When ex-Judas Priest veteran K.K. Downing first saw Tailgunner in action, they had a wow factor he hadn’t heard in years.

“They have an unashamed appreciation for what came before them,” Downing says. “There was the original New Wave of British Heavy Metal – bands like Priest, Maiden, Saxon, Def Leppard, Venom and Diamond Head – but after punk, things changed. Tailgunner definitely have that NWOBHM sound; if they were around in 1983, they would have been very popular.”

He also felt that with his expertise he could give them a better shot at the success they clearly deserved.

“Every new band needs some kind of mentorship or guidance,” he says. “That whole ‘Come this way and things will be better’ type of thing. So I decided to offer up the knowledge I’ve accrued over the years, and now everything seems to be going in the right direction.

“Production-wise, I knew it would be fairly straightforward. I didn’t want to fix anything that wasn’t broken. They sound and play great, so it was just a case of polishing it up a bit. That’s how you get it across to the masses."

After so many years at the forefront of metal evolution, Downing is proud to still have younger musicians looking up to him. It’s been a lot of hard work, and he’s glad it doesn’t go unnoticed.

“Today’s musicians know I’ve got a lot of miles on the clock,” he says. “They can see how many albums I’ve made, how many songs I’ve written and how many gigs I’ve played.

It might look like I’m looking from the future toward the past, but there’s plenty of good stuff still to come from me.”

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

When Richie Faulkner first joined Judas Priest in 2011, he brought with him a playing style that had been shaped by influences spanning from Zakk Wylde and Dave Murray to Michael Schenker and more.

However, after he got the gig and started his assimilation into the Judas Priest ecosystem, Faulkner became acutely aware that he had to take a step back from the “Wylde-isms” that were present in his playing and start finding his own voice on the electric guitar.

This observation became even more apparent when Glenn Tipton – his new guitar foil in the band – approached him early on and said as much during a gig.

“I always tried to copy people. I was into Michael Schenker and K.K. [Downing] and Randy Rhoads and all that. That’s just part of my heritage,” Faulkner says during an episode of No Cover Charge – a new podcast set up by Jared James Nichols and Tyler Larson of the Music Is Win YouTube channel. “Playing covers, you try and emulate the people you look up to.

“When you get into Priest, you realize you can’t do that anymore,” he continues. “Now, you’ve got your turn to speak your voice. It can’t be Zakk Wylde and Dave Murray and Michael Schenker anymore. It’s got to be ‘Rich.’

“I didn’t feel like a clone, but I felt like I’ve got to come up with my own bit. I think every album we do, you try a little bit more to hone that voice.”

These days, Faulkner is far more conscious about avoiding letting his influences bleed into his playing too much, but that wasn’t always the case.

“[I’m] thinking about not relying so much on the Zakk Wylde-isms but speaking more my own voice,” he reflects. “At the time, I didn’t have much else to rely on. I just had a box of tricks that came from the cover band days.”

The impact this was having on his playing came to the fore during his first tour with Priest back in 2011 and 2012 – the Epitaph World Tour – when Tipton addressed Faulkner’s show-stopping solo that routinely came towards the end of the band’s set.

When asked about that solo in particular – which you can watch above – Faulkner says, “We were out with Black Label [Society] for a part of it, so I did a section of Crazy Train [Ozzy Osbourne] – I think it was because it was in F sharp – and I'd do a section of Rock Bottom [Michael Schenker and UFO] in F sharp.

“Glenn actually came up to me and said, ‘Rich, can I have a word with you?’ And that's never good when someone says that. He said, ‘In this solo I notice you're playing some other people's stuff.’ He said, ‘I think you can come up with better than that.’”

Faulkner knew that was Tipton giving him the encouragement to trust his own instincts as a guitarist and introduce some of his own personal style into his playing.

Speaking to Guitar World in 2021, Faulkner further discussed how he has spent his time in Judas Priest balancing his influences with his own voice.

“It would be silly to try and hide those influences,” he said. “But when I joined the band, it became about, ‘What am I doing to say? These guys have got their voice... what’s my voice going to be?’

“So, I think those solos [Rising From Ruins and Traitors Gate] are some of my favorites because they contain what I think is my voice.”

Kerry King has revealed who he thinks is the most “overlooked” guitarist in metal. The Slayer guitarist was asked to name his top five guitarists of all time during an appearance on the Lipps Service With Scott Lipps podcast – and he took the opportunity to rave about a guitarist he believes deserves much more credit.

“Probably my favorite one [of] all time is [Judas Priest's] Glenn Tipton. And I think he's the most overlooked,” he states. “’Cause if you look at the leads he was doing and when he was doing ’em, he kind of innovated a lot of that stuff.”

As for the rest of his top five? “I would have a hard time numbering them, but I can come up with five. [Ritchie] Blackmore, Tony Iommi, Eddie Van Halen, without question. I'll go with a super-heavy hitter that's my bro and say Zakk Wylde.”

Over the years, King has spoken profusely about Judas Priest's impact on his playing. “As a young guitar player, I could tell there were two guitars on the recording, and the creativity and early uniqueness of two guitars totally inspired what Slayer became,” he told Rolling Stone in a 2022 interview.

“Judas Priest definitely inspired me and Jeff [Hanneman] and Slayer. If we were doing Priest covers in the beginning, he would always play the K.K. Downing guitar parts because he was the blond guy. I would always do the Glenn Tipton ones.”

In a recent Guitar World interview, King explained how he owes his choice of chords and rhythmic patterns to Judas Priest.

As they prepare for the release of their 19th album, Invincible Shield, Judas Priest are still pondering the randomness of life and the frailty of the human condition.

Since the release of their 2018’s blowtorch-to-the-face record, Firepower, most of the guys in the band have been anything but invincible. Vocalist Rob Halford has battled and seems to have beaten prostate cancer; guitarist Glenn Tipton continues to struggle with a debilitating case of Parkinson’s disease, which six years ago ended his ability to tour.

And lead guitarist Richie Faulkner vividly remembers suffering an aortic aneurysm on September 26, 2021, while Priest were playing the Louder Than Life festival in Louisville, Kentucky.

“It’s crazy to think I easily could have died then and there,” says Faulkner, who assumed pole position for the writing and recording of Invincible Shield and worked closely with Tipton to voice guitar ideas the guitar hero can no longer play. “If the hospital wasn’t so close to the venue and they didn’t have one of the leading heart surgery teams in the country, I definitely wouldn’t have made it.”

Faulkner’s survival and rapid recovery has been nothing short of miraculous, even with the intensive follow-up procedures he underwent and the continued precautions he has to undertake.

“Overall, my chest and everything is all fine,” Faulkner says. “I had to go back in again in 2022 to have another open-heart procedure, but that’s all fine and cleared up. 

“One of the only side effects now is I have to play a bit more regularly. I’m not a young man anymore. I can’t leave the guitar for two weeks and then come back and be right up to speed. I have to stay on top of my playing, and some of that is a result of what happened.

“But as far as heart damage and the aorta stuff around it, it’s all fixed. And everything is kept at bay with medication. So, you never know what’s around the corner, but hopefully I’m okay now.”

From the opening riff of the fast, urgent album opener Panic Attack to the pounding, riff-saturated Giants in the Sky, a reference to deceased metal pioneers Ronnie James Dio and Lemmy Kilmister, Invincible Shield is a burst of energy, perseverance and defiance.

Reminiscent of Judas Priest’s classic ’80s albums Screaming for Vengeance and Defenders of the Faith, but with the contemporary production of Firepower, the new album is all volume, aggression and sonic acrobatics, ranging from the triumphant melodies of Crown of Horns to the barreling, full-blown and rhythmically complex The Serpent and the King.

While Invincible Shield is a powerful celebration of pure metal, it’s also a relentless, brazen middle finger to mortality and severe illness.

“Sometimes, mortality brings out the best in people,” says Halford, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer during the pandemic, underwent a prostatectomy and radiation therapy and has been cancer-free for two years.

“That kind of struggle with mortality is all over this record because the instinct to survive is something you channel into yourself as a person, and the things you’ve been through and witnessed come across in your music.

“These songs are on fire. They’re absolutely blazing because no matter what we’re up against, the Priest will never curl up into a ball. We’re kicking and screaming, horns up and legs out – metal boots stomping all over the place.”

During separate revealing Zoom interviews with Faulkner and Halford, and an email exchange with Tipton, the songwriting trio of Judas Priest addressed the obstacles they faced forging Invincible Shield, the way they had to modify their creative process, how their undying support for one another has brought them closer, and Faulkner’s constant battle to evolve as a player and composer and his unwillingness to settle for anything short of topping his last great achievement.

Where do you see Invincible Shield in relation to the rest of the band’s catalog?

Richie Faulkner: “People keep comparing this to other things we’ve done, and I understand their desire to do that, but I think Invincible Shield is very much Priest today. That classic sound is ingrained in everyone, including me, but we always try to do something a little bit different than what we’ve done before. And that doesn’t come from some need to do something different; it comes naturally.

“I think creative people naturally try to do things that are new and inspiring to them. As a musician, you have to scratch that creative itch and do stuff that satisfies you.”

Rob Halford: “This is probably one of the most definitive Priest metal albums we’ve done. I think it’s a reflection of where we’re at now, and a continuation from where we were with Firepower while making references to other places in Priest’s history.”

Richie, how do you see Invincible Shield as a development of your contributions to the band?

Faulkner: “As a guitar player, I’m always thinking of how I can make what I’m doing better than what I did the last time. I focus a lot on how I can make what I wrote more appropriate and more valuable as a musical statement. So maybe I’ll construct the solos before recording them. That’s something different for me.”

Is that what you did for Invincible Shield?

Faulkner: “I constructed a few of my leads early and brought them into the studio. That gave me a foundation to work from. I still did about 70 percent of my solos in the studio, but what I did was run through one that’s improvised, and then run through another I wrote. After a couple takes, there are motifs that become prominent, and that’s what I build the whole solo around.”

You’ve established yourself as the lead guitarist for Judas Priest without altering the band’s core sound. 

Faulkner: “After 13 years in Priest playing both Glenn’s and K.K. [Downing, former Priest guitarist]’s stuff, everything they’ve done has become a part of my style as well. On a very intimate level, I’m playing the Painkiller solo every night, so that’s become a part of my vocabulary. So, I’m doing things like sweep picking and some tapping, which is new for me.”

Did you want to write differently than you have in the past?

Faulkner: “I’ve always been attracted to slightly progressive elements, and I think we’re all into that, so I introduced some parts that were a bit unconventional in that sense this time. And if they didn’t tick the right boxes, we left them on the shelf and found something else that worked better.

”But a lot of those parts stayed in, which was exciting. Maybe they were a little more progressive, maybe they weren’t. The only rule was that it had to sound like Judas Priest, and that left a lot of room to explore.”

Did you feel more comfortable writing with the guys on Invincible Shield than you did on Firepower?

Faulkner: “It was just a little different. I went in thinking, ‘Okay, you’ve got a bit of history with the band now. You co-wrote two records with them. How can you make this one better?’ I know better is a nebulous term, but for me, it’s got to be better. I’m representing one of the biggest and most influential heavy metal bands in the world, and the bar is higher. But that’s nothing new.

“What’s different, obviously, is Glenn’s situation is different now than it was for the first two albums I did with Priest. I knew I was going to have to take on more of the guitar load.”

Did you work more with Rob than you did before? 

Faulkner: “We did a lot together. Rob and I would put ideas together in the studio. Rob would usually come in with a vocal idea and I’d find something that worked with it on guitar.

“At first, you might not know what you’ve got, but a little way into the creative process, the album takes on its own character. And once you recognize that character, you start to embellish it. At the end, hopefully you’ve got this monster that you can unleash on the world. It’s exciting. It’s scary, though.”

What was scary about making Invincible Shield? 

Faulkner: “Firepower was a really well-received record. It was a big success. Now, how do you follow that? They’ve done it before, but this was my first rodeo with that kind of situation – following up something that’s been really well received. That was a challenge, but it’s a good challenge to have because you have to up the bar on yourself.”

Can’t you make yourself crazy constantly trying to better yourself?

Faulkner: “Challenges are what make albums unique, and there’s always a unique challenge for every album. When I was younger, maybe it was financial constraints. You didn’t have enough time in the studio, or the studio wasn’t big enough, or didn’t work the way you wanted it to. There are always challenges you have to work around.

“With Angel of Retribution, I was getting my studio bearings. And then we couldn’t record during a pandemic. And then we had a tour, so we had to record during the gaps in the tour. That was another challenge. But the challenges always happen right up until the album is complete and you’re satisfied. Before that, you’re always thinking it could be better or it’s not quite right, so you work on it to embellish it or make it more interesting.”

Can you think of a particular challenge you faced with a song on Invincible Shield?

Faulkner: “The original version of Panic Attack had another slower part before the guitar solo. It was too long. It didn’t feel right, so we took it out. When it’s right, you know it’s right, but sometimes it’s hard to tell why it’s not right. One thing I always think about is if it’s not grooving, it’s not right. When it’s vibing, that’s when you know you’ve finally gotten it.”

Glenn, you’ve been upfront about how you can’t play the way you used to because of Parkinson’s disease, which must be terribly frustrating. Did you change the way you worked as a band to accommodate your condition?

Glenn Tipton: “No, the three of us all worked together the same as normal. However, it is hard for me to give 100 percent now due to my Parkinson’s so Richie took more of the load. But I always try to look forward and ahead and be optimistic – that’s how I go about my guitar playing.”

Faulkner: “Writing-wise, when we were in the room together, and when Glenn had an idea, but he couldn’t play it, he would communicate the idea to me and tell me what to do. That might trigger a new idea from me, so there was a lot of back and forth. There were other ideas he had that he could play, and he played those.”

Tipton: “I have to take each day as it comes. Some days I feel strong, so I have a good day and I can play more. And others I feel weak so I can’t really play much.”

Halford: “Yes, but Glenn – his input, his validity, the reference points that he makes with his hands – are all over this album. So, as far as what this man stands for in the life of Judas Priest, the relationship hasn’t changed a bit. The only thing that’s changed is the way Parkinson’s has robbed him of his articulation on the guitar.

“So, he has very, very carefully passed over certain feelings toward the guitar passages to Richie. You’re hearing guitars that make you think of Glenn because that’s the way Glenn would perform. But it’s Richie playing a lot of it. So Glenn is all over this album. He’s playing on a lot of the songs, but those moments where he wasn’t able to, Richie is picking up and carrying that metal torch for Glenn.”

Glenn, do you sit or hold the guitar differently when you play, or play a lighter guitar?

Tipton: “No, I do everything the same and I still use my same guitars – the Hamer Phantom Signature Model and my Hamer Signature GTX. But I have to work very hard to get the sounds I want these days. I did come up with some guitar parts on my own, but when Richie was involved, he took the ideas I put forward and improved on them.”

Richie, when you came in with a song, did Glenn work with you on it or did you just record what you wrote? 

Faulkner: “Glenn knows exactly how to make something sound like Priest. I might come in with an almost complete song, and Glenn would suggest a little turnaround that was totally out of my school of thinking, and it made the song better. And then there are a couple of songs on the record, Sons of Thunder and Escape From Reality, and those were primarily Glenn’s ideas, and he had more to do with them.

“Obviously, it was a challenge to make everything work, but I think we knew how to handle it and we all worked together in a way that was really rewarding.”

Halford: “What’s interesting about Richie is the way I’ve watched him transform from the guitar player that he was when he first became the lead guitarist for Judas Priest for Redeemer of Souls, to the creative and empathetic musician he is today.

“Glenn mentored Richie, and Richie loves Glenn so much that the understanding of everything Glenn has done with Priest has become a part of who Richie is. And that understanding has been very profound.

“Over the past 10 or so years, Richie has matured and blossomed as a guitarist so he has his own identity ­– his own distinctive way of playing – and at the same time, he’s been able to move to another place to pick up for another guitar player.

“There are very few people that can do that and do it so well and with such love and such care and understanding, so that you get an extraordinary performance whether Richie is playing something he wrote or playing something for Glenn.”

Richie, did you play all the leads on the album?

Faulkner: “Not all of them. Glenn could manage Sons of Thunder, Vicious Circle and a couple others. But if he couldn’t play something, I took the helm.”

Did you try to play those leads in Glenn’s style?

Faulkner: “As a player, I’m so heavily influenced by Glenn anyway, but I don’t play as much legato as him. I come from the Zakk Wylde school of picking, and Zakk picks every note. I can’t do that, but I pick most of the notes. There’s a little bit of legato in my style, but there was definitely more legato going on before.

“But having said that, I did kind of take on that role of playing a lot of Glenn’s parts. If he couldn’t do it, I’d take on that role. There’s stuff I played on that’s unmistakably Tipton, both in the composition and guitar technique. But that’s why he’s such a vital and important part of Priest.”

What guitar sound were you shooting for on Invincible Shield? It sounds very Priest, but as you said, there’s something about the sound that makes it very relevant today.

Faulkner: “Well, it’s a good old Marshall JCM800 with a Tube Screamer-type pedal in the front. It’s a tried and tested approach when it comes to the way we EQ my sound. I’m quite a mid-heavy player, anyway. I think it gives the guitar extra presence and character.

“But after I recorded everything with my setup, I sent the tracks to producer Andy Sneap, and he re-amped them in his studio because I’ve got no time for microphone placement, and Andy is a real authority on that. So I sent him the DI tracks and he put them through cabinets and amplifiers that he’s got. He was using 800s and plexis to find that good, old Priest sound.

