William Whitfield Crane IV, founder of Ugly Kid Joe, has come out to say that he was once offered a gig by Judas Priest to replace Rob Halford.
Not everyone gets to meet their heroes, but apparently Whitfield Crane of Ugly Kid Joe almost did, even being offered the chance to replace them.
In an interview chat with Metal-Rules concerning his current and past projects, Crane revealed that he had the chance to replace Judas Priest leading man, Rob Halford. Whitfield revealed that this opportunity came about when guitarist Glenn Tipton offered him the spot in Judas Priest back in the ’90s.
“It was when Glenn Tipton was doing his [1997] Baptizm of Fire record, and I got Shannon Larkin, our then drummer to play on it. He played two songs and replaced some badass drummers on that because it was click tracked,” recalled Crane. “Glenn pulled Shannon and me aside and said, ‘You boys can have the Priest gig if you want it,’ and Shannon and I were pretty much into Priest. I mean, we loved Priest.”
The vocalist continues, “All I said was this, ‘Say it again.’ And Glenn’s pretty fucking brilliant – I mean, he goes, ‘What do you fucking mean, ‘Say it again’?’ And I’m all, ‘Just say it one time?’ And he’s like, ‘You can have the fucking Priest gig mate.'”
So how did it not happen? Crane explains, “I was thinking, we can’t do it, because you can’t be Rob Halford. You can’t be David Lee Roth. You can’t… it’d be cool, and considering my love for Priest, which is immense, that would have been cool to do it, but not really. It’s not a good move. But to jam with Tipton and to know those guys … I mean, those are my fucking heroes. Judas Priest, I mean, fuck. But man, old school Priest, Jesus, God. So, yeah, I got offered Priest, back in the day. I never said that to anyone.”
