JUDAS PRIEST INFO PAGES - SCOTT PROFILE

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Stats • Scott on Judas Priest	Intro	Gear • Appearances
Stats • Scott on Judas Priest		Gear • Appearances

THE MACHINE MAN

"The other day, someone asked me, 'What's your favorite Judas Priest song to play? I bet you really like the fast stuff', and I said, 'Actually, one of my favorite songs is one that I didn't record. It's the one we always open the set with... It's 'Metal Gods'.' It's dead simple on the drums, and it's a fucking killer, heavy tune, and I love to play it. I love to play 'Painkiller' too, and they're, obviously, two completely different ways to play the drums. One's just groove oriented, and the other's more technical, with a lot of double bass."
- Scott Travis, Drums.com, February, 2003

As a new decade was ushered in, it found the members of Judas Priest dressed in suits and ties, defending the metal faith before a US Judge. While fans awaited the outcome, they also questioned, "Would Judas Priest be able to defend the metal faith on an LP, as they once did in times past?"

Indeed, their last two outings brought much pain to the fans: TURBO was an Americanized commercial, radio/MTV-oriented display of glam metal, far removed from the British tradition of steel and leather Priest once pioneered. While RAM IT DOWN attempted to recapture the glory, it failed on the fact that many of its songs were written for the TURBO sessions and that it felt too forced, with lyrics begging the fans to accept the band as a metal juggernaut and the production sounding sterile and over-processed. One area in particular stood out: The drums overwhelmed in electronic triggers, and on the faster material, such as "Hard As Iron", there was a drum machine used to cover the double bass.

The fans suffered the loss of their heroes, and Priest felt the loss in sales. It was time for relief from the pain - and the opening sounds of the new release brought assurance and excitement to all: An onslaught of the most heroic metal drumming poured forth in molten glory from the speakers, as new drummer Scott Travis led a monster double bass and pounding snare assault. Indeed, the long-needed Painkiller had been administered!

SCOTT TRAVIS - DRUMS:

Born Scott Travis on September 6, 1961 in Norfolk, Virginia.
Joined Judas Priest in 1989

Influences (in no particular order): Alex Van Halen, Neil Peart, John Bonham, Tommy Aldridge, Ian Paice and Jeff Martin.

Scott moved to California in 1983 and played in the glam metal band Hawk with with well-known guitarist/instructor Doug Marks until early 1986 when he joined Paul Gilbert's Racer X, who's singer, Jeff Martin had become good friends with Rob Halford for several years.

That's glam look Scott
(bottom right)

With Racer X in the '80s

In fact it was Scott's Racer X connection that helped get him the gig with Priest. See the details on the PAINKILLER Info Page.

Scott has been a full member of Judas Priest ever since, but he did stay close to his Halford connection, joining Rob's band Fight in 1993 while Priest were taking time off, then continuing to Priest in 1995 after Fight disbanded and Priest started to prepare for their vocalist auditions. Scott has recorded and toured with Racer X during breaks.

Scott Travis On Priest:

     "...The intro to 'Painkiller' is a pretty memorable point in my career. 'Scarified', a Racer X tune that we did on Second Heat is a pretty cool little figure too. I think those songs are cool because the drum intros really fit the song. It's not really about doing a flurry of drum stuff and then launching into a song that's completely out of context. Both those intros fit the plots of the songs. When we did 'Scarified', people that went to PIT (Percussion Institute of Technology) got hit with it from Paul Gilbert, who taught at GIT (Guitar Institute of Technology). Drummers who went there used to say, 'Yeah, the first thing you do is practice 'Scarified' ', or they'd audition drummers on 'Scarified', or stuff like that. So, it became like a little cult thing that I used to hear about, and I don't know how widespread it was across the world, but definitely that song and 'Painkiller' are particularly memorable.
     "Obviously, Priest's fanbase isn't as large as it was 20 years ago. I think it's that way for most heavy metal bands that were around in the '80s. I mean, as a tribute to Priest, it's an amazing feat for them to even be around. I say that as if I wasn't in the band. They had a long career before I joined them, and I was lucky enough to join them in '90, and for the band to be around for 30 years since their earliest recording and still have some relevance is amazing.
     "...I'm not gonna lie, I love playing the bigger places. I always think it's funny when bands say, 'Oh, we like playing the smaller, intimate gigs.' That's bullshit. Everyone wants to be as big as they can be. I love playing in Priest because it's the big stage, the big lights, and the big sound. If Racer X were ever to get that big, that would be absolutely wonderful. But until then, I want to play the bigger places. I want to be a rock star."
- Scott Travis, Drums.com, February, 2003

What is it like when you get a major gig like with Judas Priest, and you find that the band members are not at all like the public thinks they are?

"You mean the fact that some of the guys love to shop at Wal-Mart!? Yeah, I guess that could be kind of a culture shock, but we all have our own idiosyncrasies."
- Scott Travis, Ferrante's Power Equipment, August 16, 2004

Gear:

"Now that my career as a supermodel is over, I had to go back to drumming."
- Scott Travis, Paiste Cymbals Artist Profile

Tama Starclassics drums with Evans Genera EQ2 drumheads and Iron Cobra pedals
Paiste cymbals

Other Recordings And Appearances:

High school band was called Caliber

"While attending Granby High School in Norfolk, Virginia, I was fortunate enough to have a class with Scott Travis, who is now the drummer for Judas Priest. His band "Caliber" would play after school in the auditorium and later he would play clubs around
town in various local cover bands. I was lucky enough to know him and he was and still is one of my biggest influences."
- Wally Parris (Drummer for Ordained) biography

One of the early cover bands Scott played in was Vandrix - a Van Halen/Jimi Hendrix cover band!

Was a member of the original Hawk, but no recordings exist 1983 - 1986.

Racer X - Second Heat, Extreme Volume - Live, Extreme Volume II -Live, Technical Difficulties, Superheroes, Snowball Of Doom 1986 - 2002.
Played on both the studio and the live version of the Judas Priest written-but-never-released song "Heart Of A Lion" 1987, 1992.

Fight - War Of Words, Mutations, A Small Deadly Space 1993 - 1995.

Spacewalk: A Tribute To Ace Frehley - Scott is joined by Tom Gattis (Ballistic), Marty Friedman (Megadeth), John Alderete and Bruce Bouillet (Racer X) on a cover of the Kiss classic "Deuce" 1996.

Spent some time working for Mars Music store before they went bankrupt.

Scott has left the west coast to return to his Virginia roots and while he remains a full member of both Racer X and Judas Priest, he is also keeping quite busy between tours playing in the local Virginia Beach area bands Plastic Eddie and more recently Butter.

Scott, dripping with Butter, 2003