Making his first live appearance on stage for 10 years at the Bloodstock Festival in the summer seems to have reinvigorated his love of music. Metal Express Radio's Mick Burgess called up Judas Priest legend K.K. Downing, to chat about returning to the stage, the band's Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame nomination, his upcoming show with former Priest cohorts Les Binks and Tim "Ripper" Owens, and the prospect of re-joining Judas Priest for their 50th anniversary tour in 2020. Following is an excerpt from the interview.

Q: On November 3rd you`ve got a very special show at The Steelmill in Wolverhampton with Megadeth`s Dave Ellefson, which features your old mate Les Binks and Ripper Owens. Who came up with that idea?

Downing: "I`m not really sure how it came about now. After Bloodstock I had an awful lot of proposals. David said he was going to bring his band to England and do his bass story show.  He asked if I wanted to play along with him, doing a few covers.  He was only doing the one show at the Underworld in London so I asked him if he wanted to play at the Steel Mill in Wolverhampton as well.  It just went from there and he said he could bring Ripper over.  I said if he was bringing Ripper then I`d ask Les. It`s going to work out great.  We`ve got Blaze Bayley opening too so it`s going to be a great show.  Dave will do his Megadeth stuff, then we`ll go on as a five piece which will include guitarist AJ Mills from the band Hostile who comes from my neck of the woods. We`ve already had a rehearsal with Les and AJ and it sounds great."

Q: Ripper Owens stepped in at a difficult time for Priest in 1996.  It must be good hooking up with him again?

Downing: "I`ve been to a couple of shows when he`s been in England. We do stay in touch by email and speak on the phone. He`s a nice guy. I`m looking forward to playing with him again. I don`t think I`ll be missing anything that I used to have when I`m doing these shows, if you know what I mean. Les and Ripper are incredible. Dave is a great bass player and I wouldn`t have selected AJ if I didn`t think that he couldn`t do my job, Glenn`s job or Ritchie`s job."

Q: Looking forward into 2020, what plans do you have?  

Downing: "I think there`s such a legacy of songs that I`ve already done so first and foremost if I was going to do anything I`ll just get back out there and play live again. I`m 67 now and you can lock yourself away forever writing and recording but you might never get out onto the road and that`s the important part for me, to get out and play."

Read the complete interview here.