Kenneth "K. K." Downing, Jr. (born 27 October 1951) is an English semi-retired Grammy Award winning guitarist, songwriter and a founding member of the British heavy metal band Judas Priest.
Downing was born in West Bromwich. He was kicked out of his home at 15 and dropped out of school soon afterward. In the late 1960s, Kenneth discovered rock music and the guitar. He is a mostly self-taught guitarist. "He was heavily influenced by Jimi Hendrix, after whom he modelled his playing style.". Records by popular artists which have influenced Downing as a musician include, "Are You Experienced", "Axis Bold As Love", "Electric Ladyland" by Jimi Hendrix, "A Hard Road" by John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers and "Fresh Cream" by Cream. Downing played on every Judas Priest album from Rocka Rolla to A Touch of Evil: Live.
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Downing started his first band between the age of 17 and 18 with his second cousin Brian Badhams on bass guitar (now with The Elkie Brooks Band) and drummer Martin Philips. The trio "mainly jammed a few Cream songs and a few 12-bar blues". Downing played guitar with the band after winning a coin toss with his cousin Brian "in his bedroom to see who would play guitar or bass".
Prior to joining Judas Priest, Downing went to catering college and worked as trainee chef at the Lyttelton Arms in Hagley.
Downing has been noted for his aggressive, rock influenced guitar solos and dual leads with fellow Judas Priest guitarist Glenn Tipton. His solos remained of this style for most of his career, but he incorporated various techniques into his playing over the years. As opposed to Tipton, his solos tended to incorporate a more raw, rough-edged sound, making use of techniques like pinch harmonics, dive bombs, and tremolo picking, and often focus on speed, technical accuracy and melody. Although the two would switch roles, Downing's usual job on Judas Priest songs was as the rhythm guitarist with Tipton playing solos (the band's signature song "You Got Another Thing Comin'" is an example of such). From Stained Class onward, Tipton came to increasingly dominate Judas Priest's songwriting, particular on the more commercial tracks and Downing's role in the band started to diminish, especially as the former's songs comprised the vast majority of live setlists after 1980. In 1978, Tipton began to incorporate tapping into his playing, which Downing began to use as well. By 1990, both guitarists started to use the complex technique of sweep-picking, which can be notably heard on the title track of their 1990 album Painkiller. Both have continuously used these techniques ever since.
In Judas Priest's early years, Downing made common use of the wah-wah pedal (for instance, on Victim of Changes and Sinner), but began to limit his use of it in the late '70s, and had abandoned use of it by the mid-'80s, save for during live performances of the songs that originally featured it. The only time since then that he renewed use of it was in 1996, when vocalist Tim "Ripper" Owens joined the band, and they began to experiment with their music more than before. One of these experimentations was the renewal of wah-wah in Downing's playing, which can be heard on their 1997 album Jugulator. This experimentation was taken further on their next album with Owens, 2001's Demolition, but was once more abandoned when the band's former vocalist, Rob Halford, returned to the band. However, Downing used a wah-wah pedal on his last few tours with the band.
Downing officially left Judas Priest on 20 April 2011. An official press release was issued by the band. In an interview with online music publication, Guitarhoo!, Downing spoke on his leaving the band, "There had been an on-going breakdown in working relationships between myself, elements of the band and management for some time". Downing stated that there were at least "21 reasons" why he decided to quit but refused to go into specific detail about them.
The band continued with Richie Faulkner as Downing's replacement.
source: wikipedia
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