Ex Judas Priest guitarist K K Downing has revealed that the release of his latest album, The Sinner Rides Again has re-energised him. The second release since his departure from the legendary metal band, Downing’s new project K K’s Priest has drawn favourable reviews from critics and fans alike.

Following the guitarist’s exit in 2011, from what many consider an essential founding band in the metal genre, Downing believed he would never again embrace music the same way or, for that matter, ever create new music with a completely different band. But 10 years on from his split, Downing founded a new project and released the K K’s Priest’s debut effort, 2021’s Sermons Of The Sinner. The album featured ex Judas Priest frontman Tim “Ripper” Owens and drew the inevitable comparisons to the artists’s former band.

Despite the parallels, a new sense of creativity and desire to make music was rekindled in Downing who, speaking on Loudwire’s podcast Loudwire Nights, said, “I’ve never been a religious person, but as a juvenile delinquent when I was young, I did find music and it put me on a good path. It was a righteous path because it gave me a goal. It gave me motivation in life and it became my salvation because I was in fear of going off the rails.”

Downing simply never envisioned having to make the decision to write and record new music with a different band other than Judas Priest. Downing continued, “I was loyal and devoted and dedicated. I never went anywhere else — my whole life was Judas Priest … I always thought I’d step back into Judas Priest, but that opportunity is not there. I asked if it was there before I started [KK’s Priest] and they said, ‘No, the door is closed.’ It is what it is.”

Downing cited multiple reasons for leaving Judas Priest, the band he had been a member of since its inception in 1969, which included a persistent breakdown in the relationship within various elements of the band. After Glenn Tipton was forced to leave the group due to health issues, Downing felt the opportunity to re-join Judas Priest was wide open, but the band never approached him and the chance never materialised.

Although Downing is not a member of Judas Priest anymore and feelings between the two camps may be slightly less than amicable, the guitarist has stated that he feels the band will always be an integral part of who he is and a driving force behind the music he continues to create.

K K’s Priest’s The Sinner Rides Again was released on 29 September and can be purchased here.