“There aren’t many effects there, but there’s a bit of reverb and delay that was done post-production. But at the heart of it, it’s that Marshall sound through a Gibson Explorer and one of my Flying Vs.”

An Ibanez Tube Screamer is a go-to for blues and other kinds of rock, but when you play it through a tube amp it tightens up the low-end and provides extra texture. 

Faulkner: “You ramp up the distortion on the JCM800 and that’s the main sound. The Tube Screamer wasn’t an Ibanez – it was a clone of a clone, a [Wampler] Tumnus [overdrive] that I have in front of my amps on stage.”

Would Invincible Shield be a good swan song for Judas Priest, or will there be another album?

Faulkner: “Who knows? If this one’s well received and there are enough ideas creatively to do another one, then it’s possible. We’ll have to wait and see, really. At this moment, I’m out of ideas. I’ve got nothing left. That always happens with me, and then I start coming up with things. But where are these ideas going to come from? I don’t know.

“But somehow, somewhere along the line, you start building up ideas and songs. They come from somewhere. After Firepower I was out of ideas and then we somehow created Invincible Shield. We’ll see what the future holds.”

Halford: “I think Richie is an endless well of guitar ideas, and Glenn has vaults of riffs we’ve never used, and a good riff will last forever. It’s all about perspective and presentation. When you’ve got all that sorted out, why stop? There’s a fire that’s really burning right now and it has been even before Invincible Shield left the launch pad. Right now, we’re focused on touring for the album, but when we finish touring, what are we going to do?

“Well, Priest has always maintained its relevance and importance in metal by showing you what we can do next. And the other thing is, I don’t like 19. It’s an odd number. I’m an ‘even number’ kind of guy. I like 20.

“But the bottom line is it’s absolutely glorious that we’re still out there. Glenn’s still thriving as a musician, and so is Richie after what he went through with his heart condition. I’m thriving after what I went through with my cancer condition. If that isn’t the embodiment of metal never dying and metal never surrendering, then I don’t know what is.

“There’s this importance in our lives as musicians to never give up and never give in, to also keep pushing ahead and going toward the metal torch on the horizon. That’s what drives us.”

• Invincible Shield is out now via Epic.

Describing the characteristics of a classic Priest riff to us as “fast and furious, interlaced with very melodic passages”, Glenn Tipton is understandably proud of the group’s collective achievements on their latest recordings, it now being Faulkner’s third full-length within their ranks. 

As for his health, his general outlook seems to mirror that of the band’s lyrics thematically. It’s a case of soldiering on and powering though.

“I played what I could and am very proud of the whole album,” Tipton tells TG. “Richie helped a lot. I think his strongest attribute is his ability to adapt to different styles whilst maintaining his own very strong character. Priest require a guitarist who can shift from out-and-out metal to more melodic tracks. 

“Obviously the drawback for me now is Parkinson’s, and I’ve had to pass a lot of work onto his shoulders. I keep pushing myself because I believe in ‘no surrender’. This disease won’t beat me and I will continue writing and playing for as long as I can.”

Having mainly been seen with Hamer signature guitars since that partnership began in the mid-’80s, Tipton is also famous for using Gibson SGs and humbucker-equipped Fender Strats early on in his career. More recently he has played a double-horned GT-600 signature released through ESP LTD.

“I don’t know how many guitars I own in total, but I’m not really a collector, because to me they are tools of my trade,” he continues.

“If I could get my hands on one of Rory Gallagher’s old Strats, that would be a prized possession! I use the Phantom GT mostly, so I’d say that is my favourite on stage and in the studio. The advantage of Hamer was that it was my own design to my own specifications. 

“I was able to make even the smallest changes, such as the long tailpiece on the [Explorer-shaped] Custom GT fitted the inside of my leg when I played stretched riffs. That allowed me to find the most comfortable playing positions, particularly after jumping around!”

Like Faulkner, Tipton tends to stick with an Engl backline for live performances, however in the studio it’s more a case of anything goes. As for when we’ll next see him on stage, he wants us all to know the will is very much there…

“Engl are quality amps which I can adjust audibly to suit the sound I require for stage,” he notes. “In the studio I will use anything that gives me the sound I need. As for joining the band at any point on this next cycle of touring, you will have to wait and see. If I’m well enough, I’ll be on stage with the boys… loud and proud!”

• Invincible Shield is out now via Epic.

There are certain things to be expected from a Judas Priest album. When it comes to mid-tempo, palm-muted minor riffing, screaming harmonised leads and distorted tones that feel hotter than the sun, you know you’re in safe hands. 

But even by their own standards, the heavy metal pioneers are truly going for gold on this year’s 19th studio album Invincible Shield – rammed with explosive fretwork, from the rapid-fire brilliance of opening track Panic Attack to the biker blues of finale Giants In The Sky.

It will undoubtedly be one of the finest metal albums you’ll hear this year, and more impressively manages to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with classic Priest albums such as Stained Class, British Steel and Screaming For Vengeance.

The road to this point has not been easy, however. In 2018, guitarist Glenn Tipton, a member of Priest since 1974, revealed he’d be stepping down from touring after an ongoing struggle with Parkinson’s, forcing the band to rope in their producer Andy Sneap as a touring guitarist.

And in 2021, Richie Faulkner, who replaced K.K. Downing a decade prior, suffered from a near-fatal aortic aneurysm while Priest were performing on stage at Kentucky’s Louder Than Life festival.

After a 10-hour open-heart procedure in which five parts of his chest were replaced by mechanical components, Richie lived to tell the tale and to continue playing a vital role in this legendary band…

This new album feels extra special, given everything that’s happened. Like the lyrics from Priest’s 1982 track Electric Eye, you are now actually made of metal!

“Literally, because there are metal parts in my chest! Part of the healing process was getting back out there and finishing this record. I got back on the horse and rode on. As you say, all of this may never have happened and that does put a different perspective on things. You never know what’s around the corner. 

“I don’t know if Rob [Halford, vocalist] was referring to that when he came up with the title Invincible Shield. It’s a reference to the metal community in general. We’re proud metal fans and this music is like an invincible shield.

“We all go through challenges. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Glenn’s had his struggles, I’ve had things, Rob’s been through it as well, but we live to fight another day!”

Maybe that’s why the latest material ended up being such a masterclass in technicality? The solo sections feel more orchestrated, with light-speed diminished sweeps and alternate-picked ideas…

“Priest have been through many stages, from proggy stuff like Sinner and Tyrant [from the late ’70s] to straight-up metal. Because we had more time to develop our ideas after the pandemic, we came up with sections that felt like the stuff that Randy Rhoads did with Ozzy Osbourne. 

“Moments that are a song within a song. The music goes somewhere else before coming back. You have to be careful, though – it can become a bad thing if you go too far! As for the diminished stuff, some of it’s definitely from Glenn after 13 years of playing together…”

It’s only natural that you’d end up inheriting some of these technical nuances, right?

“If you do your best to recreate what’s on the record, you can’t help Glenn and K.K.’s solos becoming a part of your style. As for sweeping, I’ve never swept. I’m good at sweeping the floor, that’s about it! I’m still learning, to be honest. I find it helps if the angle of my picking hand changes when I’m coming back up, though I only just realised! I’m discovering all the time. 

“I’ve been doing the Painkiller solo ever since Glenn couldn’t play with us, which works out as a lot of Painkiller solos! You have to nail that starting lick as faithfully as you can. I try my best not to mess up. 

“Doing that night after night helps build the technique. Some of these new solos called for a similar approach, maybe sweeping half the strings, a few notes in the middle and then sweeping through the remaining ones. I’m getting better at it, but I’m also blagging half of it!”

How do you go about splitting the parts? Do you divide everything in half and taking turns?

“We ask ourselves if the song feels like it needs to go somewhere else, in a new direction. If not, we stick to one solo and get back to the vocals. Obviously, with Glenn’s situation, he wasn’t playing as much lead as before. But that’s okay, we didn’t want that to impede the process. If Glenn was having a good day, he’d play the part. If he couldn’t, I’d do it. 

“We didn’t want him to worry. He brought songs to the table like Sons Of Thunder which is a classic three-minute track in the style of [Priest anthem] Hell Bent For Leather. Glenn is the master of that stuff. He was as involved as he could be and it was important for us to involve him.”

So what do you think are the characteristics of a classic Judas Priest riff?

“It’s hard to say; they’re so diverse. From You’ve Got Another Thing Coming and Painkiller to Victim Of Changes and Killing Machine, they’re all vastly different, you know? That’s the beauty of Priest. Because of that diversity, a lot of ideas can go on the table and most of them will be appropriate. 

“I definitely think a great riff should make you bang your head and hit you in the face. Classic Priest riffs have to be simple enough to be accessible but complex enough to be fucking great. If it makes you pull a mean face, it’s a good one!”

The large majority of these riffs live in the Aeolian minor world rather than, say, Dorian minor with the major 6th. Do you think much about the building blocks and the maths behind it?

“Not at all. I wish I knew what you’re talking about with all that Dorian and Aeolian stuff! But I know that there’s a minor sound, a major sound, a diminished sound.

“If you asked me to play those scales, I wouldn’t know. If you showed me, I’d say ‘Oh yeah, that’s the same as The Sentinel or whatever!’ But I’m just not that way inclined. It’s too mathematical for me. Sometimes what doesn’t work theoretically can be powerful, too. There’s been some major stuff in the past, but you’re right, it’s usually minor.”

There’s that minor legato line built around the 12th to the 15th and 19th frets, similar to some classic Eddie Van Halen and Randy Rhoads runs…

“I don’t normally construct solos. I’ll go into the studio and play a few back-to-back. Certain motifs will jump out. If they stick, you’re subconsciously telling yourself that’s what needs to go there. But this time I actually had that stretched part you’re talking about first, and then constructed the rest around that. Later, Andy Sneap asked if I could harmonise the end bit.”

Songs like The Serpent And The King and Sons Of Thunder have some challenging picked runs. Do you play strict alternate or is there some economy in there?

“I don’t quite know what I’m doing half the time, but it’s definitely not strict alternate. I don’t pick everything, I can’t do that! There’s a lot of down-up-down-down moves with me. Your right hand is as valuable as your left. It’s all well and good flying around with your fretting hand but the picking hand is the machine that drives the attack. It’s the engine, whether we’re talking about Priest or James Hetfield’s right hand in Metallica. 

“And actually it’s a part of metal guitar playing that often gets neglected. Zakk Wylde is a major influence, he picks everything incredibly. I’m somewhere in the middle: I love Michael Schenker and Dave Murray from Iron Maiden; the latter of whom is a legato player. The downstroke is the law in metal, at least in a lot of people’s minds, but I play some riffs starting on the up.”

Devil In Disguise and Gates Of Hell typify the more bluesy side of your playing. A lot of heart and soul with some flat 5ths, for good measure…

“Sometimes we don’t know when to shut up when we’re younger, but as you grow you realise that the slower, more melodic ideas connect more. You can stand there and do a million notes a second, but it won’t work as well as stuff like [Pink Floyd’s] Comfortably Numb or [Queen’s] Killer Queen. 

“I was playing covers in pubs for years, learning different styles. I don’t feel like I’ve ever been a shredder. I’m never going to out-do Yngwie Malmsteen or Eric Johnson. I’m more from the Schenker and Ritchie Blackmore school. 

“Devil In Disguise felt like a Blackmore kind of thing. There’s a time for the fast stuff, but if you want to connect emotionally, it’s almost always better slower. I try to find different ways of saying unique things. That’s a lot harder than it sounds, taking your favourite notes and discovering new ways to use them.”

You’ve stuck with Gibson Les Pauls, Flying Vs and Explorers over the years. Is that what we’re hearing on the record?

“There were three guitars: one of them was a prototype for last year’s Pelham Blue Flying V signature. I had an old black Les Paul Custom from 1976 which I painted white when I joined Priest. It’s the most sonically balanced guitar I’ve got.

“I used it for all the rhythms on the Firepower album. The highs are all in the right place and it’s well balanced tonally. That one still has the EMG 81/85 set. An Explorer I use live is on the record, too.”

You rely on Engl and Wizard guitar amps on stage. Is it the same for recording?

“I ended up recording at my place. I’d run my Quad Cortex into the desk and keep the DI, because I’m not technical when it comes to mics and speakers. That’s more for producers and engineers. So I’d send the DIs to Andy who would then re-amp through JCM 800s and newer EVH heads.

“I don’t know what pedal went in front, but there definitely would’ve been something. For shows I’ve started using the Wampler Tumnus, which I think sounds better than the original Klon!”

So what is the hardest track on this album to nail?

“The songs have only been out a couple of minutes and some players have got it down already, probably better than I ever could! I’ve seen covers where everything’s picked and sounds proper.

“The title track is a challenge with all the different parts, and As God Is My Witness is another, because it involves fast picking from the get-go. They’re both challenging, but if you’re anything like me, it’s all good fun!”

• Invincible Shield is out now via Epic.

Back in 2018, Glenn Tipton announced he’d be stepping down from his formal touring duties with Judas Priest owing to his ongoing battle with Parkinson’s disease.

Tipton has remained a key part of the Priest lineup, albeit with a slightly altered role, and has continued sharing electric guitar duties with Richie Faulkner, whom Tipton has lined up alongside since K.K. Downing’s departure in 2011.

Speaking in a new interview with Total Guitar, Tipton discussed just how crucial Faulkner has been in allowing him to transition into a more accommodating role that still sees him record and perform.

“I played what I could and am very proud of the whole album,” Tipton explains of the band's newest record, Invincible Shield. “Richie helped a lot. I think his strongest attribute is his ability to adapt to different styles whilst maintaining his own very strong character. Priest require a guitarist who can shift from out-and-out metal to more melodic tracks.”

As well as piling praise on his fellow guitarist – who previously suffered an onstage aortic aneurysm during a set in 2021 – Tipton also touched on how he’s been juggling his Priest duties with his own medical battles thanks to a “no surrender” mindset.

“Obviously the drawback for me now is Parkinson’s, and I’ve had to pass a lot of work onto his shoulders,” Tipton goes on. “I keep pushing myself because I believe in ‘no surrender’. This disease won’t beat me and I will continue writing and playing for as long as I can.”

As mentioned, Tipton is still a key figure in the Judas Priest lineup. Andy Sneap was recruited to help share the workload, but Tipton still writes, records and, when circumstances allow it, performs live.

For example, in the past Tipton has reunited onstage with his Priest bandmates at Barcelona’s Rock Fest in 2022, and for Judas Priest’s shows in Oakland and Las Vegas.

In his own interview with Total Guitar, Richie Faulkner dove deeper into the process behind sharing six-string responsibilities with Tipton, giving greater insight into just how well the two guitarists work together.

“With Glenn’s situation, he wasn’t playing as much lead as before,” he said. “But that’s okay, we didn’t want that to impede the process. If Glenn was having a good day, he’d play the part. If he couldn’t, I’d do it.

“We didn’t want him to worry. He brought songs to the table like Sons of Thunder which is a classic three-minute track in the style of [Priest anthem] Hell Bent For Leather. Glenn is the master of that stuff.

“He was as involved as he could be and it was important for us to involve him.”

Tipton previously discussed his ever-evolving role in an interview with Guitar World, during which he asserted his riff writing remained in fine working order.

“I went into it with the understanding that I had to adapt,” he reflected of his changing Judas Priest role. “I have to realize my limitations. Basically, you just have to deal with what life throws at you and make the best of it.

“I don’t try to set the mark too high now because, obviously, my condition means I can’t play guitar like I used to. But I can still build songs and I can still get a mean riff out.”

Since their first release, Rocka Rolla in 1974, Judas Priest have played a pivotal role in the establishment and evolution of heavy metal. 

Despite more recent changes within the guitar line-up, the core of Priest’s sound is due to the formidable guitar duo of Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing (Richie Faulkner replaced K.K. in 2011). 

During the early days, their guitar style was mid-tempo, heavy blues-rock-style. However, the 1977 release, Sin After Sin, saw double kick drum patterns, and fast 16th-note sequences displayed within the riffs. 

From Painkiller onward, Downing and Tipton’s riffs and rhythm style were hugely riveting for metal fans around the world, placing them among the most influential, and relevant players of the genre.     

Get the tone

Amp Settings: Gain 7, Bass 5, Middle 7, Treble 7, Reverb 1

Use your bridge pickup, and set your guitar amp gain at a moderate level. If you need further intensity, increase your picking-hand attack, rather than turning the gain up.

To cut through the rhythm section, turn up the middle and treble on your amp. This adds definition while allowing any palm-muted phrases to accentuate the bass frequencies.

Style study 1

These phrases use an eighth-note feel, double-stops for harmonic weight, and descending Blues Scale sequences to end each line. 

Use downstrokes and, where necessary, include the pinched harmonics, by brushing the side of your picking-hand thumb on the string, as your pick strikes the note.

Style study 2

Here’s a more aggressive approach using alternate-picked 16th-note sequences, and chord stabs that are played with downstrokes. 

Palm muting plays a big part in getting a precise, articulate sound. So, you’ll need to keep the repeated notes muted while the melody notes and chord sequences remain unmuted.

Oh, hey. Nice of you to join us. You might remember we used to run a weekly track roundup around these parts – Essential Guitar Tracks, as it was known. Well, say your goodbyes, for EGT is no more.

Now dry those tears – preferably from the heat of some pre-warmed 6L6 tubes – and say hello to Guitar World Editors’ Picks, our brand-spanking-new, monthly guide to the songs our editors are digging very much indeed, yessir.

