Gull Records owns all the rights to any recordings Priest made while they were under that label. That includes all studio albums, demos etc. but not the songs themselves. The copyright of those still reside with the writers (a reason why most of the Priest compilations use live versions of the older tracks to avoid having to pay licensing fees to Gull). Meanwhile, Gull can license those two albums however they please, which has led to the abundance of reissues and -packagings of them. In fact, because the band members and management wanted Metalogy to contain songs from every studio album, they had to license a couple of old tracks from Gull because no recordings of those songs recorded after Priest broke with Gull exist. Although why they didn't use a live version of Tyrant instead of the studio track on the compilation is a bit of a mystery...
Sorry for the misunderstanding, let me rephrase, replace own with controlled. To me, if someone has that much power and control over what you do, they "own" you. So, when I say "own", I mean that the record company controlled what Rob did as well as everything that Priest did. They had control over what Rob did, including his solo career if he stayed in Priest while doing it. He didn't want them to be able to dictate what his solo album would sound like or whether he could tour, etc., so he quit Priest to break the contract. It pisses me off that record labels have that much control over the artists, but they do. I don't mean that Priest and Rob don't own the rights to their own material, they do own them (except for the first two albums on Gull). But the record label decides what they can and can't do and what they must do to fulfill their contract. It is in that sense that the record company "owns" them, by dictating what they have to do to fulfill the terms of the contract and Priest really doesn't have a lot of say in it. As for Gull, I do believe that Gull actually owns the rights to those songs like you said and I do think they have to pay them to use them, but I'm not sure either. I always thought that they should re-record those two albums and then release them and screw Gull over, but I bet they can't if Gull actually owns the rights to those songs. (Quoting Message by Head banger from Monday, May 16, 2011 1:42:48 PM)
Head banger wrote:
Rob had to leave the band to release solo material, but I dont think that the record lable owned the work he did with the band. I could be wrong though.
HOT ROCKIN' METAL GODDESS wrote:
What I meant was, we'll see how involved with the album KK was when it comes out based on the writing credits. Seems to me he was very involved considering the album is almost finished according to Rob. I have a feeling this had more to do with the record company telling them that if the new album is released, they were required to tour that album for x amount of time. Then things snowballed from there.
Rob had stated many times that the record company "owned" whatever he wrote when he was in Priest, whether it was solo or with Priest. They controlled what he would do in his solo career and he wanted to get his own contract and not be bound to the Priest record label. That is why he said he had to leave Priest, in order to break that contract and be able to do what he wanted, which was the purpose of the solo career in the first place. Very sad that he had to do that. So I think the record label has screwed Priest since day one! It doesn't matter which label they are with either, all of them have caused problems.
I'm also holding out hope that KK will make a few appearances at selected shows. Afterall, how long can he resist the allure of the Sinful Gals??
\~AuntieB~/ wrote:
I cannot say if writing credits would factor in. Ken is intelligent enough to protect intellectual property. With him it would be more the perceived deception (and I know this from previous experience, which I will NOT discuss in this forum). The going behind his back to arrange auditions, etc. The only motive mgmt has in order to keep things moving following Epitaph. The band thinking, he's not onboard to tour after the album is released so we have to get on with it. There was another time in 'Priest history where they transitioned a player in the midst of a tour > album release > tour. He's known by most now as the best thing to happen to JP. Others know him only as Scott Travis. Still, finding out a replacement has been found is the proverbial kick in the gut! I'm sure, after reality sinks in, logic will prevail. They will remain friends. The band plays on. Perhaps a few appearances by Ken at selected venues (shrugs). All speculative, wishful thinking ... but very possible. I'm relatively certain ticket sales began with KK onboard for the entirety of Epitaph!
HOT ROCKIN' METAL GODDESS wrote:
Yes, that totally makes sense to me because he is definitely onboard in this interview. I'm not sure how the album fits in and I guess we won't know until it comes out, whether KK has writing credit and is playing on it or not? It seems like he must have been writing it with Rob and Glenn and now Rob says that the album is almost finished.... I think you are right about KK finding out that they were looking to replace him and that they intended to keep Priest going and maybe he just thought, well if they are going to replace me anyway, why not retire now? Of course, that's just my own ideas swirling around in my head. I don't know if there was a big blow out or not. Everyone in the band that has spoken, including KK, just seems very sad about the entire thing. They appear to still be friends and I really hope that is true.
But the main point here is that many people were claiming that the tickets to the Epitaph tour were sold under false pretenses, with the band knowing that KK had retired but chose to not release that info until April 20th, and this interview PROVES that is NOT THE CASE!
\~AuntieB~/ wrote:
After watching this video again, methinks, and this is pure speculation, that he'd made his mind up to retire following Epitaph. Likely was not onboard to tour in support of another album. Upon letting the band / mgmt know of this decision wheels were put in motion to look for another axeman to record the new album. Ken didn't know they were looking. Then he found out. IMO he was onboard to record the new album. Just not for subsequent touring.
HOT ROCKIN' METAL GODDESS wrote:
I posted this video before but didn't know the date it was from. It is from MARCH 10, 2011!! KK is talking about the upcoming Epitaph tour and is obviously ONBOARD for it!!! So what the hell happened between March 10 and April 20???? Seems to me KK didn't like how the writing of the new album was going and some management decisions, so he decided to leave the band sometime AFTER March 10th. So many of those tickets were not sold under false pretenses as we believed (unless KK isn't telling us here that he had already made up his mind to leave the band).
