Talking with . . .   Beyond Fear

Interview with vocalist Tim Owens
Ohio based singer Tim Owens became known as Ripper while singing in a Judas Priest cover band. He was plucked from obscurity and later the subject of the film Rock Star, when he was chosen to replace Rob Halford in Judas Priest. Tim was previously a member of Winters Bane and they released the concept album, Heart of a Killer, in 1993. He recorded two albums with Priest and eventually hooked up with Iced Earth when Matthew Barlow left to become a cop. These days he is also working with a solo project called Beyond Fear. Their self titled debut will be out next month and we had a chat with Ripper all about it.

How is everything your way?
I have my kids running around here. I have a one year old and a three year old. I take them to the babysitter when I do interviews, but I only had a couple today. I had one that was a broadcast interview and my kids were yelling, it was quite funny actually. No more late nights and golfing for me.

How do you feel about your record?
I'm real happy, it's getting really good reviews. It's exactly what I want to do. This is the type of music I want to do and this is me singing the way I want. All the other styles are me, but this is me being me. My three year old is putting a pair of underwear on the others' head. The band is going real good and I am happy about it.

How did the fall tour go?
It was good, but it was a thrown together tour and the promoter sucked. The band played awesome, we sounded great, the response was good. My band was like taking a bunch of kids on the road.

What are your tour plans for this year?
We're doing a tour with Anthrax. We leave for that next Wednesday. We're out for almost the whole month of April. It's gonna be very crazy. I'm an Anthrax fan, we were very lucky to get this tour, especially considering our album isn't even out yet. It's very good promotion for the band. When you do something like this, you do interviews every day.

How was your visit to New York?
It was good. Everybody was out at the South By Southwest show so we didn't have everybody we wanted out there. We did the Eddie Trunk show, Metal Edge, Metal Maniacs, so it was all good.

What's up with Iced Earth?
I just talked to Jon and he's doing real well. It's Jon's story. It's Something Wicked thing, it's something I don't know too much about it. I don't know what I can contribute because I don't know anything about it. It works out good, because the more he does on his own, the more I can do with Beyond Fear. When I get back from this road trip I'll try to get to see him and see how it's all going.

What's it like working with Jon?
He's one of the easiest guys to work with. I can't figure it out where people come from. If you leave a band and say bad things- I did that tour with Children Of Bodom, Trivium, Beyond The Embrace and Evergrey, and it was great, he treated everyone great. He's got his own beliefs but he's a great friend.

What are your plans this summer?
I hope to be touring with Beyond Fear all summer. We're doing some festivals. We have one festival, the Rock Hard Festival. I want to do as many festivals as we can. I would love to do an American tour. It would be great to tour with Queensryche or get on that Megadeth tour.

It can be a difficult market in the States?
Yeah, but look at Trivium and In Flames, it seems like they tour every month here. It's not a good market for European metal bands. I'm not breaking down doors to buy those albums myself. I like Primal Fear, but the other European bands- their markets are watered down. Our metal scene here is great. It's a lot better than people think. With America, they move on and go with the times.

How did you find your bandmates?
Dennis, the bass player, has been with me since Winters Bane. We go way back to 1992. He's been in several bands with me after that. John Comprix is the main guy with me and he does the writing with me. I produced one of his old albums in the band Spawn and I've jammed with him since then. He brought the other two guys; Dwane and Eric. I wanted to get guys to do this full time. I'm going to practice tonight, I haven't done that in fifteen years probably. This is something that will be around.

What are your goals for your career?
I want this to be as good as Iced Earth. Jon worked his whole life to make that what it is. I want Beyond Fear to be as good as Iced Earth. They are way up there so that might be putting things too high, but it would be great.

Final comments?
The album comes out May 9th. Support the metal. This is heavy metal. I'm excited, let's show the world what Americans can do with metal.

Discography:
2006... Beyond Fear (SPV)

Current line-up:
Tim Owens... vocals
John Comprix... guitars
Dwane Bihary... guitars
Dennis Hayes... bass
Eric Elkins... drums

Tim Ripper Owens

TTM reviews of albums by Beyond Fear:
	2006 - 'DTO'