We’ll have a Spotify playlist for you to tuck into, and we’ll round up our favorites of the month in an article just like this – where our editors will wax lyrical on the playing, tones, and songwriting that had their six-string senses a-tingling.

Make sense? It will do. Anyway, without further ado, let’s hand things over to our EIC MAB to get things started…

Michael Astley-Brown – Editor-in-Chief

Full disclosure: I went to NAMM, took a vacation, and I’ve been catching up on music (and emails… mostly emails) up until roughly 10:37 a.m. this morning. So forgive me if I allow one or two late-January releases into my picks of the musical litter.

My month has mostly been dominated by Radiohead offshoot The Smile’s sophomore effort. It’s the sound of Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood finally shaking off the chains of expectation surrounding their best-known gig, and it’s all the better for it. Read the Room is an absolute jam, Greenwood’s angular riff snaking around your consciousness, before the trio go full Sonic Youth. Yes. Yes, please.

Then there’s the small matter of a new Pearl Jam single. Dark Matter fizzes with the energy emblematic of producer Andrew Watt’s latest efforts with the Rolling Stones and Iggy Pop. And dang, it’s good to hear Mike McCready dial up the fuzz for that pull-off-heavy solo. 

In fact, I’ve been struck by the quality of latter-day releases across the board: Kerry King’s long-awaited solo debut is pure kinetic freneticism, the returning Kittie sound as vital as ever; and Judas Priest have no right delivering riffs this lithe so many decades into their career.

My guitar highlight of the month, however, comes from nu metal survivors Alien Ant Farm, of all bands. I’ve long maintained the band’s first two records are criminally underrated, just for the tonal and technical diversity of guitarist Terry Corso alone.

Comeback single So Cold harks back to that era with its incisive riffs and heavily modulated extended chords, but it’s the triumphant ’80s-vibed solo – whammy wiggles! taps! legato! – that steals the song, and presents a kind of revisionist history where guitar solos were cool after all in the early noughties.

Jackson Maxwell – Associate Editor 

First off, as a Radiohead fanboy for life, I’m with Mike – The Smile’s Wall of Eyes has some of the most agile, inscrutable riffs in Jonny Greenwood’s already lofty catalog, giving the album some of that Radiohead ‘x-factor’ we’ve been so sorely missing. Ok, fanboying over.

Though it comes from a genre that, admittedly, isn’t my usual bag, I found it impossible not to be awed by Felix Martin’s dizzying neoclassical tapping clinic, Thundertap. Having witnessed his double-neck wizardry in person at NAMM last year, Thundertap – which also features double-neck bass tapping, to boot – feels like the culmination of Martin’s development as a player and composer to date. 

On a very different note, Khruangbin keep going from strength to strength, as evidenced by their new tune, May Ninth. A perfect balm for a hard day, this easy-strolling song finds Mark Speer getting incredible melodic miles-per-gallon. Kept surprisingly low in the mix, his dreamy, movie score-like arpeggios and clipped single-note statements are colorful and integral to the song’s charm, but never once overshadow the band’s always air-tight rhythm section. 

What I’m most excited about as February comes to a close, though, is the return of Mdou Moctar, the Nigerien guitarist who took the world by storm with his breakthrough 2021 album, Afrique Victime – a thrilling record that mixed traditional assouf guitar music from West Africa with Western influences, particularly the flash and fire of Jimi Hendrix. 

Funeral for Justice – the lead single and title track from Moctar’s forthcoming album – takes things to another level, turning up the distortion and volume and adding a touch of meat-and-potatoes riffing, especially in the intro. Moctar’s Strat fingerpicking, though, remains the star attraction, and is as driving and hypnotic as ever. 

Matt Owen – Staff Writer

NAMM festivities aside, it’s been a very busy start to the year indeed – and as far as new music goes, I personally have been eating especially well in February. 

For starters, Julian Lage is one person who endlessly inspires me to continue exploring new ways of navigating the fretboard. The jazz extraordinaire’s latest slew of releases – culminating in Nothing Happens Here – have put a firm focus on his acoustic prowess, and in turn I have found myself picking up my own Fender Paramount over the past few weeks as I look to learn from Lage’s limitless creativity. 

To satiate my hunger for blues, soul and some more electric-leaning soundscapes, St. Vincent, Gary Clark Jr., and Marcus King have been on hand to deliver the goods, providing masterclasses in dynamics, feel, and phrasing with Broken Man, Along Together (feat. Keyon Harrold), and Mood Swings, respectively.

It’s also been a big month for indie rock. Social media sensation-turned-recording phenomenon Towa Bird put in an early claim for my highlight of the month with B.I.L.L.S – yet another home run from the D’Angelico-toting titan.

But it was the return of Catfish and the Bottlemen – one of the finest indie guitar acts of its type – for which I will be remembering February. The band, which unofficially disbanded a few years ago after some personnel departures, has been AWOL for the past few years, but returned this month with Showtime – their first new music in five years.

Who’s in the band now? Well, frontman Van McCann (the beating heart of the group) is back, but beyond that we’re not quite sure. What we are sure of, though, is that Catfish are here for round two, and – if the new track’s Springstreenian leanings are anything to go by – the album that follows their revival looks poised to be their best yet.

Matt Parker – Staff Writer

May I be the first second to say that the big news for me this month is the return of Mdou Moctar? 

God knows how many words I have read (and, yes, written) about the guitar heroes of yore – wielding blazing guitars in the face of (sometimes violent) authoritarianism and inspiring a counter-cultural movement that shredded the social fabric of the era. 

Well, Moctar does all of that – and, more importantly, he’s doing it right now. So if, like me, you’ve spent time staring at pictures of Hendrix and wondering what it’s like to see a living, breathing guitar hero who plays with wild abandon in the service of something much bigger – look to Niger and Moctar. 

Elsewhere, I’m currently cycling between the crushing brutality of Knocked Loose’s newbie Blinding Faith and Hermanos Gutiérrez’ sun-kissed psychedelic beauty Sonido Cósmico (which dropped a few weeks ago), both of which offer first tasters of forthcoming albums. 

The former is blowing out the winter cobwebs with some vicious near-percussive hardcore riffing and I love those blink-and-you-miss-them shreddy central licks. Points are also gained for the use of a wall of amps, matching guitar finishes and getting an Ibanez Iceman in the video. 

Hermanos Gutiérrez, meanwhile, are helping to reset the blood pressure after all of the above overexertions. I’m a massive fan of that country-inspired muted clean tic-tac tone and Sonido Cósmico is absolutely laced with it, albeit in the dreamy context of a sort of cosmic spaghetti western. It’s a stunning ride.

When heavy metal fans think of Judas Priest, it’s probably of Rob Halford’s screaming vocals or the band’s iconic twin-guitar attack. But beneath the surface there’s a profoundly groovy pocket laid down by Ian Hill, who’s been with Priest since the beginning in 1969.

At 73 years of age and possessing a 19-album discography with Priest – including upcoming release Invincible Shield – Hill knows a thing or two about maintaining a proper heavy metal low-end. That’s one of the reasons their new sounds are contemporary and worthy of consideration against their best.

Hill shrugs. “We’ve never stopped doing it,” he tells Bass Player. “We haven’t had much of a break between albums, and that’s kept us relevant when others aren’t. Someone could think of a few other reasons, but that’ll do for now!”

His pleasant and calm demeanor starkly contrasts with his status as an icon of chug-and-slug via four strings. He must be aware of his status as an all-time great within heavy metal circles – but he rarely shows it, only adding to his charm.

“I’ve always believed that doing too much will detract from the whole,” he says of his playing style. “People don’t always listen to the bass, but that’s fine; I do what’s needed to get the icing on top of the cake.

“I never want to do anything to detract from the track’s heaviness or integrity. It’s about keeping things tight and allowing everything else to build on top of that. That’’s always been my philosophy.”

In most instances, a five-decade-old band like Priest would have difficulty getting an audience to pay new songs any mind. But with that’s not the case with Invincible Shield, or their other recent releases. “We try and move forward with each album,” Hill says.

“We know what we’re trying to do: get better for as long as possible. We try and take it a step further each time, and thankfully, we’ve kept it heading in the right direction. And with each tour we seem to pick up more fans, which keeps us moving forward, too.

“We have a sound and can expand on it or return to it; it’s like a comfort blanket. You’ll hear that this album sounds like Priest, but still has distinct differences from the last one, Firepower.”

Still, every band has an expiry date. Guitarist Richie Faulkner is 44 and drummer Scott Travis is 62, but the other members of Judas Priest are well into their 70s. Asked if the end ever creeps into his mind, Hill admits: “I do think about it. We think about those things all the time.

“When the performances begin to dip, it’s probably time to knock it on the head. I never want people to remember this band struggling to get through a set. I’d rather finish on a high note than dribble out. But there are no plans to retire; we have a lot to do. As long as we can physically do it, we’ll keep doing so.”

While accolades continue to pile up for the band, Hill is sometimes left out of the conversation regarding the greatest-ever bassists. But that doesn’t bother him. “I’ve been lucky,” he says. “What we do comes from within us, and I try not to get too big-headed. Some call bands like us ‘legacy acts,’ but that title only comes from lack of progress.

“What I do is part of a whole religion of heavy metal. I wouldn’t be doing it without the other band members – that’s important to remember. I take things as they come and put my basslines where needed. If it adds to the whole, then I’m happy.”

Hill rounded out our conversation by revealing the eight players who shaped his sound.

8. His father 

“My dad, who was a jazz bassist, is the one who got me into bass. He was a double bass guy, so that was a big influence on me as I watched him in his prime while I was growing up. But the funny thing is that I should have played trombone!

“My dad was in the air force, and they shipped him off to Canada. That’s when he encountered American radio stations – he got doses of all sorts of things. Once he returned home, he found I was playing trombone and thought I’d get bored of it. My mother hated it, so that’s what got me into bass.

“He showed me the rudiments of the double bass, but unfortunately he died when I was 15, so I didn’t get to learn much more from him. But everyone’s father influences them somehow, and that’s how my dad influenced me.”

7. Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen

“This guy was a great bass player. He played with Oscar Peterson and a ton of brilliant jazz musicians. I first came across him because I was into big band stuff and a lot of that old-time jazz.

“I followed what he was doing for a long time, especially some of his stuff from an album called Young Django [1979]. It was phenomenal. It’s not in the zone of heavy metal, but it’s so brilliant. If you have the chance to listen to him, you definitely should.”

6. Roger Glover

“I was always a big Deep Purple fan – I loved all those original albums and listened to them a lot. I remember sitting in Ken’s [K.K. Downing’s] flat, listening to Deep Purple In Rock, and being blown away. I was always incredibly impressed with Roger’s bass work, and it was influential to me.

“I have a tremendous amount of respect for him. I ran into him recently after not seeing him for a while; catching up with him was incredible. Roger is a true icon, and Deep Purple are incredible.”

5. Jaco Pastorius

“Interestingly, it was Roger Glover who got me into Jaco. I heard some of the stuff he was doing with Weather Report while at the same studio as them when Priest was doing a record in the ’70s. I remember looking up and thinking, ‘Wow… this guy is onto something magical.’

“Jaco’s playing floored me. He’s very versatile and can do anything he wants. I can’t say his style is very prevalent in mine, but in terms of mindset and general inspiration, I have much respect for Jaco.”

4. John Entwistle

“Seeing him do what he did at the height of his career was inspirational. He was unreal. There was only one guitar player in The Who, so everything John did was important. He had a lot more space to fill in than your average bassist, if you know what I mean.

“When there are two guitarists, there’s always someone playing rhythm and someone playing lead. But in The Who you had one guitar, and John had to fill these huge gaps. That’s very different from anyone else, and I always admired that.”

3. John McVie 

“John McVie is an all-time great bass player. He’s another one who’s overshadowed by the guitars – but what a great player he is. I was into him from the very beginning of Fleetwood Mac, when Peter Green was in the band in the ’60s, and I’ve followed what he did right on through to today.

“And he’s still at it; he’s still part of it. He’s nearly 80, and he’s as good as anybody. God bless him – he’s undoubtedly been a big influence on me.”

2. Lemmy Kilmister

“Lemmy was such a pistol, wasn’t he? I first saw him with Hawkwind, and I knew straight away how strong a player he was. I watched him at this outdoor show from the back of the park, and it was brilliant.

“I ran into Lemmy through the years with Priest and we’d always talk when we saw each other on the road. Lemmy was a true force of nature to me and everyone else who saw him. I was aware of that from the moment I first saw him all those years ago.”

1. Jack Bruce

“The biggest one for me has to be Jack Bruce. He was unbelievable with Cream, and that had such an impact on me as a bassist. Watching him do what he did was unreal, and I’ve never seen anyone else quite like him.

“Jack is probably the most brilliant bass player I’ve ever seen, and there’s no denying I hacked more than a few limbs off his style over the years. I took plenty of pages from his book, so God bless him, too. He’s a true hero to me as far as bass playing goes.”

• Invincible Shield is out on March 8 via Epic Records.

Heavy metal fans of a certain age will remember the rise of Judas Priest, the perennial quintet which has ruled the metallic airwaves from 1974 onwards in a variety of lineups. 

In a half-century of the British heavy metal institution, bassist Ian Hill (who has been in Priest since 1970) has seen it all. “People ask me, ‘Did you ever think Priest was going to last this long when you started?’ I tell them that when we started the band, the concept of somebody doing this sort of thing in their 70s just didn’t exist.”

Having rolled out Trial By Fire – the second single of their upcoming album Invincible Shield, which is slated for March 8th, 2024, the mighty Judas Priest has also announced a series of European shows alongside Saxon and Uriah Heep. 

We asked Hill to name five albums that helped him along the righteous path to metal glory, and left an indelible impression on his musical brain.

1. John Mayall with Eric Clapton – Blues Breakers (1966)

“This was the pinnacle of British blues in my opinion: John Mayall was such a huge figure when it came to that music. Of course, the bass was played by John McVie, one of the all-time classic British blues bassists. He’s so underrated and yet he’s played in so many bands, including Fleetwood Mac, of course. I think John is overlooked as a bass player, for some reason, perhaps because all of the great musicians in Fleetwood Mac like Peter Green and Mick Fleetwood.”

2.The Beatles – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) 

“Any musician of my age who says he wasn’t influenced by this album is a liar. It all comes together on this LP and it’s such high-quality pop music. McCartney is great on it. There are barely any solos, it’s all about the songwriting, and McCartney was fantastic both as a bassist and a writer. It epitomised the the music of its era. Everything that came after it looked back to it, somehow. Mind you, I tried one of those Hofner violin basses once and I thought it was crap.”

3. Cream – Wheels Of Fire (1968) 

“Jack Bruce is my all-time idol. He went through John Mayall’s band too, of course, as did Eric Clapton. What those two did in Cream with Ginger Baker was just amazing. If there was one album that I had to take with me to a desert island, this would probably be it. It’s an absolute peach, and they were so young when they did it. Listening to it you’d think they’d been playing together for 30 or 40 years, but no, they’d just started.”

4. Quartermass – Quartermass (1970)

“Johnny Gustafson was on bass and vocals on this album, and just as a vocalist he was great, let alone his bass playing, which was superb. He was one of the Liverpool musicians from the ‘60s, I think, and he did some work with Roxy Music as well. Neither he nor Quartermass ever got the attention they deserved, which was a shame because they were a great band. In Judas Priest’s early days, when we had Al Atkins on vocals, we used to do a few Quartermass numbers.”

5. Weather Report – Heavy Weather (1977)

“Roger Glover of Deep Purple first played me this album when we were with him in the studio. Jaco Pastorius was a breath of fresh air. You Absolutely knew when you heard it that he was an amazing player. It was such an awful waste, what happened to him. I know I play heavy metal, but I’ve always loved jazz. My dad was a jazz double bassist and he used to play it to me all the time. It’s a great form of music if you want to express yourself as a musician.”

Invincible Shield is available to pre-order. See www.judaspriestinvincibleshield.com for tour dates.

Hello, and welcome to Essential Guitar Tracks. As you may well know, every seven days (or thereabouts), we endeavor to bring you a selection of songs from across the guitar universe, all with one thing in common: our favorite instrument plays a starring role.

Our goal is to give you an overview of the biggest tracks, our editor’s picks and anything you may have missed. We’re pushing horizons and taking you out of your comfort zone – because, as guitarists, that’s something we should all be striving for in our playing. 

