KK's Priest have recorded "Never Satisfied" again, with Tim "Ripper" Owens singing it, and are giving it away. The song is from Rocka Rolla, the 1974 Judas Priest debut, and the new version comes with a video John Psaras directed, premiered by BraveWords.
What made it possible is a paperwork story. Reach Music have acquired the rights to Rocka Rolla and Sad Wings of Destiny, both of which are being remastered and reissued: the first is already out and the second is due in November. "That has actually freed the whole thing up," KK Downing says, "and has brought about a willingness and a want to be able to bring the albums to the surface again." Those two records spent decades with their original deals read as a cautionary tale, so hearing that the rights moved is the part of this a guitarist of his generation would notice first.
Downing frames the re recording as looking back along a career rather than competing with it. "It seemed like a good idea to, at this point in my career, in my life, span so many decades, just to turn the page back," he says, and mentions "other recordings that I enjoy connecting with again after so long", which reads like more than one song.
On the obvious comparison he is careful. Rob Halford sang the original; Owens sings this one. "Rob would be associated with the archive legacy, the original going back when," Downing says, "but obviously, Ripper is sort of capable of doing the same thing, but with a slightly different delivery and tonality of the voice." The band are on the road while it goes out, three years on from The Sinner Rides Again, with Owens still in front of them.