In a new interview with Brazil’s 92.5 Kiss FM radio station, JUDAS PRIEST’s Scott Travis was asked how it feels for him to be considered one of the best heavy metal drummers of all time. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “[Laughs] I didn’t know that, but thank you very much. And it’s an honor — obviously, it’s an honor. And yeah, you’ve gotta kind keep it up, you’ve gotta practice and try and stay in shape. And luckily health is a big issue and I’ve been healthy and that’s by the grace of God. So I’m very appreciative of that. But yeah, it’s a great honor and it’s one of those things that are given to you or put upon you and it takes a long time, I guess, to win that sort of honor. So I’m very proud of it.”The 63-year-old Travis went on to say that he is “a diehard” heavy metal fan “forever” even though he has been playing professionally for more than three decades. “In other words, since I was a teenager, a young boy, a heavy metal fan, and I still to this day — I mean, that’s the music of my choice,” he explained. “So I understand that most heavy metal fans, they stick with you for life and they’re very dedicated and I have a lot of respect for that.”Asked to name the drummers that inspired him the most, Scott said: “It’s a series of what I call the legends of legends — John Bonham and Alex Van Halen and Tommy Aldridge and Neil Peart from RUSH, Ian Paice from DEEP PURPLE. And it’s funny, I can go back and listen to any of those drummers and the bands, of course, they’re playing with, and just still be, like, ‘Wow, that’s really great. It’s really cool, some of the things they did,’ and [it] still inspire[s me]. Even though it might be a song that I’ve heard a hundred or two hundred or five hundred times, you can still listen to it and go, ‘Wow, I understand now why they were so influential on my career.'”Last August, JUDAS PRIEST shared a video in which Scott explained why he holds his drumsticks upside down. He said at the time: “It is wrong, isn’t it? Well, that’s a good question. So, many, many years ago, two of my favorite drummers, Neil Peart of RUSH and Tommy Aldridge, who’s played Ozzy [Osbourne] and a bunch of other bands, WHITESNAKE, I noticed they were always playing — so they would have the butt end on the left hand, which is normally the snare, and then they would play the tip on the ride cymbal for clarity. So I kind of stole that idea, and then I just figured that if it works on this hand, it’s good enough on this hand, and when you have to buy your own drumsticks, which I used to do, they last longer, because, obviously, that’s thicker than that. That’s what she said. And so that’s where it got started, really.”Three years ago, Travis told “Drumtalk”, the video podcast by German drummer and videographer Philipp Koch, about the fact that the intro to the title track of JUDAS PRIEST’s 1990 album “Painkiller” has become one of the most iconic drum intros of all time: “Me personally, I always loved the drum intro of certain songs. We all know ‘Rock And Roll’ by LED ZEPPELIN and ‘Walk This Way’ by AEROSMITH, and, of course, ‘Hot For Teacher’, which is VAN HALEN. So, anyways, I grew up like that, always understanding that, ‘Man, if ever I could come up with a signature drum intro — no guitars; just drums — and make it really impactful.’ And sometimes I get emotional, now that I’ve been playing for so long, that I was able to come up with something.”He continued: “[I recently saw a video featuring] ‘Top 15 drum intros’. And, of course, it’s subjective. I don’t know who made the list; I think it was some rock magazine. So, naturally, I watch it, and it had ‘Where Eagles Dare’ [by IRON MAIDEN], it had ‘Rock And Roll’, and number two was ‘Painkiller’. And I was, like, ‘Oh my God. Thank you so much.’ And number one, which I’m happy to take a backseat, was ‘Hot For Teacher’ — Sir Alex Van Halen. If I’m second place to old Alex, then, man, that’s fantastic. Again, that’s one opinion and one little something someone made up. But nonetheless, I didn’t make it, so I’m happy that people appreciate ‘Painkiller’ and it has become a signature JUDAS PRIEST song, which I never in a million years would have imagined that.”Back in 2020, Travis told Invisible Oranges that he wrote the “Painkiller” intro at Miraval Studios in France in early 1990 as producer Chris Tsangarides and engineer Patrice Roullion were testing microphone placements.”We were set up at the studio… Studio Miraval in Nice, France,” Travis recalled. “The drums are all set up and they’re in a big room and then, of course, the control room is at the other end of the studio. I used to just go and warm up first thing in the morning and just work on the next song we were gonna do the next day, and just start playing it with my own headphones on. It was just a cool place — very comfortable to just go and play whatever you wanted. I knew we were gonna be working on the ‘Painkiller’ song and it was meant to be a fast-paced upbeat song. And I was just messing around doing the intro type stuff.”He continued: “I don’t know what those notes I play with my feet [are called]… between my feet and my hands. Technically, it’s four with the feet, one with the hand. So it’s not a quad but I don’t know, septuplet, quintuplet… Shows you how educated I am on drumming, right? [I was] just out there messing around, doing a flurry of things like that, exercises and whatnot. I had the ‘Painkiller’ idea in my head and they really liked what I was doing and they said, ‘Hey, just do some more of that, some stuff like that.’ And I just kind of whipped it up…”As a young drummer or just as a drummer, period, I always… I don’t wanna say dreamt because that sounds corny, but I always was hoping that I could come up with a signature drum intro, and I think every drummer wants that. Rarely does a drummer get to do an intro and especially one that really sticks. Given the fact that it exists now, I’m kind of blown away. It’s cool.”Scott’s long and very influential drumming career has also included acclaimed work with FIGHT and RACER X.[embedded content]
