A 15-year-old girl interviews Judas Priest drummer Scott Travis

Judas Priest was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022, and it was only a few months ago it became apparent that this is not an actual person, but a band.

These specifics were not covered in history class.

The group, which started in 1974, is cited as one of the forefathers of heavy metal. Some of the band members have changed out, but Judas Priest keeps playing. The group is currently on the road with their 50th anniversary tour, “50 Heavy Metal Years.” The tour is a celebration of their first album, “Rocka Rolla,” which has been digitally remastered and re-released.

Judas Priest is scheduled to play The Pavilion at the Toyota Music Factory on Saturday, Oct. 26.

The band’s drummer, Scott Travis, was nice enough to talk to the Star-Telegram about the history of the group, how it would do on “The Voice,” and whether the classic movie “This is Spinal Tap” is accurate.

(The part of the interview where the school principal’s announcements were broadcast over the intercom was deleted. Yes, that happened.)

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Star-Telegram: What are the differences now to performing a live show in 2024 as opposed to when you first started?

Scott Travis: That’s a good question. We’ve seen the audience age as we have. Most of the audience is about our same age in our 50s and 60s, and so we’ve seen that continued growth. In other words, the audience has aged as we have, which is a good thing. That means they’ve with us for 20, 30, and in this case, 50 years of the band’s career.

The other unique thing over the past, especially 10 years, we’ve definitely seen the younger audience grow. The majority is still the older audience, but we’ve definitely seen a younger audience rise up. It’s always great to see people in their 20s or late teens that come to shows, because we hope they stick with us for the remainder of our career.

S-T: I’m a little nervous.

Scott Travis: It’s totally fine. You’re fine.

S-T: Is it true that your first audition for the band was when you handed a tape of you performing to the members of the group after a show they gave at Hampton Coliseum?

Scott Travis: That is 100 percent true. My goal was not only to see the band live in person, but was to meet somebody in the band, or many people in the band, and let them know that I was the drummer they needed. And of course, this would have been around 1981. It was literally eight years later that I auditioned for the band. It was October, or November, that they flew me over to audition for the band.

So to go from Norfolk or Hampton, Virginia in 1981 to actually auditioning for the band in Spain in 1989 ... I still don’t know how that happened.

S-T: Were you ever expecting that to happen when you first handed in your tape?

Scott Travis: When you’re young and you’re enthusiastic, you don’t have any barriers. So you don’t use a lot of common sense. I didn’t have a lot of things in my brain that were telling me, ‘No, no, this isn’t going to work.’ Because you’re just going to go for it. And I was very determined.

I was very determined to get out of the small town that I was born and raised in and had played many, many clubs and rock bands. I wanted to expand my career, my horizons, and see the world and do things. The best way to do that was being a rock and roll musician. But no, it’s not something you really think is going to happen, but at the same time you don’t have a reason why it won’t happen. That’s the beauty of it.

S-T: Do you think metal has an audience with a younger generation?

Scott Travis: Judas Priest is an older rock band, so naturally we have a lot of fans. I’ll give you an example, like myself. I’m 63 so if I wasn’t in Judas Priest, I would still be a fan. I’d go see them when they came around and played my town. I’d probably still be handing them tapes at 63, ‘Hey, man, I still want to get in the band!’ I’d probably still be doing that.

I’m sure Elton John has fans that are that are his age, or Billy Joel, artists like that. But yes, we’ve definitely seen a, I won’t even call it a resurgence. I’ll just call it a surge of younger metal heads who I think hear about certain bands, whether it’s us or Iron Maiden or KISS, or other famous bands, that have been around a long time, like AC/DC, and I think they just gravitate because good music is good music, whether it was written and recorded in the 70s, 90s, 2000s.

S-T: You all recently released a digital version of ‘Rocka Rolla,’ after it was made 50 years ago. Your band mates, specifically Rob Halford, said they didn’t like the original version when it was first released. What were you able to do this time to make it the recording that you all wanted?

Scott Travis: Well, that’s a good question. I’m just speaking generally, and I’m also using my own personal experience because always as an artist, as a musician, your first recording, whether it’s an actual vinyl record or a CD, or cassette tape, is very special because it’s your first one. It’s something you finally have a physical copy of that you can give to your friends and your family members.

