An interview with legendary guitarist/keyboardist KEN HENSLEY (ex-URIAH HEEP) was conducted by the webmasters of the K. K. Downing (of JUDAS PRIEST) website while Ken was in Finland late last year. Here are a few excerpts from the chat:

Q: Your latest solo album was all about personal stories; Blood On The Highway. How has the response been?

Hensley: "Very good. I’ve been really, really busy since the record came out in May last year. Of course it didn’t go to number one or anything like that but so far I think it’s sold 40 000 copies in Europe. And it sells steadily about the same number of copies every month. And it’s not just the CD, but also the book and the DVD. It’s a trilogy, a title which is carried by three products. I’m very satisfied with the way it’s been selling, very satisfied with the critical response. There must be something happening which is good."

Q: The early years at Uriah Heep were an extremely creative period, and there’s a chain of great classic albums done in a very short time span (Salisbury ’70, Look At Yourself ’71, Demons And Wizards & The Magician’s Birthday ’72, Sweet Freedom & solo album Proud Words From The Dusty Shelf ’73). Where did such creativity came from?

Hensley: "Well, we were doing two albums a year, or maybe one album in every ten months. No one does it anymore and it was ridiculous. And albums like The Magician’s Birthday suffered because of this scheduling. Also my song writing really started to suffer when I became more addicted to cocaine.

Then I really lost my focus, my focus was entirely on the drug. Everything else was second. So it had a big effect on everybody. We had guys in the band who were alcoholics and some of them were drug addicts. This all developed in late 1972, early 1973 and as a result, everything went right down. We couldn’t see it and blamed it on something else. But I believe I was born to write songs. I believe that’s my purpose on earth, my purpose in life because now I’m writing more songs than ever before in my whole life.

Partially that’s because of where I live, which is very peaceful and I don’t have the noise of the world in my head. And partially because when writing my book and the songs for Blood On The Highway and particularly writing the song called 'I Did It All' I realized that’s what I’m here for. I’m here to write songs, that’s what I do. And that’s why I started my song writing school because I can teach other people to do what I do very easily. Once I realized that’s my main gift, I focus more on writing, not so much on singing or trying to be a virtuoso musician.

My true belief is that inspiration comes from a supernatural source. I’m Christian as you probably know so I just happen to believe that God is using me to say things He wants to say to people. I don’t know why and I won’t find out while I’m alive but that’s my job. And I think it wouldn’t be possible for any normal person to be able to write so many songs without some kind of supernatural source of inspiration. Songs come to me in the most silliest ways, so that’s my belief."

Q: Why do think Uriah Heep never got the same recognition as LED ZEPPELIN and DEEP PURPLE, because you did have many great rock songs and hit singles? Yet Heep never did 20 minute jams on stage like those other groups.

Hensley: "Well I don’t know. We were a little more manufactured I guess because we had a record deal from the beginning and we were very pampered, we had a good management and the press in England especially thought we were just over hyped. They really didn’t give us the credit I think the band deserved. But musically I don’t think we were as good as Led Zeppelin or Deep Purple. As a group of musicians most them were better than us. We just didn’t quite reach that same level. Certainly we were very successful, maybe we didn’t go as far as some of those other bands but that’s okay."

To read the entire interview head to this location.

Uriah Heep - 'The Wizard':