The Ram It Down tour was notable for it being the first Priest UK tour in four years (reportedly bringing out rock luminaries like Robert Plant). The metal pioneers continued to play arenas, but sales and interest were starting to slide, even though this latest platter was another gold record. Change was in the wind as a new generation of metal bands were gaining momentum on Priest's metal god status, while thrash - a musical strain which Priest helped create - was starting to become more widely accepted

Downing compares the situation to their 1979 tour. "When we did that tour with Kiss, I think that it probably did them more harm than good in some ways. Where what they did was going slowly out-of-date and what we did was fast coming-in-date. We were more touchable, reachable, more street if you like at the time, believe it or not, in the denim and leather, as opposed to the untouchable superhero people. We had real faces and real names." At the time of the following Painkiller tour "the time again was changing because then you had bands like Pantera, Anthrax, and Sepultura, [and metal] was becoming even more street. So you could see Kiss and Judas Priest, Judas Priest and Pantera, and you can see everybody's becoming more street. The fear of being pretentious was creeping into certain people's minds."

The band needed something to revitalize it, a new direction, a new angle. An unexpected change came when long-time drummer Dave Holland decided to retire from the band due to a family illness. "I don't think you'll find anybody'll knock Dave, but it was time to move on, time to change gear really," says Tipton. "And Priest has always been known for people who could handle double kicks. It gave us the ability to do the faster-paced numbers, which is more Priest. With Dave Holland, we wrote the songs around his capabilities. And again, it's no disrespect, because the albums we did were good albums."

Scott Travis ended up learning about Priest's need for a drummer through bandmate Martin, and through another mutual friend, the drummer obtained the band's address and sent them some Racer X albums as credentials. After liking what they heard, the band placed Travis on a short list of drummers and then flew him out to Spain for an audition. "It was very interesting because of where they decided to hold it," he recalls. "They were living in Spain at the time, and they apparently rented this other vacant house which used to be a sugar mill."

The agile skinbeater experienced major culture shock when he ventured from the convenience-laden Southern California landspace to Southern Spain's more humble lifestyle to audition for the band. "He wasn't too pleased about the fact that there's no phones in Spain. Or 7-11s," says Tipton. "But other than that it was great." Travis played three older songs at his audition, then was asked to come up with some ideas for their new material from a rough demo they gave him. Travis and the band soon clicked. Downing felt that he could now work out some serious chops to go with Travis' intense rhythmic prowess and double-bass drumming: "With the introduction of Scott into the band, it was a new lease on life really."

The ferocious and brilliant Painkiller was a powerful return to form for Priest, and was recorded right before the infamous subliminal messages trial in the summer of 1990. In fact, the tension arising from that situation fueled their creative fire. And for the first time in eleven years, the band decided to try a new producer, Chris Tsangerides, their engineer from Sad Wings Of Destiny. Painkiller also became their first album to receive a long overdue Grammy nomination. "We dug our teeth in on that album and was not about to let anything deter us," proclaims Downing. "Hence 'Painkiller,' 'All Guns Blazing,' 'Leather Rebel,' 'Touch Of Evil' - everything about that album was going 'do your worst' basically." Once again, they were preparing for battle. "We knew the court case was looming up fast and furious. There was lots of paperwork going back and forth while we were in the studio, and we went from a period where we thought it was a joke to taking it very seriously. [When] we were being booked for depositions, we knew that it was going to happen."

The Reno, Nevada-based court case also brought to light a little-known fact about the band - that they engaged in charity work. This may have never surfaced on trial, but the band did mention it in a 1990 interview with Metal Hammer. Downing explains that they have often visited seriously or terminally ill fans who have wanted to meet the band. "There was one person who had a serious accident and they had to bring him to one of the concerts on one of these life-support [systems] with this breathing apparatus." Another time, the band visited terminally ill kids at a ward within John Hopkins in Cincinnati. Downing sees such things as "just part and parcel of the job really." The band's manager, Bill Curbishley, has been recognized for his major fund-raising events in the music industry through his Trinifold Management company. "That's why [there's] the irony with people who give Judas Priest the black mark," states Downing. Once again, it comes down to their lack of pretentiousness. "We never come up with or keep a catalog of what we actually do," whether it be visits, auctioning items, or making donations.