So, here are our highlights from the past seven days – now with a Spotify playlist…

Ace Frehley – 10,000 Volts

He won’t be at Kiss’ last-ever concert tomorrow – apparently he wasn’t even invited – but Ace Frehley has got a new single under his belt. The title track from his forthcoming record, 10,000 Volts is as electrifying as its name would suggest, loaded with razor sharp progressions and high-voltage lead licks. Ace’s first album in five years will be released in February next year. (MO)

Judas Priest – Trial by Fire

’Priest return, with Glenn Tipton in tow, on this potent new single that’s full of modern metal nods in the production style, but has enough of Rob Halford and co’s hallmarks to feel faithful to their classic template. Richie Faulkner obliges with a typically razor-sharp solo – full of bouncing pinch harmonics and descending shred lines. (MP)

The Jesus And Mary Chain – jamcod 

jamcod, the lead single from Scottish shoegaze pioneers the Jesus And Mary Chain’s first LP in seven years, has an industrial drive that’ll be music to the ears of any Nine Inch Nails fan. It might be a bit more electronic than the band’s Just Like Honey-era classics, but the jarring, distorted power chords that break the song’s doors down after the first verse are a perfect reminder of how the band paved the way for My Bloody Valentine, the aforementioned Nine Inch Nails, and countless other noise ‘n’ melody bands. (JM)

Real Estate – Water Underground

The indie stalwarts have no business sounding this good on album number six, but everything about Water Underground is gorgeous, from the wistful slide work, the chiming arpeggios and the washes of warm acoustic to the earworm vocal hook. The video, a tribute to early-’90s TV show Pete & Pete, also mainlines Nickelodeon nostalgia, which is fine by us. (MP)

Alkaline Trio – Bad Time

Matt Skiba gives his former blink-182 bandmates a run for their money with this storming pop-punk anthem, taken from Alkaline Trio's forthcoming 10th album Blood, Hair and Eyeballs. The wall of distorted guitars and Skiba’s energetic vocals sound utterly vital, proving pop-punk can be far more than just nostalgia in the 2020s. (MAB)

The Snuts – Deep Diving

Since making a name for themselves back in 2021 with a historic debut album (W.L., which reached number one in the UK charts), Scottish indie outfit The Snuts have embarked on a prolific, almost restless run of releases. After following up W.L. with 2022’s Burn the Empire, the band have now dropped a new single titled Deep Diving – the title track of which demonstrates The Snuts’ tirelessly evolutionary sound, which simply grows and gets better with every installment. (MO)

Bonnie "Prince" Billy – Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You

The latest tune from veteran singer-songwriter Bonnie “Prince” Billy (the stage name of Will Oldham) is an absolute stunner of a slow burn. Someone who’s songcraft is as strong as Oldham’s will always have a perfect awareness of a song’s need for space, and indeed, each note of the conversational, spare leads he lends to this instant classic speaks a thousand words. (JM)

The Pineapple Thief – The Frost

With Porcupine Tree once again on hiatus, drummer Gavin Harrison is free to return to his other band, long-running British progsters The Pineapple Thief. Indeed, fans of Steve Wilson’s exploits will appreciate Bruce Soord’s guitars on The Frost, which are dreamlike one moment, savage the next. (MAB)

Anna Calvi – Black Tuesday

No one does widescreen atmospheric drama on the electric guitar quite like Anna Calvi, so when it came for the Peaky Blinders soundtrack, she was something of a dream pairing. Now the British guitarist and songwriter is releasing her work from the last two seasons of the show, offering a first taster in the form of this menacing, animalistic blues instrumental. She says more in a minute and a half than some players will in their lifetimes. (MP)

NewDad – Nightmares

Recorded at Rockfield – one of Queen and Black Sabbath’s fave studios – and mixed by Alan Moulder (of Smashing Pumpkins and Nine Inch Nails fame), the latest single from Irish alt-rockers NewDad is a shoegazing indie anthem that nods to the Cure and the Cult in its elegantly orchestrated and densely effected guitar layers. Destined to be huge. (MAB)

Yard Act – Petroleum

By now, Yard Act are pretty well-known for their angular alternative sound, and their latest single, Petroleum, sees the Leeds-based post-punk quartet double down in devastating fashion, delivering a gloriously off-kilter bass riff that carries the track through a minefield of left-field licks and sizzling fuzz notes. (MO)

Also on this week’s playlist…

• Chelsea Wolfe – Tunnel Lights
• Elephant Gym – Ocean in the Night Orchestra (feat. Hom Shenhao)
• Real Terms – Kite
• Sun Room – Stuck in the Heat
• Steve Hackett – People of the Smoke
• Cobra Spell – Warrior from Hell
• Dan Patlansky – Who I Am

It lasted for just over seven minutes, but what a glorious 420-plus seconds it was. Judas Priest’s pioneering guitarists Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing were back onstage together for the first time in more than 11 years playing some of their biggest hits to a worldwide audience.

The celebration took place November 5, 2022, in the Microsoft Theater (Los Angeles) at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, where Judas Priest received the Lifetime Achievement Award. Following a brief introduction by Alice Cooper, the band barreled through You’ve Got Another Thing Coming, Living After Midnight and Breaking the Law as celebrities including Dave Grohl and Drew Barrymore raised their fists and sang along.

Downing was joined on stage by the band’s current guitarist, Richie Faulkner, and both seemed to have the same fashion designer and hairdresser. Wearing the band’s patented studded black leather, wielding Flying V guitars and bobbing their flowing blond tresses, their chemistry was as tight as their precision riffing and synchronized stage moves. 

On the other side of the stage were bassist Ian Hill and Tipton, the latter wearing a Judas Priest baseball cap and eyeglasses and playing a black Hamer Phantom. Possibly due to his worsening Parkinson’s condition, Tipton remained fairly stationary and glanced downward – an elder statesman calmly taking in the voluble scene and reaping the rewards of 50-plus years of dedication to his craft. 

Onstage, vocalist Rob Halford stood as one with Downing. Offstage and before the show, the environment wasn’t so friendly. Downing wasn’t allowed to walk the red carpet with his former bandmates, had a separate dressing room and received the cold shoulder from everyone in the band except Faulkner, who replaced Downing when he left the band. Even so, Downing wasn’t about to let ugly politics ruin a good party.

“I was flying high, and It was fantastic,” Downing says, recalling the performance. “I was there for the fans who wanted to see me with Priest again, and it was a great moment. People loved it and lots of them said hello, including Richie, who was really nice and really cool. I wish I could say the same for my former bandmates.”

Downing officially quit Judas Priest in 2011. Due to personal and musical tensions that had grown over the years between him and some of his bandmates, he opted not to play their planned last hurrah, the Epitaph Tour. Downing insists the band agreed to break up after the final date of the lengthy run.

“Everybody went, ‘He jumped ship. He left our beloved Priest,’” Downing says. “That wasn’t the case at all. If I’d have known that the last tour wasn’t going to be the last tour and they’d be carrying on for another 10 years, things would probably have been a lot different.”

When Downing bowed out, Judas Priest recruited Faulkner, who breathed new life into the band, and with whom Judas Priest has continued to tour and record. Faulkner played on 2014’s Redeemer of Souls and 2018’s Firepower and toured for both albums. 

Downing never hoped to replace Faulkner; however, when Tipton announced he was too ill from Parkinson’s to tour, Downing contacted management and expressed interest in rejoining, but too much bad blood had passed under the bridge for the members to accept his offer. Instead, they hired their producer, Andy Sneap, to join them onstage.

“I graciously requested to return when there was an opportunity, but the guys in the band said, ‘No. We don’t want you.’ I said, ‘Are you sure? Before I start another project, are you sure you don’t want me back in the band?’ Rob, Glenn and Ian said, ‘No,’ and that was it.”

Downing says he was especially upset at being rejected since he had supported Halford’s decision to rejoin Judas Priest after a 14-year hiatus. And he sat back and patiently waited for six years while Tipton worked on the project Tipton, Entwistle & Powell, which released Edge of the World in 2006. When it became clear as unblemished crystal that no-one in Judas Priest’s camp wanted Downing back, he took his gear, instantly recognizable tone and familiar songwriting style and soaked it all in a vat of piss and vinegar. 

Then he connected with former Judas Priest vocalist Tim “Ripper” Owens, who sang for Judas Priest between 1996 and 2003 (while Halford was working on Fight, Halford and 2wo), and the two formed KK’s Priest, a searing, soaring metal band that takes no great pains to differentiate itself sonically from the music Downing co-wrote in Judas Priest.

“Here’s the thing,” Downing says. “Judas Priest was my baby. I created it. I stuck with it from the very beginning. I hired other people to be a part of the band and then it was my life. It was my career. It was my legacy. It was my legend. And the hardest thing in the world was letting it go.

“And now I’m acknowledging I am no longer a member of Judas Priest, but I am still a large part of Judas Priest, and anyone who knows the band can tell that by listening to what I’m doing now.”

KK’s Priest released their debut album, Sermons of the Sinner, October 1, 2021. In addition to drawing from Judas Priest’s trademark musical style, Downing referenced Priest songs including Sinner in the title cut, The Sentinel in Return of the Sentinel and his own history in Hail for the Priest. 

Since the Covid pandemic prevented KK’s Priest from touring, Downing kept writing riffs, leads and lyrics, and less than six months after wrapping Sermons of the Sinner, he finished writing The Sinner Rides Again.

With a lineup that features Owens, guitarist A.J. Mills, bassist Tony Newton and drummer Sean Elg, the band spent the summer playing a handful of festivals and a couple of shows at K.K.’s club in Wolverhampton, KK’s Steel Mill.

“Wolverhampton is right outside of Birmingham, and we used to play there a lot in the early Priest days,” he says. During the band’s July 6 show at KK’s Steel Mill, the band played nine Judas Priest songs (including their cover of Fleetwood Mac’s The Green Manalishi) and six numbers by KK’s Priest.

“I like to do a good cross-section of songs from the first two albums along with some Priest songs the fans want to hear,” he says. “We have videos for six new songs, and as we keep releasing tracks from the new album, we’ll keep adding them to the set.”

At the moment, Downing is spending some down time at home before heading out for more shows in October. While he still has several sour grapes to flick at some of his former bandmates, he seems less bitter than he was when he released Sermons of the Sinner and more intent to focus on the promising future of KK’s Priest than dwell on any past misfortune.

Judas Priest fans seemed to be split on Sermons of the Sinner. Some heralded it as a thrilling return to form; others thought it was a reflection of an artist trying to recapture his former glory.

“It’s a strange world, isn’t it? The set of circumstances about my departure from the band were so heavily misconstrued that people formed an opinion right away about me. Management put out a press release: ‘K.K. has retired from Judas Priest.’ Everyone thought I was leaving to open a golf course. Priest fans didn’t understand the situation and couldn’t understand what I was upset about. But now we’re working with some new people and we’re on a new label and I’m looking forward to moving on with KK’s Priest.”

At what point did you accept that you couldn’t live in the past and you had to move on with a new band?

“It was very hard to have to give up the baton to new blood. Lots of tears were shed and there were lots of sleepless nights. People thought I was an asshole. But that wasn’t it. I was completely dedicated to metal and the legacy of it, as I am today. The truth is, I gave up touring with Priest because I was worn down and I felt battered. I felt beaten. I felt like I haven’t got a voice. I felt I was being trod upon – even right up to the point of the farewell tour. So I just keep it going in my own way.” 

At this point, there’s no reason metal fans should have to choose between the Rob Halford-fronted Judas Priest and KK’s Priest. You aren’t sports teams. 

“I was the K.K. in Judas Priest and now I’ve got KK’s Priest because I’m the same player. I’ve got the same articulation. I’m using the same amps and speakers, the same approach to what I think a good song should be. I’ve got the same ideas about what makes a good guitar sound and a good lead sound. I’m just doing what I started to do in the early days.”

Do you feel that KK’s Priest resembles early Judas Priest?

“Not really, because back then my musical vocabulary was quite limited. It was acceptable for the day. It’s more like I’m starting over now with this band that isn’t that well known yet. In the late ’60s and ’70s, I primarily played the major and minor pentatonic and the Aeolian scale, which is the natural minor scale, which is my personal favorite, and it’s the same as the relative major scale. 

“Other than that, we would do a few chromatic things, or we’d take things from different styles without knowing what the scales were. Maybe we did do something that was diminished, but at the time we didn’t know it was from the diminished scale. We just liked how it sounded. 

“But when you educate yourself, you start to integrate all these other scales – the harmonic minor, the Ionian and others so that you’ve got a bigger, louder voice. I enjoy integrating all of these styles so there are a lot more tools in that toolbox than I had in 1971, and that helps a lot with songwriting.”

In any way, do you want KK’s Priest to sound different from what you wrote in Judas Priest?

“For the first record, I was happy to have a bit of a retro sound, where some of those songs could have been created in the ’70s, ’80s or ’90s. I think this one is good for the present day with an eye toward the future. But a song like Brothers of the Road is about guys in metal bands meeting up backstage at festivals and gigs. We are all road warriors. 

“Sometimes we’re out there for months on end with a suitcase full of dirty clothes, but we get on with it and we get the job done, and we enjoy it. That could have been on [Judas Priest’s 1981 album] Point of Entry. It’s the same idea as Heading Out to the Highway. But the tones are a little bit more edgy because it adds to the excitement of the songs. It’s a bit more risky, a bit more gung-ho. A bit more, Let’s fucking get out there and rock!”

Sermons of the Sinner made it perfectly clear that you own your sound. Why not modify it even more on The Sinner Rides Again by using different production techniques, songwriting styles or guitar tones, and making fewer direct references to Priest songs so no one can accuse you of being stuck in the past? 

“Well, I’m not doing this to be a version of something from the past – a different version of Judas Priest. That’s not the case at all. All the fans and people that don’t get that have to understand that I was there at the very beginning. I always wanted to be in Judas Priest even before I auditioned for Judas Priest and failed. 

“I knew I had to go back. I kept knocking on the door until I got through it [toward the end of 1969]. And I was able to invite people into that band. I brought Glenn into Priest in 1974. He was much more commercially minded than me, but I knew he was a good player. I wanted somebody that could play leads, write songs and play rhythm as well. And I thought having two guitarists would really impact the band and make it really strong. 

“I couldn’t think of another band like us that had more than one guitar player. There were some, but most of them were in the States. There was Wishbone Ash, but they weren’t a heavy rock band. I wanted Glenn and everyone to be a part of this amazing journey to create music that didn’t exist.”

Like Judas Priest, KK’s Priest features two guitarists. How did you hook up with your new sidekick, A.J. Mills?

“I went to primary school with A.J.’s uncle, and we’ve stayed friends. And then A.J. started to play the guitar as a teenager. I’ve mentored him and his career since then and now he’s 34 and he’s ready for the big stage. In fact, he’s been on it! So that’s cool because we’re from the same town and there’s metal blood in our veins.” 

A.J. is credited on the first KK’s Priest album, but you wrote all the songs.

“I was happy to do it myself. But I was equally happy to collaborate with him on two of the new songs because it’s good for A.J. to take on more of a role in the band. I’ll be 72 this year, and at some point, it would be great if somebody could take over for me, whenever that might be. Hopefully, it’s a long way down the line, but you never know. I lost my sister suddenly a few years ago and that scared me, to be honest. It was quite sudden, and she was just 70.”

Do you ever think about Glenn and how Parkinson’s Disease has impacted what he can do as a guitarist?

“It’s terribly sad to see what’s happened to Glenn. And I’m extremely proud of our relationship and what we did and achieved together. I respect him more than anybody in the band, to be fair, because Glenn was very hardworking, and he had talent. We wrote a lot of great songs together. And on a social level, we did well for a long time.” 

You’ve been critical of him in the past, even accusing him of drinking too much onstage. 

“I don’t want to speak too much about what was said and done. That’s all been beaten into the ground. But there was always a difference between myself and Glenn. He had a different relationship with management than I did, and that became problematic for me. I felt like I had no control over band decisions. 

“But Glenn will always have a place in my heart, as much as we were at loggerheads on lots of things, we made great music together. And maybe even he wasn’t in control after a certain point. Who knows? But there’s always the other side of the coin and the fans need to realize that.” 

Do you and A.J. have different playing styles?

“Not really. When he was younger, he liked nu metal, but over the years he has looked up to me and my sound. He has played with me for a while, so our styles are similar, and they work well together. He uses heavier strings, so his voicings have a little more low end to them. And we tune down one-half step, so when we fired up his rig and he played through Celestion G12 speakers and started chugging really good, he loved it.”

Do you use lighter strings? 

“I use Dean Markley .08 through .38. I’ve always done that because I don’t have really big, strong hands. I don’t think I ever did, but now at my age it’s good to have lighter strings. They’re easy to bend and they just feel right.” 

Do you prefer to play runs with legato or alternate picking?

“I’ll do entire runs through several octaves using all economy picking. I have fun doing that. It’s quite a challenge, but I can do it. I can play just as fast when I alternate pick as I can when I use legato. 

“To be perfectly honest, I would use a lot more legato in my sound if I had pulled it off all my life. It’s just hard to trust it a little bit and to speak as well with it unless you’ve really got that overdriven and compressed sound. 

“When you’re in the house and you’re playing, you get to pull it off. When you’ve got a big double-bass kit and everything else going off onstage at the same time, well, it’s a two-guitar band so it’s never a sure thing. If I’m playing a ballad and everybody holds back then, yeah, it’s a lot easier to use. And I do use it in a couple of songs now.”

You wrote and recorded Sermons of the Sinner on your own during Covid in a mere four months. How much of a break did you take before you started writing again for The Sinner Rides Again?

“When we finished the first record, the Covid thing was still there and the agents were saying, ‘There’s a backlog of bookings and engagements that need to be filled. Don’t count your blessings about getting on the road.’ So I thought to myself, ‘Well, I’ll just do another record.’ I work spontaneously and fast and I switch onto auto pilot. If it comes out good, it’s good. If it doesn’t, I’ll try something else. But it is what it is because I am who I am. 

“When I sit down to write a song like One More Shot at Glory, it’s a wonderful place for my brain to be in, so no wonder I rock and roll fast and furious and get the job done quickly. I’ve got so much content to work with. I can’t speak for Glenn, but maybe that’s why we were so prolific as writers in Judas Priest over the years. If anything, the only thing that really slowed us down was the odd task of having to agree with each other. Now I don’t have to do that. 

