K.K. Downing has filed the first of a series of dispatches from the KK'S PRIEST tour of North America, where the band are supporting W.A.S.P. on a six-week run that opened September 10 in El Cajon, California and ends on Halloween in Anaheim.
"I think it's now nine shows in 10 days. Totally awesome," he reported. "We kicked off in El Cajon, in San Diego, and [we're] working our way up. We went to Santa Fe for the first time. [I'd] never been there before. Absolutely fantastic." He got the full tourist afternoon out of it: the historic old town, the oldest church in the country, built in 1610, and a climb aboard "one of those great big heavy metal railway engines at the famous Santa Fe Railroad". The town had been in his head a long time. "I'd been watching and been aware of Santa Fe since I was a kid watching the Westerns on the telly in the '50s, '60s growing up."
By the time he wrote, the tour was in Texas — a good show in Dallas, San Antonio that night, then Houston, Florida, up the East Coast toward New York and Canada. He was staying, as it happened, at a hotel directly across from the Alamo. "I did go there once, I think in the '70s, but it's been a long time."
On the headliners he was unreserved. "Obviously, we're out here with the legendary W.A.S.P., total awesome outfit. Blackie has no trouble turning back the clock to whatever year you want. He delivers it with the same presence, show, performance — absolutely brilliant."
The part that clearly pleases him most is the set. KK'S PRIEST are playing twelve songs, weighted toward the JUDAS PRIEST catalogue Downing co-wrote, and two of them — "You've Got Another Thing Comin'" and "Heading Out To The Highway" — had never been performed by this band before. "I've definitely been bringing back some classics — 'The Sentinel', 'Turbo Lover', 'Heading Out To The Highway', whatever, some favorites from the past," he said. "And it's great to see those old classic songs going down so well with some of the newer, younger fans. Also, obviously, a lot of the older fans that were there at the time obviously really seem to appreciate bringing back the classics."
The set also includes a pair of songs from each KK'S PRIEST album, 2021's "Sermons Of The Sinner" and 2023's "The Sinner Rides Again".
Alongside Downing, the touring line-up is fellow JUDAS PRIEST alumnus Tim "Ripper" Owens on vocals, guitarist A.J. Mills, bassist Anthony Wall and drummer Sean Elg. Downing formed the band after JUDAS PRIEST declined his offer to rejoin for their 50th-anniversary tour; it made its live debut in July 2023 at his own venue, KK's Steel Mill in Wolverhampton.