Interview by Kris Peters
Ripper Owens has returned to Australia, but this time he is on his own. Not literally, of course, but for the first time in recent memory, Ripper comes Down Under with a clean slate and no pre-existing musical obligations by way of bands and/or collaborations.
As such he is free to pull songs from a vast and varied network spent fronting iconic acts including Judas Priest, Iced Earth, Yngwie Malmsteen, Dio's Disciples, The Three Tremors, KK's PRIEST and the incredibly ferocious RIPPER - a collaborative project spearheaded by Hatebreed's Jamey Jasta.
Joined by the Metallic luminary of brothers Joel & Jordan McDonald, Andrew Hudson and Voya Mulitinovic, Ripper’s live assault will be molten as hell… And if you crave anything less - You've Got Another Thing Coming…
Ripper's unique skills tore open a fairytale career, across the biggest stages in the world. This run of shows will showcase the absolute, toughest cuts from Ripper's world of Heavy Metal. Expect huge hits, deep dives, virtuosic shred, and a heap of fists in the air, full cavalry style, head-banging glory.
HEAVY caught up with Ripper during some rare downtime on the road.
We bring up the fact that with so much material to draw from, choosing a set list to appease the masses must seem like an impossible and thankless task.
 "It is," he nodded. "It is just as it is with anybody. It's the same with KK's Priest, isn't it? We do a lot of KK stuff… probably half and half, but a thing we don't do is a lot of my era of Judas Priest. We do one song, so people complain a lot about that. But it's the same with every band and every artist out there. It's always a pain in the butt and a challenge to make a set list. You will not make everybody happy, and to be honest, in this day and age it's impossible. They're gonna complain. Just by reading comments on posts of mine on social media, people know everything. They know exactly how I should look, sound, what clothes I should wear, what set lists I should have, so you're not gonna make everybody happy. It's really hard to do, and you nailed it. People wanna hear Winters Bane, my first band I released something with, so it is tough, but you've gotta do it. I've toured doing these songs. I know for my South America tour I have coming up I have added Bloodstained in the set list and we might do Jugulator, but it's tough to do it."
In the full interview, Ripper tells us what to expect from his shows, his backing band and why he chose them, his recent collaborations with aspiring musicians, musical freedom, what he gets out of playing in so many bands, challenging yourself musically and more.