“I fly on my own and I haven’t really done that since 1969, 1970 and 1971 when I was doing the writing back when we were just a four-piece band. It’s great to have A.J. involved, but I’m really reveling in the fact that I could sit down and do another album and it would probably only take me three or four weeks to get the content together. That’s what happened with the first two records, and that makes me really feel good.”

It doesn’t sound like the songs on The Sinner Rides Again were quickly slapped together. They’re filled with strong riffs, memorable choruses, blazing solos and twin-guitar harmonies. And there’s no shortage of atmospheric arpeggios, energized rhythm changes and gear-changing rhythm shifts. 

“When I’m on a roll, all I have to do is settle on the content that inspires me and then the rest is easy. I’ve been doing this for so long, I feel like it just comes naturally, like I’m pulling it out of the sky. And now I have the confidence to know that there’s no lack of quality there.”

You were working with former Judas Priest drummer Les Binks before you hired Sean Elg, who also plays in Cage and Nihilist.  

“Obviously, I really wanted Ripper and Les to bring in more of that spirit of Priest. But Les hurt his wrist pretty badly in an accident and couldn’t do it. With the mechanics of having to hit his drums and do that over and over, that’s demanding on your body, and with his injury, it just wasn’t possible, so we got Sean, and that worked out really well.”

One More Shot at Glory is pretty poignant. Do you feel this is your last chance to take your music to the masses and prove you’re still a powerful force in metal?

“That song can be interpreted on several levels. It’s about a hero that’s won a battle, and going to war, and wielding the sword, which is forged with molten steel, which is very metal. And then that bridge is about me and my conquest, and my fight to return and get back in the saddle. 

“This is one more shot at glory for me. I know the things I’ve been denied. I shouldn’t be in a position where I have to create this on my own and build it up all over again. But I’m forced to do it, so I do it. And I will enjoy it and make it work because metal is always about the fight and the victory.” 

• The Sinner Rides Again is out now via Napalm.

K.K. Downing’s onstage reunion with Judas Priest at last year’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony looks to have been a one-off, after the guitarist recently dismissed any chances of a repeat appearance.

Downing debuted his new project KK’s Priest featuring former ’Priest vocalist Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens back in 2021. 

Now, in a new interview with Metal Hammer, Downing reveals that he talked to his former bandmates about the possibility of taking his “rightful place” prior to launching his new group – an approach he says was rebuffed.

Asked if there is a possibility of further reunions with Judas Priest, Downing issues an unequivocal response. 

“No,” says the guitarist. “Before I started KK’s Priest, I asked if they’d consider me stepping back into my rightful place, because at one point they announced they were going out as a four-piece [around 2018, when guitarist Glenn Tipton announced he would step down from most touring].

“I was expecting to be back in the band when there was an opening, or at least to be asked. But Glenn and Ian [Hill, bassist] wrote through their lawyers saying a flat no, which made no sense, as I was there first.”

The guitarist also notes that vocalist Rob Halford left the group for an extended period and asserts it was him who brought the frontman back.

“Rob [Halford] left for 11 years,” says Downing. “So how does he have the right to say ‘I won’t consider you re-joining’ – I was instrumental in reinstating him into the band! 

“Glenn wasn’t interested in having Rob back – he wanted to keep Ripper [Tim Owens, who replaced Rob Halford in Priest when the latter left in the ’90s].

“But I gave them one last chance, and I was like, ‘Are you sure? One day you might live to regret it.’ Let’s hope they don’t.”

Clearly, the relationship between all parties has not improved, despite the Hall of Fame show. In the meantime, Downing remains focused on KK’s Priest.

“I’m hoping we can create something here where Ripper finds a good home,” says the guitarist. “I believe that when he sings this material, he’s at his best. His voice can cover anything, but our stuff is a little paced out so he can get the best out of the lyrics and the notes.”

KK’s Priest release new album The Sinner Rides Again later this month (September 29). For more from Downing, check out the new issue of Metal Hammer.

When Richie Faulkner stepped in for legendary metal shredder K.K. Downing in 2011, he couldn't have possibly known what was in store for him. And he certainly couldn't have imagined that 12 years later, he'd still be holding down the fort as one of Judas Priest's two lead guitarists.

“When I first joined Priest, they were at a point in their career where it would be their last tour,” Faulkner tells Guitar World. “And I remember having a conversation with Glenn Tipton when I joined the band about the fact that Judas Priest weren't going to be around in 20 years [Laughs]. Fortunately, that was 12 years ago, and Priest is still rockin' and rollin'. But when I replaced K.K Downing, that wasn't the plan. And since then, it's always been on my mind that I'm going to have to do something after Priest.”

While Faulkner might not have been able to fathom the task ahead, with blonde locks, a leather-clad frame, and hyper-charged licks for days, he sure did his best to make the heavy metal faithful forget K.K. Downing.

Then there's the matter of his first tour being intended to be Priest's last. If we look back, when Downing departed, most thought Priest akin to a zombie stumbling toward its grave. But with Faulkner on board, the veteran band felt re-energized, as evidenced by continued touring and some of the finest studio material they've summoned since their late '70s and '80s heyday.

Impressive as he's been for Priest, Faulkner was a young man amongst a legacy act's ranks. And if we fast forward to the present day, at 43 years of age, time is still on his side. Sure, he's logged more miles than many his age could possibly dream of, but if you were to ask Richie Faulkner, his most creative roads have yet to be traversed.

“I think that anything I've ever done – even before Priest – has always had the same mindset,” Faulkner says. “It's about doing what I'm doing and putting my stamp on it until I'm doing something else, something happens, or whatever it might be. Even if I had never been a part of Priest, I still would have been doing the same thing.

“I'd be playing in cover bands on the weekend, and I'd be working to get my own band off the ground,” Faulkner continues. “That's what's in my DNA. That's what I'm programmed to do. This is no different, you know? If Judas Priest hang it up and retire, this is what I will be doing. I didn't put Elegant Weapons together to be experimental – I put this together to be my band going forward.”

Having survived a sudden heart surgery, along with the knowledge that Judas Priest's time in the sun is ending, Faulkner is looking ahead. Be it through the “privilege of putting together a signature guitar” or the rewarding nature of making music he can call his own, the veteran guitarist is prepared to grab life by the horns and take what comes his way with grit and grace.

In support of Elegant Weapons' hard-hitting debut LP, Horns for a Halo, Richie Faulkner dialed in with Guitar World to discuss the influence of the blues on his riffing and soloing, stepping out of the shadow of K.K. Downing, the latest on his signature Gibson Flying V, and how his heart surgery affected his outlook on life.  

Tell me about how Elegant Weapons came together.

“It's always been a conscious thing for me to think about my life after Judas Priest. I was always putting stuff down and writing songs, riffs, melodies and ideas. So, Elegant Weapons is a collection of songs I have put together over the years since I joined Priest. But what really got the whole thing focused was the COVID lockdowns and being unable to tour. 

“Priest finally had some time where we weren't touring, and the Priest record had already been written, so this was a chance for me to finally focus on getting these ideas together and see what I had. I had to find out if this was an EP, a one-time album, or a full band. And I fully believe it's a band.”

How did the outlook of Horns for a Halo being the start of your life after Priest aid in shaping these songs?

“In many ways, it was the same sort of process that I use when I'm writing for Priest. I don't put on a different hat when doing Elegant Weapons or anything like that. This style of music is what comes naturally to me. But I think it's got a different character than the Priest stuff I've done. 

“I think it's a bit more bluesy than the heavy metal stylings of Judas Priest, and that's where Elegant Weapons really stand on their own two feet. And ironically, early Priest was more progressive blues than heavy metal, and I think Elegant Weapons have a lot of that going on.”

Does your songwriting and guitar style naturally lean more bluesy, then?

“I think so. You'll hear more Hendrix, Black Sabbath, and early Priest with this stuff. But still, it was the same kind of process that I go through with Priest, where I sit down, strap the guitar on, flick on the amps, and see what comes out. I'm a riff and melody guy, first and foremost. I just start playing and see what comes out, and then I'll try and put a song around that.

“I guess I'm saying that the riffs and melodies come first, rather than the lyrics. And that's how a lot of Horns for a Halo came about. I'm always putting things down. If I go and put something down this afternoon, you never know – it might end up on an album a few years from now. You never know when a good riff will be needed, so it's best to bank them as you can.”

To my ears, those blues influences are most present in your phrasing and less so in your tone. Would you agree?

“I would say so. You know… what I think as a guitar player and what I pick up as part of my playing is usually totally different from how the listener perceives it. And that's fantastic. But in this instance, I believe you're right. 

“When people think of my playing, they often hear Zakk Wylde, Michael Schenker, and Dave Murray, which are more metal, I would say. And then, as you said, you've picked up on the blues phrasing, which is great. But by and large, the listener always picks up something different from the player. I think there's beauty in that.

“I grew up with the blues a lot, and I was always a massive Hendrix nut rooted in the blues, too. And a lot of heavy metal was born from the blues, and, as I said earlier, Priest came from a place of progressive blues. So, the seeds of metal were sewn through the blues – that's the true heritage of heavy metal. It's all connected, and I draw from both influences. The blues is a massive part of my playing and always will be. I still go back to Hendrix for inspiration and take from the heavy metal pile, too.”

Did you bounce any of your ideas off Rob [Halford] or Glenn [Tipton]?

“I showed Rob a few of the songs once they were nearly completed. But in terms of asking for guidance or, as you said, bouncing ideas off them, I didn't do that. The first time they heard them was after I'd completed them. 

“This was really something that I wanted to do as my own thing. And at the time, the Priest record that we were writing was done, so I could fully draw a line in the sand between the two and focus on my record. 

“For the first time, I could throw all my new ideas into this project, which made all the difference. But I will say that once I showed Rob, he was interested and wanted to hear more when it was done. And when I showed him later, Rob really dug it. But apart from that, when it comes to creative input, Elegant Weapons is entirely my own thing.”

How does working with Ronnie Romero compare to working with Rob?

“All the music was written before Ronnie came on board, so it was different in that respect. With the Priest stuff, and all the songs I've written with them, the music was written while Rob wrote the lyrics. But, hopefully, as we begin working on the next Elegant Weapons album, Ronnie will be a big part of the process. 

“That aside, Ronnie was obviously the perfect guy for the job. For me, it was a no-brainer that Ronnie was the right guy. It was just whether he wanted to do it or not. Fortunately, he did. As soon as I called him up and showed him the music, he totally got it. It also helps that we come from legacy bands and have that shared mindset. Ronnie plays with Rainbow and Michael Schenker, so his philosophy is the same. 

“We both know that the older guys aren't going to be around forever, so we have to do what we need to do to carry the torch and the DNA of these classic bands forward toward the next generation. Hopefully, what happens is that the band grows and evolves together to create something greater than the sum of its parts.”

Do you have a favorite guitar solo from Horns for a Halo?

“That's a good question. I think one of my favorites is [on] a song called Bitter Pill. It's a very simple guitar solo, but it's one of those solos that suits the song, you know what I mean? It's not a technical assault solo, and it's not a flash guitar solo, but it suits the song perfectly. I like solos where you can almost sing them, and the solo for Bitter Pill is like that.”

Which solo proved to be the most challenging for you to execute?

“There's a song called Do or Die, which was quite challenging. It's a fast song, like a rip-roaring ride. It's a quick song, and there are some fast guitar parts in there, which is always a challenge. But I like a challenge. As a guitar player, it's always fun to play challenging parts. And Do or Die was a bit of a challenge for sure.”

Considering you replaced K.K. Downing, I'd wager you're used to challenges.

”That's for sure! The interesting thing about taking over for K.K. was that I was playing all his solos and songs. I was playing them his way, or, at least, in a way that was very similar to how people remember them. But when I play my own guitar solos, both in Priest and Elegant Weapons, it's about me thinking, 'What am I going to say as a guitar player?' 

”That's the challenge, rather than the literal technicality of it all. I am constantly trying to decide what I want to say with my guitar that's going to be memorable or how I'm going to leave my fingerprint on things.”

What combination of pedals and amps did you deploy on Horns for a Halo?

”It's a bit of a boring answer: one guitar, one amplifier, and no pedals. I stuck with a direct approach – I had a guitar that I loved and an amp sound that was perfect. That was it, that was all I needed. Any effects like delay or reverb came about during post-production and were handled at the desk by Andy Sneap. But the amp I used was like a Marshall Plexi, and I only used one channel. It's a famous amp we all know and love and with good reason. It does that thing we all know, and it does it very well.

”As far as the guitar that I used, it's my signature model that I've been working on with Gibson. I love that guitar. It ticked all the boxes and did everything that I needed it to do during the album. I considered using a few other guitars, but there was no need at the end of the day. I thought to myself, 'Why bother? I don't need another guitar.' 

”That guitar, along with a very direct approach through the Plexi, made sense for this record. It might be different on another record, but I took that approach on this one.”

You mentioned your signature Gibson Flying V, which you've referred to as ”the most metal-sounding guitar you've ever heard”. Can you expand on that?

”I think maybe I was trying to be a bit funny with that line [Laughs]. But obviously, I play in one of the world's most legendary heavy metal bands, and my Flying V handles that music quite well. I see it as a classic Flying V design, really. But it's got some appointments that I've used and expanded on over the years, like active EMG pickups. But, my signature guitar is very stripped down in many senses. Instead of multiple volume and tone knobs, it's set up with one volume knob and one pickup selector.

”It's got a Floyd Rose, which is essential to what I'm doing. So, it's stripped down in some senses, but in others, it's got some deluxe appointments. I've had my guitar set up this way since I joined Priest, and in that time, it's taken on some appointments over the years in the guitar that we're releasing today. It's been out on the road with me for the last few years, and it's on the new Priest record. It's very much part of who I am today as a guitar player. It's a special guitar to me.”

Why do you prefer a stripped-down guitar as opposed to a hot-rodded one?

”For me, it's about taking away the things that I don't need. It's a blessing to have the opportunity to be able to modify my instrument to my liking. So, if there's something on my guitar that I feel I don't need, I either take it off or modify it into something that I do need. 

”I wasn't using the tone controls or the extra volume knob, so I took them off. But as I said, I felt I needed the Floyd Rose to do what I do, so I added one. Being fortunate enough to take liberties in changing and modifying my guitars for my own use and to present them to others as a signature model has been a blessing. I'm very thankful for it.”

With Horns for a Halo in the can, what's your outlook as you move forward?

”I love playing live and look forward to playing these songs live. I think the true evolution of a band happens when you play live, the songs evolve when you play live, and the relationship between band members evolves. That's where you grow as a band and, as I said before, become something greater than the sum of your parts. I want the characters in the band to become one unique character that changes, evolves, and grows as we look to the future.

”It was essential for me to look ahead with Elegant Weapons. I didn't want to be a band that makes one album and then fades into obscurity. I want to release many albums, grow, and play live and tour. And that's what excites me most. The idea of this band growing and evolving over the years, from album to album, is enticing. I have no idea what will happen or how the style of what we'll do will be influenced, but that evolution is what I'm looking forward to the most.”

How did your sudden emergency surgery alter your perspective on music and life?

”It made me think that if there's anything I need to do, I better do it. If there's a book to write, something to say, or an album to write, I realized that I better get out and do it. There's no time like the present, because the reality we all face is that we might not be here tomorrow. 

”I know that's a bit of a dramatic thing to say, but nothing in life is promised. And in my case, when it happened, I was only 41 years old. I was healthy, and surely, I thought, everything was fine. So, you never know what's around the corner.

”So, when it happened, that's when all that hit me. I realized I needed to get out and do what I wanted to do to the best of my ability. It's not a new philosophy by any means – it's been said before, and here I am, saying it again. But the thing is, all of that became very real to me, and it was a major motivator and a sort of medicine for me when it happened. 

”Getting back out with Priest, making the new Priest album, and doing Elegant Weapons were all medicine for me. It focused me on returning to being who I am and doing what I do. I'm glad I'm still here to be able to do that, and I plan to continue doing it for as long as I can.”

• Horns for a Halo is out now via Nuclear Blast.

Chances are, if you got a message from Tool guitarist Adam Jones inviting you to get up and play with them in front of 20,000 people, it wouldn’t take very long for the word ‘Yes’ to come out of your mouth.

And then, a few seconds or maybe even minutes later, you might realize you’ve potentially set yourself up for a most spectacular failure – unless of course you make sure to do your homework. It’s the kind of the opportunity that screams for intense and watertight preparation.

That’s exactly what happened to Judas Priest guitarist Richie Faulkner, who guested on the song Jambi with the progressive metal titans at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on January 29, 2020.

The second track from Tool’s 10,000 Days album packs all kinds of creative twists and turns in its sprawling seven-and-a-half minutes – enough to throw even a well-drilled diehard or seasoned veteran off-course.

As well as incorporating Jones’ trademark pull-through technique, where he pulls off from a fretted note to his open low D string and allows his left hand to quickly ring out the adjacent open A string, there are some head-twisting polyrhythms that start appearing from the third verse, roughly two minutes in.

Look at the charts to any number of Tool songs, Jambi included, and it should be easy enough to see why they’re often labeled math-metal...

Speaking to Guitar World three-and-a-half years after that historic moment, the Judas Priest guitarist looks back on the experience fondly and describes Tool as a band with the utmost integrity. “It was pretty daunting... let’s just say it wasn’t like jamming some AC/DC,” he laughs, talking to us from his home studio close to Nashville. 

“What happened was I got a phone call from Cesar Gueikian at Gibson [then CMO, appointed to Brand President in 2021 and recently promoted to Interim CEO]. He knew Adam, but I didn’t at the time. And he basically told me that Adam was a big fan of my playing, amazingly, and asked if I would be up for getting up to jam through Jambi with them when they next came through. 

