SCOTT TRAVIS

The former Racer X drummer was already a Priest fan before he joined them in 1989, and he was also in Rob Halford’s side project Fight.

Were you a big Judas Priest fan growing up? Absolutely. A friend of mine had Unleashed In The East on cassette, and one time we were riding around in my car and he ended up leaving it. So I borrowed it and I loved it. Then, like most fans, I went backwards and started. The first time I saw them was on [1981’s] the Point Of Entry tour. Iron Maiden with Paul Di’Anno were opening up for them. Did you see them and think: “One day that’ll be me up there on the drums?” Ha! Here’s the deal. I grew up on the Les Binks era – Hell Bent For Leather (aka Killing Machine in Europe) is my favourite album to this day. When they got in Dave Holland, they still wrote great songs, but when I saw them in concert I was like: “Man, that drummer doesn’t seem to be pulling his weight.” I was a big fan of the music and the image, but it felt like it was missing something there. How did you end up becoming Priest’s drummer nearly ten years later? I was in the band Racer X. Our singer, Jeff Martin, had been in a band called Surgical Steel, in Phoenix, and he’d known Rob from just hanging out on the local rock scene. So when Rob mentioned to Jeff one day that they were looking for a drummer, he said: “You gotta check out my guy Scott.” He threw my name into the hat, and then the band flew me over to Spain in the latter part of 1989 to audition. Your introduction to Priest fans was the drumming that opens 1990’s Painkiller album, on the title track. That’s a hell of a way to start. Oh yeah. When you’re a drummer you want a signature opening drum riff – Zeppelin’s Rock And Roll, Van Halen’s Hot For Teacher. I guess that one was mine. You were in Rob’s side-project Fight as well as Priest. Wasn’t that awkward? No, it was really cool. Rob asked me if I wanted to be part of Fight. I asked Glenn and Ian and KK if they were okay with it and they said absolutely. They thought it was good to keep at least two members of Priest in the same solo project. Did you ever try to broker peace between the two sides? No, I just stayed out of it and didn’t get involved. How do you look back on the two Priest albums you made with Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens? They’re different. They obviously wanted the sound to be different, they didn’t want to drop in a singer who sounded just like Rob, even though Ripper has a lot of elements that can sound like Rob. But they were what they were. Who’s arse-kicker-in-chief in Priest these days? Well Glenn’s always been the one, musically speaking. He’s the one going: “Here’s the ideas, here’s what we want to do.” But you can’t do anything in rock’n’roll without a singer, and Rob’s a great songwriter and a great lyricist. What’s Rob Halford really like? [Laughs] Well, he’s a big fan of his own flatulence. No, one thing I’ll never get is when I flew to Spain to audition. I had a long, long flight back. I’m getting ready to leave, and he calls me: “I can’t say for sure you’ve got that gig, but I want you to feel confident, wink wink.” He knew I had long flight, so that was a classy thing to do. Priest got through a lot of drummers before you came along. What’s your secret? Dude, I don’t know. I was a Priest fan before and I’m still a Priest fan now. I’d listen to them now.