And of course, if it’s being sold and distributed around the world, that’s even that’s even better. But looking back on everyone’s first recording, you probably wish you could have done things differently or had more of a budget, be able to spend more money in recording and make it sound better. So I’m sure that was the goal of Rob and Ian (Hill), is to to upgrade the sound and maybe just just have it sound better as the ultimate goal.

S-T: Are the differences from the old track in the new track just technology upgrades, like sound and quality?

Scott Travis: Exactly. Nothing was changed with the actual original recording back then, everything was recorded on two-inch magnetic tape. And so what is recorded is what’s recorded, but you can do things digitally to what they call ‘digitally remastering,’ so it just somehow upgrades the sound.

S-T: What are the challenges of joining a band when you aren’t an original member?

Scott Travis: Good question.. In my situation, it was great because I joined a famous band, in other words, a band that had already made it, let’s be honest. Through the years of being in the band, now 34 years, and we played lots of shows and lots of concerts, and we always have opening band, opening guests, and I get to see firsthand how other bands travel and how they live and how they tour.

I was able to kind of leapfrog over that sort of, dare I say, struggling part; be in a band that was already famous and already able to play big arenas and big shows and things like that. So that was a blessing, for sure.

S-T: All of these years later, what is about metal that resonates with the audience?

Scott Travis: Also, good question; Vivian, you might have a career at this. You have to really speak from the heart, and you have to speak from personal experience. For me, it’s just the love of the music. I’ve always liked, I guess you call it ‘heavy metal’ music.

Nowadays there’s so many branches and variations of heavy metal, but I still like kind of the same music I did in the 70s and 80s. I still go back to the stations and the style of music I grew up on the radio with and the same thing with the heavy metal stuff. I still like mostly the same music and the bands I did in the 70s and 80s.

S-T: Do you think if Judas Priest was starting out and performed on a TV show like ‘The Voice’ or ‘America’s Got Talent,’ that the judges would go crazy and love it?

Scott Travis: Wow. That’s a really good question. I don’t know, I guess? Of course, it depends on the song we chose to play and our outfits. Because here’s one thing that I don’t know the answer to, that I’ll play along. Yeah, we get a thumbs up, or 10 out of 10.

The one thing about those show it’s still visually important to be a performer, because those shows are all about television. Television is usually your eyes first and then your ears secondary.

And so that’s always, not always, but that’s also been part of the playbook of being in a rock and roll band. You have to sound good, but you have to look the part. In the case of Judas Priest, it started with leather and studs and the motorcycle and all that sort of heavy metal imagery. So if that were just coming out today, and no one had done it yet, yeah, I think it would have an impact on people, for sure.

I don’t think we could reinvent the wheel and do anything more outlandish that the band didn’t start doing 20 years ago.

S-T: Has anyone on social media or anywhere confused you for Travis Scott?

Scott Travis: Funny you should say that. When I was waiting for you (on Zoom), the name said ‘Travis Scott.’ So, you’re going to have a lot of disappointed people here. Of course they’re going to blame you, and I’m fine with that. You’re in trouble. You’re going to have to answer for that.

S-T: What is Judas Priest’s legacy to rock and roll?

Scott Travis: We’re in, now literally, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which, which we were lucky enough to be nominated and inducted into, but even if that had never happened, I mean, obviously Judas Priest is going to be considered one of the legends of and one of the forefathers of heavy metal music.

S-T: OK, last question, have you seen ‘This Is Spinal Tap?’

Scott Travis: Oh, yeah, it’s mandatory; by the way, Vivian, if you’re ever going to be in a rock band, you have to watch that movie. You’re going to either to live moments of that movie, or you’ve already lived moments of that movie.

So by the time I’d seen the movie, I’d already been in a couple of local rock bands, so I was very familiar (with the movie); it struck a lot of nerves. As far as, ‘Oh, yeah, we’ve done that.’ I know exactly what that is, and it’s 100 percent accurate.

S-T: Thank you so much. This is great. Look forward to the show.

Scott Travis: Thank you very much. See you guys.

Vivian Engel is the daughter of Star-Telegram columnist Mac Engel,who helped with the editing and questions. Before preparing for this interview, she thought Judas Priest was a person.