On a similar note, to avoid any appearance of exploiting the court case, the band delayed the release of Painkiller until it was all over. Needless to say, the band were victorious, but the media frenzy around it at the time was quite charged, and they had unfortunately spent weeks listening to absurd, pointless rants from reactionary conservatives. The case brought up questions of people taking responsibilities for their own actions, a topic which documentary filmmaker David Van Taylor aptly captured in his movie "Dream Deceivers," which chronicled the disturbing, surreal history of the case and was aired on PBS.

Once the legal nastiness was out of the way, the band finally released Painkiller, shot a video for the title track, performed at Foundations Forum (where they played "Better By You, Better Than Me" for the first time in a decade), then embarked on another world tour. Considered by many to be Priest's finest hour, and offering brilliant soloing, Painkiller was a top 30 record Stateside. It quickly went gold, received rave reviews, and reestablished Priest as a prominent metal force, proving that they still had something to say. The album's best song, "A Touch Of Evil," was co-authored by Tsangerides and became a Top 30 radio rock track and the album's second video.

Their successful Painkiller tour included a spot on Rock In Rio II in Brazil before 200,000 screaming fans. Its last leg was the ill-fated Operation Rock 'n' Roll, a Desert Storm-themed package tour which also featured Alice Cooper and Motorhead among others. "When we look back in hindsight, it was probably the last tour that went out before no tours went out," states Downing. "It was the end of the wonderful period. I know that the Ozz Fest went out and that did well, but I'm talking about tours going out in abundance in the summer and all doing well. It was just a start of the big live recession that we're still experiencing."

A year later in 1992, Judas Priest would experience a personal recession when Rob Halford decided to quit and pursue a power metal project called Fight. At first the band were not sure if Halford's departure would be permanent, and when Travis requested the opportunity to play with Fight while Priest were deciding their course of action, they agreed. Perhaps it left the door open for a reconciliation. But after awhile it became apparent that Halford - who had left the band via fax - was not coming back. The band were understandably shattered by the loss, and many loyal followers were equally devastated.

To accommodate their fans in the interim, the group released the well-received double-CD compilation and companion documentary video Metalworks: '73-'93. They began seeking out a new singer as Tipton worked on solo material for his stellar 1997 release Baptizm Of Fire. Priest received over 1,000 tapes from singers all over the globe and whittled the short list down to fifteen candidates. Tipton admits that, talented as they were, none of them would have really fit Priest, but it was going to be very difficult filling Halford's shoes, if not damn near impossible. Enter Tim Owens, the singer for metal band Winters Bane and grunge cover band called Seattle. Previous to Seattle, Owens played Rob Halford in the Priest tribute band British Steel.

Travis had actually been aware of Owens. He had been bugged by friends to see British Steel because they thought Ripper would be a great singer for Priest. "I was like 'yeah, whatever,' because we've all heard stories of supernatural musicians playing in clubs," recalls Travis. "Simultaneously I had this friend in upstate New York, and she was also aware of Tim, had seen British Steel, and she was saying 'you should take this videotape I have of British Steel over to England when you go and let the guys see it.'" He was getting it from two angles. "He's lucky I didn't get his number," quips Owens. "I would've called him, too."

"Tim wasn't aware that Priest was even looking or that I had possession of this videotape, because it wasn't a tape that came from the band, it was a tape shot by a fan in another city," says Travis. When the band saw it, they were flabbergasted but also very skeptical. They called Owens to question its authenticity, and when Ripper confirmed that that was him singing, they flew him out to England to audition in early 1996.

"I walked in, and they said 'go ahead and get some sleep, we'll do it tomorrow,'" recalls Owens. "I looked at them and said 'You got to be nuts. I'm going to fly all this way and be able to go to sleep? Let's do it now.' We did 'Victim of Changes'. After the first line, Glenn hit the button and said 'all right, Owens, you've got the gig.' And he started laughing, and it was like 'ah, OK.' So I sang the rest and he walked in and said 'you got it.' When I came back, I wasn't allowed to tell anybody that I made the band [except] my parents." From there, work commenced on Jugulator. Having parted amicably with Sony, the band started their own label, Priest Music Ltd., and now have ultimate creative control over their work, including the choice of who distributes their music.