“I said, ‘Of course, I’d be honored!’ without really thinking. I put the phone down and then it dawned on me, like, ‘Hold on a minute, what have I done?!’ I knew the song but didn’t know it well enough to get up in front of 20,000 people [laughs].”

Faulkner spent the next week or so religiously learning the track from the confines of his home studio, rehearsing its various cues and changes so that he could keep up with Jones and his cohorts, as well as add his own icing on the cake as a lead guitarist.

And while he jokes that some of these practice sessions saw him “almost throw up because of how technical the song is”, on the evening of January 29 that year, he brought another level of pentatonic shred to the Tool masterpiece. At one point, the two guitarists even harmonize with each other, adding new layers to the dramatic octave bends heard on the original recording’s lead section.

“Adam was so gracious,” smiles Faulkner. “I only had to play half the song and I still messed it up at one point. After the set, I told him I thought I’d made a fuck up and he said, ‘Oh no, I think that was me!’ He was just being nice. Of course it was me that messed it up [laughs]. They were great to play and hang out with. That production and the way they connect with their fans is unreal...

“You can’t film their shows until the very end, there’s a rule about not getting your phones out until they allow you to. And everyone abides! No-one abuses that rule. They want their shows to be special and not just passed over the internet. It’s about the fans and the band building on this very special moment together.”

As well as the once-in-a-lifetime chance of joining Jones and the progressive metal masterminds in front of an arena crowd – which, let’s not forget, Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett has done on two occasions – Faulkner also struck up an ongoing friendship with the fellow Les Paul devotee and Gibson signature artist. Who knows, maybe we might even see him pop up in Nashville with Tool again.

“Adam’s great – I just spoke to him last week,” adds Faulkner. “He’s become a good buddy of mine. He’s a great artist and awesome to bounce ideas with, always happy to share advice. I’ve got a lot of time for him!”

You think you know somebody and then they do something that is so out of character it all but makes you question physical laws. Take Richie Faulkner. The Gibson Flying V is to Faulkner what the luxuriant mustache is to Tom Selleck, and yet, today we learn the Gibson superfan crossed the great electric guitar divide to pick up a Fender Telecaster when recording clean tones for Judas Priest’s leather-studded 2018 face-ripper, Firepower.

Speaking to Ultimate Guitar, he revealed what we are actually hearing on the record, and indeed how he added an MIJ Telecaster Custom to his arsenal.

“I used a Telecaster on all of the clean guitars on Firepower,” he said. “It was a Japanese Telecaster through a Roland JC-120 and that was what I used for all of the clean guitars.”

But before Cesar and the gang cancel Faulkner's keycard pass for the Gibson HQ, let’s all just hear him out. We want to hear how he came into possession of such contraband. As it turns out, Hatsune Miku by way of Korg made him do it.

“Do you remember, there was a pedal called the Miku pedal? I think Miku was a Japanese anime character and she has a distinctive voice,” said Faulkner. “So when you play notes through the pedal, it sort of speaks in this character's voice. It’s ridiculous, but it’s hilarious.

“I found one of these pedals in a store in Amsterdam, and I needed a guitar to test it out with. So they had this beautiful black Telecaster Custom, with a Bigsby type tremolo on it and I used that to play this pedal. Long story short, I bought both of them because the Telecaster was beautiful, and the pedal was ridiculous.”

Faulkner was asked about the Fender Stratocaster, which for Elegant Weapons, the band he put together in 2022 with Rex Brown on bass and his fellow Priest Scott Travis on drums, makes sense.

Described by Faulkner as “a mix of Jimi Hendrix, Judas Priest, Sabbath, solo Ozzy and Black Label Society – heavy, catchy, and with melody”, Elegant Weapons could perhaps use a Strat the in mix to complement the full meat of the humbuckers that have defined Faulkner’s sound with Priest.

Well, funnily enough, Faulkner did use a Strat during the sessions for Elegant Weapons’ debut album, Horns for a Halo. But the song he used it on didn’t make the cut. Maybe next time.

In the meantime, you’ll probably find him on-brand, with a Gibson in hand, and most likely a Flying V, having started out his Judas Priest career with a white Gibson Les Paul Custom equipped with a set of active EMGs for extra juice and fire. 

He tells Ultimate Guitar that having used them all these years, and having put his name to various signature guitars with the Nashville-based brand, that is what he still reaches for when it’s time to go to work.

“The guitar on the record is a Gibson Flying V,” he said. “The guitars that I end up using are Gibsons. They’re my guitars of choice. That’s the guitar that I put my name on… they’re the guitars that I turned to… I gravitated towards Gibson because that was the sound that was enabling me to play the songs that I wanted to play. That was the sound that was in my head.”

Elegant Weapons’ Horns for a Halo is out now via Nuclear Blast.

Judas Priest’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame earlier this month was quite the moment, featuring the much-vaunted return of K.K. Downing and a stirring speech about community and equality in metal from frontman Rob Halford. Now Megadeth have celebrated the long-awaited honor by releasing a cover of Judas Priest hit Delivering the Goods.

The single has been released exclusively on Amazon Music and represents the latest instalment in a long history of Priest fandom for Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine.

Earlier this year, Mustaine told Pandora’s Tales From the Metalverse that his love for the band even led to physical injury.

“Judas priest was a band that I paid for dearly growing up,” said Mustaine. 

“I had the Sad Wings of Destiny album. I was playing it at the house I was living in at the time, which was my older sister’s house. Her husband came home, [who] was a 6’6 Scottish guy. He was the chief of police in Stanton, California, and he heard me listening to Judas Priest and smacked me in the face.

“I was literally gobsmacked, but I was just blown away that he’d hit me in the face. So, I figured I was gonna really love this band now, just to spite you. And I was a big Judas Priest fan for a long time. And we ended up going out on tour with them on the Painkiller tour.”

That said, the relationship between the two band’s touring entities has not always been entirely smooth. In July, at Barcelona’s Rock Fest, Mustaine paused Megadeth’s set after becoming visibly annoyed with Judas Priest’s guitar tech, who was carrying out a soundcheck on another stage, eventually describing the tech as “fucking pathetic” and “an amateur piece of shit”. 

Nonetheless, it seems that Mustaine has not let the experience tarnish his love of Priest, or stand in the way of commemorating their recent accomplishment.

As Megadeth mention above, the full 2022 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony airs on HBO tomorrow (November 19) at 8PM ET.

Judas Priest reunited with K.K. Downing at this year's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony for the guitarist's first performance with the band in 13 years.

The group of musicians – also including vocalist Rob Halford, bassist Ian Hill, guitarist Glenn Tipton, drummer Scott Travis and former drummer Les Binks – were all inducted into the Rock Hall after receiving the Musical Excellence Award, bar guitarist Richie Faulkner, who replaced Downing in the British heavy metal institution in 2011. Late drummer Dave Holland was also inducted.

During the performance, which took place at LA’s Microsoft Theater on Saturday (November 5), and for which touring guitarist Andy Sneap sat out, the band played a medley of three of their biggest songs, You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’, Breaking the Law and Living After Midnight.

In a social media post following the event, Faulkner described sharing the stage with Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing at the same time as “an experience I’ll never forget”.

“One life, I’m gonna live it up,” he wrote. “What a night! I’m sure it was a flood of emotions for everybody involved and for all the fans, but to be up there with both [Glenn Tipton] and K.K. [Downing] as part of a guitar trio with Judas Priest was an experience I’ll never forget. A huge congrats to all the guys and to all the amazing artists who got inducted last night. It was truly surreal to be there.”

Said Alice Cooper, who inducted the British metal titans into the Rock Hall: “[Judas Priest] defined the sound we know of heavy metal and their sound is unmistakable. And what can you say about Rob Halford’s voice? Never have screams covered such a range. Is there any emotion that he can’t express?

“They’re electrifying on stage and one of the hardest-hitting live bands in the history of rock and roll. Priest [have] carried the flag of hard rock and heavy metal proudly for something like 50 years, never wavering or following trends or pretending to be anything but exactly what they are. They are flying high tonight. Much deserved and long overdue.”

In his acceptance speech, Rob Halford addressed the subjects of inclusivity in heavy metal, and the band’s 50 years in the game.

“I’m the gay guy in the band,” he said. “We call ourselves the heavy metal community which is all-inclusive, no matter what your sexual identity is, what you look like, or what you believe in or don't believe in. Everybody's welcome.”

He continued: “We should get out another 50 years, but the joy about music is that it lives forever. And that's the reason why we're here. We live for heavy metal. We live for music. And we're living for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.”

Other inductees into the Rock Hall this year included Eminem, Dolly Parton, Duran Duran, Lionel Richie, Pat Benatar, Eurythmics and Carly Simon.

It’s unclear yet whether Downing’s appearance with Judas Priest at the Rock Hall induction ceremony was a one-off, or whether it will spark future collaboration.

Last month, in conversation with the Detroit Metro Times, Ian Hill said that while “time is not on our side” for any such projects, Downing’s appearance at the 2022 Rock Hall induction ceremony “might kickstart something”. “On the other hand, he might pull us apart,” Hill joked.

In another interview with Ultimate Classic Rock last month, Downing described the thought of getting on stage with his former Judas Priest bandmates as “almost like cracking a beer, let alone riding a bike”.

“It’s embedded in me,” he said. “It’s what I do. So it’ll be quite something to look forward to, just to get up there and crank the amps up and just do it once again, for that short moment in time.”

Downing’s performance with his former bandmates was a landmark occasion, following years of tension. In a Guitar World interview back in February, Glenn Tipton fired back at K.K. Downing, saying: “His accusations have gotten sillier and sillier – and I deserve to respond.”

“I never wanted to get into a public argument after KK left,” he said. “I never said a word and I stuck to my guns for over 10 years, but there comes a point when you read things that have been said that are just crazy. It's time to say something, really because he's saying things that he really shouldn't be saying. They aren't fair.”

“He's insinuated that he was the driving force of the band,” he continues. “It just isn't true. Priest [is] made up of five guys working together. [There's] not just one person driving the band. He's said all these things that, I think, are meant to upset us and get us to say something in response and for a long time we didn't. But I've got a lot to say and enough's enough.”

Judas Priest electric guitar hero Richie Faulkner and Pantera bass guitar titan Rex Brown have joined forces to create a new metal supergroup, Elegant Weapons.

Also featuring longtime Judas Priest drummer Scott Travis and former Rainbow frontman Ronnie Romero, Elegant Weapons will release their first album, Horns for a Halo, in spring 2023 via Nuclear Blast Records.

The band's music, Faulkner says, is "a mix of Jimi Hendrix, Priest, Sabbath, solo Ozzy and Black Label Society – heavy, catchy, and with melody."

Elegant Weapons, Faulkner says, stemmed from his desire to make an album outside of Judas Priest with Scott Travis. "[Adding] to that Rex Brown’s unmistakable tone and attitude," Faulkner added in a press release, "is something special. 

"Having those guys as the rhythm section is a guitar players dream. The icing on the cake was Ronnie Romero. One of the new breed of instantly classic vocalists, Ronnie brought a character and a swagger to the songs that is instantly iconic, making these songs his own."

Horns for a Halo was produced by Andy Sneap, who has served as a touring guitarist for Judas Priest since 2018, when Glenn Tipton retired from touring with the band due to his battle with Parkinson's disease. Sneap also co-produced Priest's most recent studio effort, 2018's Firepower.

Horns for a Halo, Faulkner says, is "Sort of old school and modern at once if that makes any sense, and actually down-tuned a whole step." 

The Marshall Plexi guitar amp, the guitarist says, played a significant role in the LP's modern-with-a-vintage-twist sound. 

"It [the Plexi] basically does one thing, but you’ve got to crank it to 11 for it to have that distorted sound," he explains. "It hasn’t got a lot of bells and whistles on it or different channels and effects. It basically does one thing and does it very well. But again down-tuning creates more of a modern sound, and by using the classic sound of the Marshall Plexi, you get that juxtaposition, that contrast. 

"All told," the guitarist adds, "there are a lot of guitar solos and the songs are on the heavier side. And even though there’s a lot of melody, it’s still going to shake your bones.”

For more info on Elegant Weapons, keep your eyes on the band's social media accounts in the coming weeks and months.

K.K. Downing has said that playing at Judas Priest’s upcoming Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony on November 5 “will be something to look forward to,” seeming to confirm in the process that he will be joining the band onstage during the show.

While there have been contrasting messages from both camps, Downing's comments to Ultimate Classic Rock  imply that he is committed to reappearing with the band.

“It's what I've done so many times,” the guitarist told the site. “It's almost like cracking a beer, let alone riding a bike. It's embedded in me. It's what I do. So it'll be quite something to look forward to, just to get up there and crank the amps up and just do it once again, for that short moment in time.”

Downing is considered to be part of ‘Priest’s golden era line-up and played on all of their most iconic records, including 1980’s British Steel. He left the group in 2011 following a deterioration in their relationship. Still, it seems that redemption may be on the cards, at least for a few minutes…

“It'll go by in a flash, won't it?” Downing says, in the same piece. “I think we've probably got eight or nine minutes. I’m not even going to be able to break a sweat.

“The main thing is to represent the attitude and hopefully the legend of what Judas Priest is and has become and what it means to everybody who's been on that very long journey through the decades with the band. 

“And hopefully, it will just kind of remind people and bring back some cherished memories of the heavy metal parking lots all around the world.”

For a while, it seemed as though Downing’s temporary return might not be such a foregone conclusion, owing to the stinging words that have been exchanged between both camps in recent times.

When he quit back in 2011, Downing cited “ongoing breakdown in working relationships between myself, elements of the band and management for some time," before writing in his 2018 memoir that his relationship with fellow guitarist Glenn Tipton had been a major contributing factor to his exit.

After telling The Guardian he “never found Glenn to be particularly easy to get along with," Downing said to Guitar World during an interview in 2021 that Judas Priest “didn’t want any part” of him at the time, despite being “one of the only original members."

Earlier this year, Tipton addressed his relationship with Downing in a new interview with Guitar World, saying, “I never wanted to get into a public argument after K.K. left. I never said a word and I stuck to my guns for over 10 years, but there comes a point when you read things that have been said that are just crazy.

“He's insinuated that he was the driving force of the band,” he continued. “It just isn't true. He's said all these things that, I think, are meant to upset us and get us to say something in response and for a long time we didn't. But I've got a lot to say and enough's enough.”

Earlier this year, it was announced that Judas Priest would finally be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and that the band would receive the Musical Excellence Awards after unsuccessful nomination attempts in 2018 and 2020.

The induction ceremony is set to take place on November 5 at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California.

Richie Faulkner has updated fans on his health, explaining he underwent a second open heart surgery in August.

The Judas Priest guitarist had previously been put out of action following an onstage heart attack with the band at Louder Than Life festival on September 26, 2021. Fortunately, he was recovered, following life-saving surgery at the nearby Rudd Heart and Lung Center in Louisville, Kentucky.

Faulkner marked the one year anniversary of the event by updating fans on Facebook alongside a clip from Louder Than Life. In the accompanying post, which you can read in full below, the guitarist, known affectionately as ‘Falcon’, revealed that he underwent a second heart procedure back in August. 

“One year ago today. Less than an hour before my life changed forever. It's crazy how one minute you're listening to the crowd singing war pigs- everything normal, everything seemingly fine- the next it turns out that it was almost the last time I ever heard it. Unbeknownst to me there was stuff going on under the surface that was about to literally explode.

“I’m fortunate and grateful to be here a year later typing this. My support system at home, the hospitals and of course from all you metal maniacs has been second to none and I thank you all.

“I’m not completely out of the woods yet. Just before we toured Europe, scans showed a hole in one of the connections between the synthetic graft and my own aorta that was causing a leak. The blood from the leak was forming an 8cm sack that was surrounding my heart. The doctors were okay for me to tour Europe, but as soon as I got back I had to go under again for another open-heart surgery. So 3 days after we played Belgium, they went in, removed the sack and fixed the leak.

“So I'm now six weeks post the 2nd open heart surgery, feeling well and strong and Looking forward to seeing you all again on the next leg of the US #50heavymetalyears tour starting in a few weeks. My surgeons were always confident that it was enough time for me to recover and get back out on the road and it seems like they were right. We had to lose @aftershockfestival in order for me to recover, but it looks like it's still gonna be a Kick-Ass festival.

“Look after yourselves and your loved ones, you never know what's round the corner. Stay safe and see you all soon. Much love, Falcon x RHRF DOTF.”

Faulkner recently told Guitar World that the experience had helped him to develop a new sense of perspective in his career and personal life. 

“I want to just be myself and do what I do and play with Priest and play guitar and be a dad,” said the guitarist. “But I have more of an awareness now of what can happen to anyone at any time. That’s scary, but it puts things in perspective and makes you appreciate what you have. 

“It was such an emotional moment when I put my foot back on the stage in Peoria, Illinois, for the first date I played after my incident. To get up there and hear the fans cheering and showing their appreciation was like a celebration of everything I’m so lucky to still be involved with. So I know I have a lot to be thankful for.”

For Judas Priest guitarist Richie Faulkner, September 26, 2021, started out like any other gig day. The band was scheduled to play support to Metallica on the fourth and final night of the Louder Than Life Festival in Louisville, Kentucky. Faulkner was a little tired, but after two and a half weeks on tour, that was hardly unusual.

