|
Time To
Play His Own Game – An exclusive interview with Tim “Ripper”
Owens |
By
Ryan Sparks
Vocalist Tim
“Ripper” Owens has been riding on the wind for the past thirteen years.
Ever since he stepped into the seemingly unenviable task of replacing
Metal legend Rob Halford in Judas Priest back in 1996, the Akron Ohio
native hasn’t spent too much time looking in the rear view mirror. While
Tim more than held his own in Priest, the inevitable happened when the
band re-joined forces with Halford in 2003 leaving Owens out of work,
albeit briefly.
Ripper stepped into
the American metal band Iced Earth the following year and ended up
lending his vocals to two full length albums between 2004 -2007. During
that time he started up another project called Beyond Fear comprised of
musicians from his home state of Ohio. More recently Tim’s lungs of
steel were heard on Swedish shredder Yngwie Malmsteen’s last album
Perpetual Flame.
Now with his first
solo release Play My Game, which features an impressive list of
guest musicians, Owens is ready to take the next logical step in what
has been a truly remarkable career thus far. Play My Game is full
of everything you’ve come to expect from him and more.
Ryan: After
listening to Play My Game for the first time from beginning to
end, when it was over I felt like I had a much better idea of who Ripper
Owens is as a musician if you know what I mean?
Ripper: Well I
think so; it’s definitely that type of CD. The reason why you would feel
that is because its 100% me being able to do something that I wanted.
It’s the kind of music that I would like to hear if I bought a CD. I’d
like it to get a little more aggressive at times, but I didn’t want to
bring that into this album because I have a band Beyond Fear to do that.
This was the one where I just wanted to kind of kick back and just do
it.
Ryan: I mean it’s
not like it’s a lightweight album at all.
Ripper: No its not.
Somebody told me the other day that they thought it was a lot mellower.
It’s kind of funny really to hear the reviews and hear people talk about
it because every single person says something different about it. It’s
really funny.
Ryan: It’s still
heavy but it’s a bit more melodic.
Ripper: It is.
Ryan: I think it
also has something to do with the fact that, save for a few exceptions,
for the past twelve years you’ve spent a lot of time being the singer
and front man for other people’s musical visions, whereas with Play
My Game it’s your name on the bill and you’ve got total control over
everything.
Ripper: That’s
exactly right and that was the intention of doing it. I know it’s not
going to please everybody. When you have done as much work as I have and
the different types of bands that I’ve worked with, even with Beyond
Fear, everybody’s intentions of what I’m supposed to be doing is
different. They always think they’re right. This is really it you know?
Ryan: I’m pretty sure it was intentional but I love the cover of the
album. It definitely has that sort of video game look to it I think. It
almost looks like you’ve been rotoscoped.
Ripper: What’s
that?
Ryan: It’s an
animation technique where they film live actors and then color them in
later.
Ripper: Well that’s
kind of what it is, but it was re-drawn as well by hand. It was a real
photo session or live photo of me onstage, but then the guy who did it
went in and re-drew it. The other thing is, that’s what’s always fun
about doing album covers because people either like ‘em or they hate
‘em. It’s really the funniest thing; every cover that I’ve ever been
involved with it’s always been the same thing. I’ve never seen any band
please everyone with their album covers and this has been the exact same
thing. I sent about four different covers to my label, my manager and my
friends and family and this was the one that won the most. I actually
picked a different one, but this one was picked the most and the album
wasn’t even called Play My Game yet. The logo was on it and the
picture. The reason why I ended up liking it a lot, especially with the
artwork, is when somebody buys the CD they get the booklet. I would
advise everybody to do that. I’m not going to lie because I get a lot of
my music from iTunes, but when I see a booklet like the Heaven and Hell
one or something I’ll go and buy it. The booklet that goes with it is
kind of retro and old looking. This to me reminds me of like an old
movie poster from the 60’s or 70’s, it has that kind of feel to me. It
has maybe something like a Quentin Tarantino vibe. It’s funny though
because it has gotten a lot of comments like you said, that it reminds
people of a video game. I really don’t play that many video games unless
it’s Tiger Woods Golf or something. But it’s probably in the same vein,
because the video game people are probably doing the same and modeling
it after the old movie posters and stuff.
Ryan: Before I ask you about the great roster of musicians you have on
this album I want to ask you where you drew your lyrical inspirations
from, specifically on tracks like “Believe” and “Pick Yourself Up” which
are real positive rock anthems lyrically.
Ripper: Yeah
everybody goes through his or her own pitfalls and downtimes. When you
write these songs,you want to keep a positive mind, and you want people
to keep a positive mind as well, and those songs are just basically
that. You have to believe in yourself and pick yourself up when you
fall. Even the bonus track, which is an iTunes download called “The
Challenge” is a song about life being a challenge and that’s what it is.
