathize with Mick because the circumstances between the two of us seem to be pretty much… well, identical."
It's worth mentioning that Downing recently re-joined Judas Priest for their induction into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame.