He poured himself a vodka and Red Bull and downed it. Combined with the adrenaline of playing to a sold-out crowd, he soon perked up and was excited to take the stage dressed in trademark studded black leather vest and black leather pants, and wielding a Gibson Flying V. 

Judas Priest opened with One Shot at Glory from 1990’s Painkiller, then launched into Lightning Strike from 2018’s Firepower. By the third song, the 1982 anthem You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’, they were locked in and celebrating career-spanning songs on their long-delayed (due to Covid) 50th Anniversary tour.

The hour-long set flew by, and as Judas Priest played the last song of the night, the hyper-charged Painkiller, Faulkner continued rocking out, shaking his leonine locks and alternating between joyful smiles and metal grimaces. 

Halfway through the song, the grimaces became real. Faulkner felt his chest tighten. Moderate pain and pressure swept through his midsection. He felt disoriented and short of breath. Even so, he was driven by devotion and managed to play a dextrous whammy bar-enhanced solo and even raised his guitar to the sky. As vocalist Rob Halford delivered the final vocal salvo, Faulkner exited the stage and collapsed into a chair.

“I needed to finish the song, but I had the presence of mind to come back from the edge of the stage just in case I passed out from fatigue,” Faulkner says in a Zoom interview six months after the Louisville show. 

“Luckily, Metallica was headlining that night or we would have played a full set and I probably would have dropped dead onstage.” 

Paramedics urged Faulkner to go to the hospital. But the guitarist felt constricted in his tight leather and wanted to remove his stage clothes before figuring out what to do next.

“If I had known my heart had split open and I was bleeding into my chest cavity, I might have handled it a bit differently. But I had no idea,” Faulkner says. “I got my jeans and T-shirt on. I didn’t think it was anything really serious and I didn’t want to make a fuss. I probably would have kept going if we did an encore.”

When he got back to the medics and his girlfriend Mariah Lynch (daughter of Dokken star George Lynch), Faulkner said he thought he was just exhausted and instead of going to the hospital, he wanted to drive two and a half hours back home to his place near Nashville.

“The original plan before the show was to drive home and have a few days off at the house to spend with our new baby,” Faulkner says. “Then I was going to fly to Denver to meet the band and carry on with the tour. I figured I could still do that. I’d been healthy before the show, so I was like, ‘Obviously, it’s not a big deal. Let’s just get in the car and go back home. It’s going to be okay.’ There’s no question I would have died in the car on the way back home if I even made it to the car.”

At the insistence of the medics, Lynch convinced Faulkner to get into a waiting ambulance. As it turned out, his aorta couldn’t have exploded in a better location. The Highland Festival Grounds at the Kentucky Expo Center is five miles from the Rudd Heart and Lung Center at UofL Health– Jewish Hospital, which has one of the best and most well-equipped cardiac units in the country.

With six months of hindsight, the guitarist fully recognizes that he nearly lost everything on September 26 and now he has more appreciation for his family, friends and band. At the same time, he says it seems like the incident in Louisville happened so long ago it has little bearing on his life today.

“It’s so weird because I’m feeling good. I’m feeling strong,” he says. “It feels like a lifetime ago when I was onstage in Kentucky dancing with the Reaper. I know I’m incredibly fortunate to be here. I know that. But it’s still hard to believe it really happened.”

During a lengthy, revealing Zoom call, Faulkner talks about being completely blindsided and disoriented by his aortic dissection, the extent of damage to the arteries around his heart, how surgeons rebuilt him with powerful metal, and his post-op struggle to regain the strength and stamina he needed to tour again with Judas Priest. 

He also addresses the announcement that the band was going to tour as a four-piece, the unique writing relationship Faulkner has with Glenn Tipton, the follow-up to Firepower, and plans to work on a side project beyond the realm of Priest.

Ironically, at 42, you are the youngest member of Judas Priest and your bandmates are elder statesmen. Yet, despite various illnesses and accidents some of the other guys have suffered since you joined, you’re the only one who has come so close to dying. Did you have any personal or family history of heart ailments?

“No, nothing. It came right out of the blue. I think there was high blood pressure pounding on the walls of my aorta, and over time it weakened the walls without anyone knowing. And then, finally, it just burst.”

That’s terrifying. Were there any warning signs?

“Not that I could tell. They say people who are having heart problems sometimes have backaches, but I’m 42 and I’ve been running around onstage forever. So my back has been hurting daily since I was about 35. 

“In February 2020, I had a physical in England and the doctor checked my blood pressure and said it was a little high, but she said it was okay and there was nothing to worry about. The Kentucky show was in September the following year, and there was never any indication of any problem before I got halfway through Painkiller.”

What do you remember from the time you got into the ambulance?

“Everything was a whirlwind. You’re on a stretcher being walked down the corridor and you’ve been pumped full of adrenaline because you’re going under and you might not come out of it. And you have no idea what’s going on. Then, if you’re lucky, you wake up in a recovery room.”

What did doctors do when you were on the operating table?

“They knew I needed open-heart surgery and thought they were going to have to do a four or five hour operation. So they opened me up and saw I had an aortic aneurysm [a ballooning of the aorta, the main artery that carries blood from the heart through the chest and torso].

“It had ballooned and ruptured [causing blood to flood through the tear with such force the inner and middle layers of the aorta split]. So it was a lot more severe than what they anticipated, and the procedure took them 11 hours. I had to have four blood transfusions.”

Were they confident they could fix the damage and stitch you back up?

“Honestly, they weren’t sure. Partway through, they had someone come out and tell my other half to call for my family to come to the hospital because they didn’t know if I was going to make it out. 

“When my aorta dissected, the artery split all the way to my waist. And then there are the arteries that go up to your brain and it split and dissected all the way up there as well. So the whole thing just exploded. It’s really amazing they were able to bring me back.”

Did they fix everything?

“They repaired the rupture and the aneurysm. There was no heart attack to fix. My heart was completely fine. It was the aorta that burst, so they repaired it with a mechanical valve. And they repaired other parts of my heart with bits of metal since the dissection caused a lot of damage. I’m more metal now than ever. I like to joke that I’ve literally got a heart of metal.

“But I know how serious it was and I know I would have died if I didn’t have these miracle doctors. But they couldn’t repair everything. The bit [of artery] that goes down to my waist is still dissected. It’s just not life-threatening. Nothing’s going to happen in the short term.”

Why didn’t they repair that during the operation?

“They couldn’t keep me under anesthesia any longer. Otherwise, I might have suffered brain damage. So they had to stitch me up and now doctors keep an eye on it. If you monitor your heart rate and your blood pressure, it can scar over and you can be fine. But if it gets bigger over time, they can operate on it and fix it then.”

Considering your aorta split onstage and you were bleeding out, it’s amazing you were able to get to the hospital in time.

“One question I had for the doctors was how I was able to go on for so long, because, yeah, once these things rupture you’ve usually got minutes and you’re gone. They think that maybe my adrenaline was so high because we were playing and that my heart was pumping hard enough and fast enough to keep me going long enough to get pumped up with more adrenaline and keep me going to the hospital. So I can literally say the power of heavy metal kept me alive long enough to save my life. I was literally, possibly saved by metal.”

Do you remember waking up in the ICU?

“I opened my eyes and there were tubes sticking out of me everywhere. That was really weird. But I realized I was still here. I was in the ICU for four days and I made a gradual, day-by-day recovery.”

Can you explain the recovery process?

“I was in [the] hospital for 10 days, which they said was really good since a lot of people with my condition are there for a month. But it was hard. I had to stand up not long after they cut me open, and that wasn’t fun. They made me walk, and I couldn’t because your muscles atrophy and you’ve got no strength left in your legs or arms. I had to relearn how to walk.”

“After a few days, you can do 10 steps with the walker and you’re exhausted. It’s awful but you’ve got to do all these things to gradually build up your strength. And you have all these breathing exercises as well because your lungs deflate when you’re lying down and you’ve got to do them to prevent pneumonia. That was the most painful because your chest cavity hurts like hell. 

“You have a big scar up there that they sewed together and every time I breathed in, even a little bit, it hurt. For these lung exercises, I had to breathe as hard as I could. And then, hopefully, you don’t sneeze or cough, ’cause that’s just the end of the world.

Were you going stir crazy while you were in the hospital?

“I was determined to get out, but they obviously won’t let you go until they’re satisfied with your recovery. After 10 days, they said I could leave and I continued my recovery at home. I’m sure the combination of my stubbornness and determination helped me heal faster. And I think my youth was on my side. 

“I’m relatively young for this kind of thing. I’m not a smoker, I’m not a big drinker. But at the end of it all, I’m the luckiest man in the world. Some people who have aortic dissection lose their arms or legs or they don’t make it. I’m the most fortunate person that’s ever lived. I’ll be on medication for the rest of my life, but that’s a small price to pay.

Did you have a guitar with you in the hospital or was playing again not even a concern at that point?

“I didn’t have a guitar and there’s no way I could have played it while I was in hospital. But one of the first things I worried about was whether I would still be able to play. When I woke up in the ICU I think one of my first questions was, “What’s happening with the tour and what are we going to do?”

What did they tell you?............

“They told me I was in the ICU and obviously the tour wasn’t still going on. It’s kind of funny that my first concern was about the tour, but I think a large part of anybody’s recovery is pushing yourself to get back to who you are. I wanted to recover for my family and my daughter. Getting back home and getting the guitar back in my hands was part of what I needed to do to get back on track and to give me the strength to keep going.”

How long did it take you after you got home to pick up a guitar again, and were you able to play right away?

“About four days after I got home, I tried to play. That was two weeks after it happened and that was hard. You want everything to be exactly the way it was, but you’ve been through this intense trauma. You don’t know if you’ve lost too much blood to your brain and if your fingers will ever be able to function like they did. I was determined but I was also worried.”

When was it clear you could play again?

“It took a little while. I’d work at it and sometimes it would get a little bit easier, and that made me feel a bit better. And sometimes I was tired or just not focused and it was hard and I got frustrated. But I kept going and it got to a point where it kept getting easier. That gave me this sense of accomplishment and kept me going because I realized there was a light at the end of the tunnel.”

Have you had to change your lifestyle or diet since your brush with death?

“The good thing is my heart is fine. So the most important thing is to keep my blood thin enough to pass through the mechanical valve. I’ve had to cut out broccoli, Brussels sprouts, spinach – all leafy greens. 

“But I can have meat, carrots, potatoes and ice cream. That works just fine for me. I have to watch my salt levels and keep an eye on my blood pressure and heart rate. And I’m on the blood thinner, Coumadin, which prevents blood clots. As long as the blood doesn’t get too thick and start to clot, they said I can even have a couple of drinks every now and again.”

Before the tour resumed, the band issued a statement that mentioned the 50th Anniversary shows would continue with you as the sole guitarist. That surprised a lot of people, including second guitarist Andy Sneap.

“Andy has been fantastic standing in, but I think we’ve never really thought about who is going to either replace Glenn, or who is going to be the permanent road guitarist. Obviously, Glenn is still in the band. But the question we were asking ourselves was, can we have a permanent stand-in or will we do something else?”

Was a tour without a second guitarist going to be a test for the latter?

“Well, Rob called me one day and he said, “Falcon, would you be able to handle all the guitars?” I think he had mentioned something like that on the socials a few days earlier. I said, 'Yes, I think so.' He said, 'It might be cool if we went to being a four-piece like we did in the beginning because then we wouldn’t be replacing Glenn. That might be the solution.' 

“I said, 'Well, whatever you want to do, Boss. If that’s what everyone wants, I’m up for it.' I really thought it would have sounded great. We all did. I went out and bought four harmonizer pedals to try to build up the sound. We didn’t need any of them in the end.”

Were you surprised how fans reacted to the initial statement? Even Andy issued a statement suggesting he was surprised by the decision.

“It just shows how passionate people still are about Priest. If they didn’t care, we would’ve really been in trouble. But they cared an awful lot, and they expressed how they felt – and we listened. It was the only way to go. And, at the end of the day, I think Andy wants to be a part of it and wants to help out wherever he can. 

“So he was disappointed but respectful of the original decision to tour as a four-piece. And he was happy when we changed our minds. He has always said he’s a big fan of the band and he’ll do whatever we need.”

Glenn said the band wrote some new material for the next album before Covid hit. Sadly, he has Parkinson’s and can’t play like he used to, but he can still write music. When you work together now, does he explain how he wants you to play a riff or a part? Or does he demonstrate what he wants by playing it as well as he can and then having you further develop it?

“Both, really. It depends if he’s having a good day or a bad day. He’s always got parts in his head and will try to communicate by telling me how to do it or showing me an example. Sometimes, he does stuff on his own and then presents the idea after he’s worked on it for a bit. 

“If we’re doing something together he might say, 'Try this or try that.' Glenn’s challenges have affected him, but as long as you’ve got his creative spark and ideas, and he’s involved, that’s all you can ask for – that excitement from him and his input.”

Are you taking more of a writing role now with the band than you did on Firepower?

“I think it will be the same. Before the pandemic, me, Rob and Glenn did a session together and we got down some great ideas. But then during the shutdown, because of the separation, I think we’ve done more on our own. Usually we’re more collaborative. So it will be interesting to see how this one comes out because of all the individual ideas that have come up.”

When will you re-enter the studio?

“We’re still looking for a window to get together. We’ve got songs in demo stages so we’re off to a good start. There’s definitely enough material for a record – probably more than enough. Now we have to get them all to the next stage.”

Do you have more potential Priest riffs to bring to the table than you had when you started the album?

“Yeah, I’m always writing bits and pieces and putting stuff together. Sometimes they’re Priest-like and sometimes they’re not. It’s funny because sometimes you write stuff you think would never work in the band, but then you put it forward in a session and it becomes Priest. 

“Glenn puts a little twist on and Rob adds his ideas and there you go. On Redeemer of Souls, Crossfire was something I didn’t think would work, but I showed it to the guys anyway and it became a pretty cool track.”

Despite the care you took with social distancing and immunizations, you caught Covid shortly before returning to the road for the 50th Anniversary tour. Were you in an immuno-compromised state because of your aortic dissection?

“I’ve been working on building a studio with a friend of mine. We were both isolating with our families and I had my immunization shots and my booster. But yeah, I somehow got Covid. 

“I think I got the [Omicron] variety because it didn’t last too long. I didn’t lose my taste and smell, but I had a bad cough. I had one bad night and then three or four nights when I felt like I was getting rid of it. But we’ve got a 19-month-old baby in the house and we wanted to protect her. She got it, anyway, but she was fine.”

Has your daughter shown a gift for music?

“Guitar runs in her family. Grandpa is George Lynch so she loves guitar. She loves Def Leppard’s Hysteria and now she loves Pyromania, so she has gone up a level further toward metal. She’s so much fun and she’s got an attitude on her.”

Do you and George get along well?

“He’s based in California so he comes over when he can, which is great. He’s great with the baby. George has always been there at the top of the guitarists I liked. I first got into Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and Metallica. Then there was Eddie Van Halen, Vai, Satriani and Paul Gilbert. 

“But George had this unorthodox way of playing. Everyone else tried to be everyone else, but he had a weird way of playing that you could identify right away. When he comes around and plays, he’s still got a weird style that’s really unique and you can’t copy it.”

Have you jammed with Grandpa George?

“We did a couple of live jams – the Instagram live thing. We thought we’d talk for a couple hours, but he loves guitar and gear. We talked all night. But we didn’t write anything together.”

Do you want to do a solo album?

“Yeah, but I’d like to do it more as a band thing. I wouldn’t want it to be called Richie Faulkner’s Rainbow. I worked on a project with a few people during the pandemic and we’re in talks at the moment with labels. I don’t want to give too much away, but when the pandemic hit I thought maybe it’s time to get a batch of songs and get them into shape and put them out.”

Will it be a metal album?

“It’s always hard to talk about your stuff without crawling up your own ass. I think it’s heavy, but it’s not as 'metal.' It’s a bit more bluesy. You can hear that it’s coming from a guitarist in Priest, but it’s enough of a departure to sound like something outside of the band. There’s some Hendrix references in there and stuff that’s a bit more groove-oriented.”

Has being on tour again and planning for future albums put you in a better mindframe than you were in before the aortic dissection?

“Yes and no. I want to just be myself and do what I do and play with Priest and play guitar and be a dad. But I have more of an awareness now of what can happen to anyone at any time. That’s scary, but it puts things in perspective and makes you appreciate what you have. 

“It was such an emotional moment when I put my foot back on the stage in Peoria, Illinois, for the first date I played after my incident. To get up there and hear the fans cheering and showing their appreciation was like a celebration of everything I’m so lucky to still be involved with. So I know I have a lot to be thankful for.”

• Reflections – 50 Heavy Metal Years of Music is out now via Legacy Recordings.

Last year, Judas Priest electric guitar hero Richie Faulkner suffered a major aortic aneurysm in the middle of the band’s set at the 2021 Louder Than Life music festival in Kentucky.

In a series of subsequent updates issued to the general public, the severity of Faulkner’s medical emergency soon became more and more apparent. After undergoing a life-saving open heart surgery at the nearby Rudd Heart & Lung Center, the guitarist took to social media to say that “people with this don’t usually make it to the hospital alive”.

Not long after, though, Faulkner was back in the saddle, shredding on Instagram live just 10 weeks after his surgery and linking up with Demon Hunter in the studio to track a guitar solo.

In the latest issue of Guitar World, Faulkner sat down to discuss his miraculous road to recovery, and revealed the key force that kept him alive in the aftermath of the emergency – the power of heavy metal.

