Back and forth breakups
While some veteran bands are learning to move forward with new members, others choose to piece together the pieces of the past they find with varying degrees of musical success. This is the case with Guns 'N' Roses and Judas Priest, two aging bands who will soon be visiting Barcelona after traumatic breakups and a reconciliation that comes with a few extra pounds, a white beard, and a slightly bruised voice.
The reunion of Axl Rose and Slah has been one of the longest and most twisted soap operas in recent years in the music scene, matched only by the recent fallout between the Gallagher brothers in Oasis. The departure of the top-hatted guitarist in 1996 definitively ended the adrift lineup and left the band's name in the hands of the vocalist. Thus began a period of hiatus during which Slash combined solo albums with his participation in Velvet Revolver alongside his former bandmates Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum. Meanwhile, Axl, owner of the band's label, dedicated himself to recruiting musicians for a new album that took 12 years to release under the title Chinese Democracy and which led to his performance in Spain in 2006, accompanied by Izzy Stradlin.
The peace treaty between Axl and Slash was celebrated in April with a performance at the legendary Troubadour club in Los Angeles, also featuring bassist Duff McKagan. The three, supported by the musicians Axl had recruited for his band (Frank Ferrer on drums, Dizzy Reed on keyboards, and Richard Fortus on guitar), announced a new tour that will stop in Bilbao, Madrid, and Barcelona, where the band will perform for the second time (third, if you count the 1993 concert) on June 9.
Few voices in the world of heavy metal are as distinctive as that of Rob Haltford, an unmistakable figurehead of Judas Priest since their birth in 1970s England. His departure in 1992 to front the band Fight left fans of the voice that immortalized Breaking the Law, Electric Eye, and Painkiller orphaned. And although his replacement, American Tim Ripper Owens, soon demonstrated great skill as a vocalist, he was unable to overcome the ghost of his predecessor. Hence, Haltford, who in 1998 went public with a homosexuality already known to the band and those around him, announced his return to Judas, while Ripper Owens was dismissed with the same, or more, elegance with which Leire Martín was dismissed from La Oreja de Van Gogh.
Ripper's "revenge" came years later following the departure of guitarist Kenneth Keith Downing from Judas Priest, an abandonment that once again left the band limping, and which in 2019 gave rise to KK's Priest in the musician's return to the stage after a decade of fallow. To accompany him, he recruited the ousted singer, with whom he has recorded two new albums and continues to perform, interpreting Judas Priest songs, as could be seen last year at the same RockFest that this year (June 29) will host the mother band, where in addition to Halford there is bassist Ian Hill, the only member of the original line-up, as well as guitarist Glenn Tipton, who limits his performances due to Parkinson's disease.
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