Heavy Duty: Days & Nights In Judas Priest by KK Downing

Anyone who has followed Judas Priest throughout their career knows the sonic contributions of guitar player KK Downing. But in his new memoir, Heavy Duty: Days & Nights In Judas Priest, the British blonde six-string slinger tells you just how much he did, without making himself appear like he’s bragging. In fact, he’s almost nonchalant about things, as if having a beer and a chat in a local pub, writing about his life as a rock star in a most unassuming way. Like, this is what happened, good or bad, and then he just moves onto the next story.

If the reader is looking for some mud-slinging or vivid details of groupie encounters, they won’t find it in here. He reveals just enough to promote savory imaginations to run with his words. But he also doesn’t hide his grievances either. He’s quite open with most everything – about his non-love for a just-starting-out Iron Maiden, friction with co-guitarist Glenn Tipton, being outvoted and overruled regarding certain ideas for songs, partying while recording and how he first suggested the leather and studs look that has become synonymous with Judas Priest. In fact, throughout the 275 pages, he really doesn’t appear to be holding grudges or sharpening claws on his bandmates’ backs.

Downing’s most emotional part of the book is his revelations about his childhood. With a father who had weird, to put it lightly, ways of childrearing and an addiction to the races, it’s a wonder the son turned out to be as grounded as he did in adulthood. “He had this strange mix of hypochondria and obsessive-compulsive disorder,” Downing writes early in the book about his father. The phobias became everyone’s torches to bear and his childhood was one Downing would prefer to have kept stored quietly in the dust bunnies of his most inner brain. But being a memoir, he is almost obliged to reveal what made him into the man he is today, and that includes allowing a few glimpses at the man who made him. “It was pathetic, really. He was meant to love and care for us. Instead we were just pawns in his game.”

But music became a beacon to the future for Downing, especially after being enlightened by Jimi Hendrix. “As dark and moody as his music could be, it was also so very colorful to me,” he writes upon discovering the American-born guitar player. “It all felt so unique, exciting and new and I realized that I needed all of these feelings in my life.” Downing continues on about buying a guitar, joining a band and auditioning for Judas Priest.

With forty-plus years in the band that would give the metal world such hits as “Another Thing Comin’,” “Breaking The Law” and “Turbo Lover,” Downing has lots of stories to tell. Being a “heart-on-the-sleeve type of person,” though, he never deviates into trash talking, except when sharing his grievances toward the aforementioned Iron Maiden, whom he found young and arrogant when they toured with Priest upon the release of their debut album in 1980. Downing touches very discreetly on Rob Halford’s sexuality, spending more time on his singing ability and his departure from the band, the suicide of a fan and the PMRC’s attempt to censor music.

In the end, Downing just became “totally sick of it all.” He was, “traveling in planes, boats and trains to all corners of the globe to play for fans who seemed to worship me like I was a god, doing interviews, signing autographs. But despite all of that, I still felt, I’m in a bloody nine-to-five job here.” So he left the band, the stardom, the late party nights and long tour bus hours. That was 2011. Now in 2018, we finally get to read all about the highs and lows as he lived through them and it’s honestly hard to put down until the end.

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