You’re going to get curve balls thrown at you and you’re going to go
down, but that’s what makes you stronger and makes you learn everyday.
So that’s what I tried to put across in those lyrics.
Ryan:
“The Cover Up” which is loosely based on the Roswell incident is an
interesting track. Tell me about that one. Are you someone who is
generally interested in conspiracy theories?
Ripper: I’m
actually not an alien, sci-fi, dungeons and dragons type of guy. That
was probably the most planned out song that I had because I wanted to
write a fast song. Lyrically it jus kind of came out and I thought “What
should I write about?” and I started thinking about aliens. It’s such
classic sounding, throwback metal song so I wrote about aliens and what
I knew about them. I tell you there have been some people around me the
last couple of years that I can guarantee are aliens [laughs].
Ryan: What I like
about the album is the majority of it is just mid tempo songs with good
solid groves. There aren’t a lot of fast tracks on this record, although
“Death Race” is another good one.
Ripper: No there
aren’t. All the music that I’ve always liked has had a couple of fast
songs on a record and then the rest of it was more mid tempo stuff.
That’s just what comes out. “Death Race” is a good one and I knew I had
to have a couple of them on there, that one I wrote with John Comprix,
my guitar player from Beyond Fear. I knew that if I had him write one,
it would be different. I told him to make it a little different than
something we would write for Beyond Fear, but to keep his style and
that’s exactly what he came up with. I think it’s definitely one of the
cooler tracks on the record.
Ryan: Another stand out track both musically and lyrically is “The World
Is Blind”.
Ripper: Yeah that’s a good one; it has a cast of great players with
Billy Sheehan on there. There’s a funny story behind that song. My wife
said to me “You should a song about the people starving in Africa or
something about other parts of the world”. We were arguing about this
one day and she said “Look they give all this money to these foreign
charities and I think we should start doing it too” and I said “Why
don’t we just give it to our own American charities?” Our school systems
need money, it’s probably our own fault that we don’t have it, but I
said that to her and she suggested that I should write a song about it
so I did. The funny thing is that when I wrote it she said “I actually
thought it would be a slow song” [laughing]
Ryan:
[laughing] Was she expecting a ballad?
Ripper: Yeah I
think she was thinking I was going to write a song about poverty and the
problems in the world, but it comes out with this heavy intro and she’s
like “That’s not what I wanted”. The intro is almost a verse in itself
to me because it doesn’t go along with any of the other verses. One
verse is about malaria in Africa and kids dying every day, and another
verse is about a polluted city in Russia that is so polluted that it
snows black. The intro is about other parts of the world, with kids in
the park playing and having a good time on the street or wherever they
are, and all of a sudden a suicide bomber comes long and the bombs go
off, gunfire starts and people are dying.
Ryan: All stuff that people can relate to with what’s going on in the
world today.
Ripper: Exactly.
Ryan: Could this be considered as one of the first socially conscious
songs that you’ve written?
Ripper: No I’ve
probably had them on the Beyond Fear CD. “Telling Lies” was more of a
political song. I was watching the news and they were talking about how
the president was full of lies. It wasn’t necessarily my opinion of the
whole thing, but I must have been watching CNN that day and not Fox
news, because if I had been watching Fox news they would have been
talking about how great President Bush was. So I actually had some songs
on that record, and there will be a few more on the next Beyond Fear
record as well.
Ryan:
Maybe it’s just my impression but it seems like on the title track that
you really put in a little extra something special into your vocal
performance to get inside the character of the song.
Ripper: Yeah. That was one of the earlier songs that I had written and
it changed a little bit over time, not really musically but vocally. I
think I roughed it up a little more. The song was really written about
NASCAR racing and I had taken a verse out years ago and shortened the
song. The verse I took out was the verse which you could tell the most
about the song. I don’t really watch NASCAR racing but I was at my Dad’s
house and he was watching it. It’s about a guy in a car going fast and
how you can’t stop him.
Ryan:
They do get a little crazy in NASCAR.
Ripper: They do. When I was watching it, the colors and people are a
blur, so that’s basically what it was about. It turned out being more
about anybody or myself and how you can’t stop me and that kind of
thing. It was fun to do.
Ryan: You definitely called in some favours because you’ve got a real
all-star cast of musicians on here. That being said did you ever
consider contacting anyone from Priest to contribute?
Ripper: I didn’t. I thought about contacting them but I figured they’re
just so busy and I didn’t see how it was going to happen. I didn’t see
how I could do it. When I looked at the schedule and saw that they
weren’t even in town, I just figured that I wouldn’t even try to get it
done. I’d love to for the next solo record, although there probably
won’t be as many guests next time, I’ll probably shrink it a bit. This
was the ‘lets get out there and do it’ album but the next one will
probably be at least half the musicians or whatever. This was the dream
album to make with everybody on it.
Ryan: Were you able to pull most of the musicians into the studio or did
they mail their parts in?
Ripper: I would be able to tell you more about the handful who didn’t do
it. Bobby Jarzombek was the only drummer to do his parts in his studio
or at Bob Kulick’s place in L.A. The guitar parts you could do, all the
rhythm parts were recorded in the studio and all the bass parts except
one, which was David Ellefson’s on “To Live Again”. Neil Zaza recorded
his solo at his studio here in Akron, he’s got a great studio so he did
that there.
Ryan:
It’s been a busy spring for you so far. You did a Japanese tour with
Yngwie You’ve been busy playing with Hail with David Ellefson ,Jimmy
DeGrasso and Andreas Kisser , you just got back from a rather extensive
tour of Mexico and in a few days you’re off to Europe with your band to
open some gigs for Heaven and Hell.
Ripper
: The Mexico thing was postponed until July because of the swine flu but
I’m actually going to be there for the whole month of July.
Ryan:
Just be careful when do go over there. If you start squealing like a pig
after you sneeze you know you’re in trouble.
Ripper: I know. I’ve made my own mask with an oxygen tank that I’m going
to carry behind me. It might look a little strange when I’m in Mexico
but you know.
Ryan: [laughing] You could bring it onstage with you.
Ripper: I also have one of those yellow suits so I can’t get touched at
all. My vocals might be muffled a little bit but they’ll understand.
Ryan: Next you’ll be singing onstage in a bubble.
Ripper: Don’t give me any ideas; all we need for a stage show is a band
in a bubble.
Ryan: You’ve certainly been piling up the frequent flyer miles.
Ripper: Yes I am. Just this past year I’ve been to Chile, Brazil then
Chile again, Japan, Greece, Turkey and Austria so it’s been a whirlwind.
The guys are flying in over the next few days, Simon Wright, David
Ellefson, Chris Caffery and Jon Comprix, who lives in Cleveland. It’s a
great line-up and a bunch of friends, its going to be great and I’m
really looking forward to it. We’re going to open up for Heaven and Hell
on some dates and we have our own headlining gig. We’ve got the Download
Festival and Sweden Rocks so it’s going to be pretty good.
Ryan:
Will you be taking this line-up around the States at some point?
Ripper: I hope I take this band or another all-star line-up. If David
can’t do any more gigs after these because he has other obligations,
then I have one guy who’s ready to go and that’s Dennis Hayes who’s in
Beyond Fear with me and he played on the record. He’s a local guy who’s
just awesome so I have him as backup. I can get Rudy Sarzo. The thing is
I can really make an amazing band out of it. It could always change and
I think that’s the attraction. You put the name up in lights and here
comes Tim “Ripper” Owens on a solo tour with his band, with their names
as big as mine; it’s a pretty good attraction. We could go all around
America at the House of Blues and do the smaller clubs and just do it.
On the other hand it would be great to get on as a supporting slot for
somebody to get more exposure.
Ryan:
Speaking of Yngwie I thought you kicked ass on his last record
Perpetual Flame. Nothing against his past singers but I thought
finally he decided to get a vocalist with some balls.
Ripper: [laughs] Well he’s had some great singers there’s no doubt about
that. I have a different style, but man having to go back and sing some
of the stuff from these vocalists, they’re really quite amazing. It was
fun and I’m looking forward to doing more work with him because it’s
definitely a great gig to have. We had so much fun in the studio and
touring so I’m looking forward to it
Ryan: Speaking of having fun tell me more about Hail because that
sounds like a blast. I saw the set list of songs you guys do and I tell
you what I’d go see that show.
Ripper: It is a lot of fun and that’s the whole reason why we did it. We
wanted to get out and play different places like Chile and Greece,
places you don’t go running to everyday with bands to play. That was the
thing that made it nice. It was put together to get into different areas
and to just let the fans see us in a different way, so it was a good
time.
Ryan: Last question for you Tim. You really haven’t had much time to
stop and catch your breath these past twelve years. Have there been
times where it’s all felt like a crazy dream?
Ripper: It has really. I’m definitely busier now than I’ve ever been in
my whole career. Looking back it’s been a crazy run you know? It’s
unbelievable to think about it, what I’ve done and the people that I’ve
worked with. It’s been unbelievable.