As Faulkner explained, “One question I had for the doctors was how I was able to go on for so long, because, yeah, once these things rupture you’ve usually got minutes and you’re gone. 

“They think that maybe my adrenaline was so high because we were playing,” he continued, “and that my heart was pumping hard enough and fast enough to keep me going long enough to get pumped up with more adrenaline and keep me going to the hospital. 

“So I can literally say the power of heavy metal kept me alive long enough to save my life. I was literally, possibly saved by metal.”

Elsewhere, Faulkner discussed his extensive road to recovery, reflecting he first reunited with his guitar four days after he came home from hospital – a mere two weeks after being hospitalized – as he harbored fears that his fingers wouldn’t work like they used to pre-accident.

“One of the first things I worried about was whether I would still be able to play,” he admitted. “When I woke up in the ICU I think one of my first questions was, ‘What’s happening with the tour and what are we going to do?’”

As for reacquainting himself with the six-string, he commented, “You want everything to be exactly the way it was, but you’ve been through this intense trauma. You don’t know if you’ve lost too much blood to your brain and if your fingers will ever be able to function like they did. I was determined but I was also worried.”

Progress was slow and steady, interrupted by periods of tiredness and frustration, but Faulkner was constantly buoyed by a “sense of accomplishment” and the prospect of reaching the “light at the end of the tunnel”.

It’s an amazing feat, given just how severe Faulkner’s medical emergency was. Without going into too much grisly detail, the guitarist was on the operating table for 11 hours after his aorta – the main artery that carries blood from the heart through the chest and torso – ruptured.

According to Faulkner, the aortic aneurysm proved to be “a lot more severe than what [the doctors] anticipated”.

“Partway through, they had someone come out and tell my other half to call for my family to come to the hospital because they didn’t know if I was going to make it out.”

He did make it out, though, and now has some serious battle scars as a result of the emergency. As Faulkner explained, parts of his heart have been patched up with metal plates, since the invasive surgery “caused a lot of damage”.

“I’m more metal than ever,” Faulkner offered. “I like to joke that I’ve literally got a heart of metal. But I know how serious it was and I know I would have died if I didn’t have these miracle doctors.”

For those of a strong disposition, the whole in-depth conversation with Richie Faulkner about his triumphant comeback – including some eye-watering surgery detail – can be found in the latest issue of Guitar World, which is available now from Magazines Direct.

Things were going swimmingly during Megadeth’s Saturday (July 2) set at Barcelona Rock Fest. The band had played hits including Hangar 18, Angry Again and Sweating Bullets, and the crowd were, as usual, lapping it up.

But things took a turn for the worse after the group wrapped up Cryptic Writings cut Trust, when frontman Dave Mustaine became annoyed at a Judas Priest guitar tech who was soundchecking on an adjacent stage nearby.

For reference, Barcelona Rock Fest, situated at Parc de Can Zam, just 20 minutes from the city center, operates a dual-mainstage setup; when an artist is playing on one stage, another is getting ready to perform on the other. 

But in the case of Barcelona Rock Fest, both stages are relatively close together, so soundcheck noise was always likely to bleed into another artist’s performance. And that’s exactly what happened on Saturday.

In fan-shot footage from the event, Megadeth can be seen halting their set, with Mustaine looking to his left and giving the guitar tech for Judas Priest – who were due to perform shortly after – a strong verbal reprimand.

“I’m gonna wait until he’s done checking his guitar over there,” Mustaine says, before becoming more enraged.

“Walking several feet further in the direction of the second mainstage, Mustaine gives the guitar tech the finger, before continuing: “The last night of the tour – we went all the way to the last fucking night, and then some pussy over on the stage next to us has to start playing while we’re playing. How fucking pathetic, amateur piece of shit you are.”

After waiting several more moments, Mustaine concludes his tirade, adding: “Can we proceed now? Fucking c**t.” 

The band subsequently attempted to launch into Countdown to Extinction classic Symphony of Destruction, playing only one note before Mustaine threw his pick into the crowd and muttered, “Motherfuckers.” The song’s choral intro then began and the show proceeded.

It’s unclear whether the members of Judas Priest were aware at the time of Mustaine’s rant. The Rob Halford-fronted metal gods played shortly after Megadeth wrapped up, with guitarist Glenn Tipton – who has largely taken a backseat after his Parkinson’s diagnosis in 2018 – joining the band for a trio of tracks.

After tearing through the a set that featured You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’, Turbo Lover and Hell Patrol, among others, Priest called Tipton onstage during the encore to help them perform Metal Gods, Breaking the Law and Living After Midnight.

Glenn Tipton reunited with his Judas Priest bandmates on stage during the group's set at the Barcelona Rock Fest to perform a trio of tracks last weekend (July 2).

Having previously made a couple of encore appearances during Priest’s shows in California and Nevada earlier this year, Tipton took to the stage once again alongside Rob Halford, Richie Faulkner, Ian Hill and Andy Sneap to help them play Metal Gods, Breaking The Law and Living After Midnight.

Fan-filmed footage from the night captured the encore performances, with Tipton taking up position armed with his Hamer electric guitar to prop up Faulkner and Sneap’s chugging chordal interplay on Metal Gods, before delivering a throaty guitar solo.

Tipton saw similar action on Breaking The Law, in which he resides in the rhythm division, and Living After Midnight, for which he offered up some more tasty lead playing.

Though Tipton officially stepped back from full-time touring duties back in 2018 after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, he has appeared a number of times onstage with his Judas Priest bandmates and remains an integral part of the lineup.

The guitarist recently revealed that there was a new Priest album on the way that would be a little more experimental. “The riffs are very strong and I think it will be a great album,” he told Guitar World. “If you went back and listened to the last two albums, you can feel the creativity there, and there’s a lot more to come.”

Tipton will play on the record but acknowledges he will have to make some allowances for his condition. He assured us, though, that his songwriting and ear for a riff remain undiminished.

“I went into it with the understanding that I had to adapt,” said Tipton. “I have to realize my limitations. Basically, you just have to deal with what life throws at you and make the best of it. I don’t try to set the mark too high now because, obviously, my condition means I can’t play guitar like I used to. 

“But I can still build songs and I can still get a mean riff out. So we’ll see how it goes when we get back in there and continue writing. I’m very much looking forward to that.” 

Judas Priest are currently in the midst of their 50 Heavy Metal Years tour, which was postponed last year after Richie Faulkner suffered an onstage aortic aneurysm during the band’s set at the 2021 Louder Than Life festival.

Prior to the tour’s continuation, the band announced that Andy Sneap – the Firepower producer who had been brought onboard to fill Tipton’s touring space – had been relieved of his duties as they intended to operate as a four-piece.

Following fan backlash, however, Judas Priest reneged on their decision and reinstated Sneap to their live lineup.

In other Priest news, the legendary metal outfit were bestowed the Musical Excellence Award for this year’s Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame ceremony, which will take place in November this year.

For a list of upcoming tour dates, head over to Judas Priest.

Heavy metal fans of a certain age will remember the rise of Judas Priest, the perennial quintet which has ruled the metallic airwaves from 1974 onwards in a variety of lineups. 

The sole constant member of the band, which released the self-explanatorily-titled compilation 50 Heavy Metal Years Of Music last year, is bassist Ian Hill, whose presence at the back of the stage and at the lowest frequency of the songs has been a comforting presence for the band’s fans over the decades. 

Note that Judas Priest have endured the proverbial rollercoaster ride of a career. Space doesn’t permit a full account of their escapades, so let’s just say that they defended themselves in court in 1990 after two fans entered a suicide pact; their singer Rob Halford left and returned in the same decade; one guitarist, KK Downing, left un-amicably in 2011; the other one, Glenn Tipton, retired with Parkinson’s disease in 2018; and his replacement, Richie Faulkner, narrowly survived an onstage aortic aneurysm six months ago.  

That’s quite a ride, and yet here’s Ian Hill, talking to us about life in and out of his chaotic band with a smile on his face. Bass players are like that, we find.

How is Richie Faulkner doing?

“Richie is a very lucky lad. He actually had two aneurysms, one in his aorta and the other in whatever the other vein is called on the other side of the heart. The paramedics arrived, and 20 minutes later, he was at the hospital, and 20 minutes after that he was in the operating theater. He’s fine now. It looks like nothing’s gonna stop Priest just yet.”

And now we have a 50-year box set of albums.

“That’s unbelievable as well, to be honest. People ask me, ‘Did you ever think Priest was going to last this long when you started?’ I tell them that when we started the band, the concept of somebody doing this sort of thing in their 70s just didn’t exist. 

“Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra were only in their 50s and 60s at the time, so they were the old guys when we were teenagers. But it doesn’t feel like 50 years, mainly because most of it’s been fun. There’s been a few dips here and there, but it’s been fun.”

Would you play your early bass parts differently if you were recording them now?

“Oh yeah, I think the whole thing would be done differently. Not drastically differently, but with a few little changes. Everything’s beefed up a little bit nowadays, so that would probably be the way it would be recorded now.” 

Generally, your parts have been mixed reasonably high over the years.

“For the most part, yes. There were a couple of songs in the ’80s where it was all guitar, basically. All you could hear was a snare drum, if you’re lucky. One of the reasons I started playing with a pick was to cut through all of that. With the distorted guitar sound, playing bass with your fingers just vanished into a little rumbling in the background, so the pick helped to clarify everything.” 

What was the first bass guitar you ever had?

“The first one wasn’t actually a bass. It was a Watkins Rapier guitar, which I took two strings off and put bass strings on. That was the state of affairs back in those days. The string spacing was very odd. The one after that was an old Framus, and my first real one was an Epiphone Rivoli. I wish I’d still got that bass, I really do. It was a beautiful piece of furniture, if nothing else. 

“Unfortunately it whistled. You’d turn it up and you got a whistling noise, so I swapped it for a Danelectro shaped like a Gibson SG Junior. I wish I’d still got that one, too. In the end I swapped that for my first Fender Jazz, which is on the stand right here. It needs a bit of work – the neck is a little bit twisted – but it’s still in perfect working order.” 

You play Spectors now. When did you switch to those?

“I think it was around 1984. I was using Hamer basses at the time, because one of the reps – I can’t remember his name now – kept pestering me to try one. I said ‘Okay, I’ll give it a go’ and it was really good, so I used those for a while. 

“When we were doing Defenders of the Faith in 1984, I was in Miami for some reason and I went to visit Tom Allom, our producer, at the studio where he was producing a band. 

“There was this beautiful bass there, a Spector, and nobody was around so I had a quick play with it. Somehow I got hold of the rep and he said, ‘We’re looking for people to endorse these basses,’ and that was it. They gave me two basses to start with. I still have them, and my ex-wife organized a fretless version for me at Christmas one year, which I still have as well.” 

How are they holding up?

“Fine. I rotated the two original ones until a crack appeared on the headstock of one of them. The rep at the time went out and sourced another original one for me. And then I got my signature Spector when they were branching out and got factories in the Czech Republic. They have all the woodwork done over there, and ship it back to the States where they do the rest.”

Do you play five-string basses as well?

“I used to play five-strings, but I’m an old fart and set in my ways. I string a four-string bass with the top four of a five-string set, and it works out. If I need any higher notes I’ll just go further up the neck. You get used to the string spacing after 40 years of a four‑string bass.”

Do you use a pedalboard?

“Yes, but I don’t use a great deal of effects. The only two I use are an octave divider for the song The Green Manalishi (With The Two Prong Crown), and a slow fading effect for the beginning of Blood Red Skies.”

How do you get your overdrive on the intro of Revolution?

“There’s a little bit of distortion there, as I recall, but not a great deal, from a Boss multi-effects pedal. I’d tell you the model, but it’s in a road case.” 

What bass amps do you use?

“I’m still with SWR, although they’ve been out of business for a while. They’re brilliant. I use the Triad cabinets, which have 15” and 10” speakers and a horn. I started out using two 900-watt amps, and then I went to the 1500. I’ve had one of those for years, they’re bombproof. 

“I think in all the years I’ve been using them, which has got to be the early ’90s, I think I’ve only changed one speaker in one of the cabs. I tried other stuff before that. I was using these huge folded-horn things. I had them built for me by a company in Florida called Acoustic Research. They were great, but you could live in one, they were so huge. 

“When we were with Ripper [Owens, Halford’s replacement from 1992 to 2003] we weren’t playing such huge places, and it wasn’t logistically possible to have them on either side of the stage, so I tried other things and ended up being happy with SWR.”

I’ve seen so many pictures of you standing about six inches away from a massive 8x10 cab.

“Fortunately I’m on in-ears and have been since Richie joined the band. I’m sure if I hadn’t used them, I’d be stone deaf by now. But that place on the stage comes from the early days, when the stages were small. 

“I had Glenn right in front of me, so if I stepped just a little bit away I wouldn’t be able to hear what I was doing. You’ll see me looking to my right, because I’m looking at the left foot of the drummer on the hi-hat. That’s how I kept up.”

How are the hands holding up after all these years of playing metal?

“Not bad. I have a touch of arthritis in one joint, but the rest of them are okay. I massage them before I go on, and I’ll do a warm-up. I’ll go and play some of the faster songs until the blood starts flowing.”

Which bass parts are you most proud of?

“Actually, the bass parts on those two Ripper albums [Jugulator and Demolition, 1997 and 2001] probably had the technically best basslines that I did. There’s some good stuff on there. The music was a slightly different style, which lent itself to a busier bassline. 

“One of my favorite Priest songs is Dissident Aggressor. The bassline just follows the groove. It’s one of those raw rock songs – just two guitars, bass, drums, and vocal, with only the solos overdubbed.”

Who were the bass players who influenced you?

“My big influence was Jack Bruce. I loved Jack, as a huge Cream fan. He was absolutely unbelievable. Even now, I listen back to some of the live stuff they used to do. They’d just ramble off for 15 minutes on these huge adventures, and even now, I can’t figure out some of the stuff he did. His album, Songs For A Tailor, was one of the most underrated records ever. It takes a minute to get your head around it. I regret never meeting the bloke, I really do.”

Who else was an influence?

“All the old blues players – you know, Andy Fraser, John McVie. John Entwistle of course. And later on, Jaco Pastorius was an absolute giant. Tragically, his career was cut short, but he was phenomenal.”

Did you ever learn to play slap bass?

“No, that was a different technique altogether. I never bothered to learn it.”

What are the plans for 2022?

“We’re off to Europe in the summer for the festivals, and then the plan was always to go back to America again. And then we’ll see how the rest of the world is faring, you know. We’ve still got to fit in South America and Japan and maybe Southeast Asia, and maybe there’ll be an album in due course. There’s already more than an album’s worth of material.”

Time to embark on the next half-century, then?

“Yes. I was joking about that with Richie. Now they’ve put all these metal parts in him, they reckon it’s given him another 50 years of life. So off we go!” 

• Reflections – 50 Heavy Metal Years of Music is out now via Legacy Recordings.

After a 17-artist shortlist of potential inductees was unveiled earlier this year, it’s now been officially confirmed that Judas Priest will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, 23 years after they first became eligible.

Priest will be bestowed the Musical Excellence Award when the induction ceremony takes place later this year on November 5 at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California.

The band’s induction has been a long time coming. Long considered to be one of the event’s biggest snubs, Judas Priest’s induction marks the third time the band has been nominated for an award, after unsuccessful attempts in 2018 and 2020.

In response to the successful induction, Priest singer Rob Halford told Billboard, “The other day I was just noodling on the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame site, and when you look at the list of talent in there, it’s absolutely extraordinary. 

“It’s a very, very important institution for recognizing various people that have been in music since music began, right from the beginning of rock ‘n’ roll,” he added. “To be part of that is, like, wow…

“And glory hallelujah, there’s another metal band in now. That’s the blessing we’ve all been waiting for. I think it validates the real musical adventure that Judas Priest has been on since Rocka Rolla (in 1974). We’re a band that has taken you through many, many different, many dimensions, of metal.”

Halford also went on to say that Priest's former members, including K.K. Downing, have “every right to be a part of the event“. 

“I'm very pleased for everybody,“ Halford noted. “There's no bitterness. There's no angst. There's not that kind of stuff that's lingering. If there is, you have to push all that away. You have to push it to the side and just understand and accept and respect this wonderful opportunity and what it represents in terms of recognition and a celebration.” 

Another standout inclusion in the list of inductees is the late Elizabeth Cotten – the self-taught, left-handed blues guitarist who pioneered the “Cotten picking” technique – who has been bestowed the Early Influence Award owing to the lasting impact she had on the blues scene.

One of the most inspiring left-handed guitarists to ever pick up a guitar, Cotten wrote her most notable work, Freight Train, at the age of just 12 years old in around 1904, though credit for its composition was eventually taken by two English songwriters when it became a hit in the ‘50s.

In its bio of Cotten, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame commended the fingerstyle player for her “musical inventiveness”, which “influenced countless other musicians”. 

“Freight Train still stands as an immortal American folk classic,” the Rock Hall wrote, “and many of her songs have become staples in the repertoires of thousands of artists who have kept her unique musical legacy alive.”

Joining Judas Priest and Cotten on the induction list is Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis – the R&B production/multi-instrumentalist duo, who are also receiving the Musical Excellence Award – as well as Duran Duran, Eurythmics and Lionel Richie, who are receiving nods in the Performer Category.

Others to receive the Performer Award include Carly Simon, Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo, Eminem and – despite wanting to withdraw her Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nomination in March – Dolly Parton.

The induction list is completed by Allen Grubman, Jimmy Iovine and Sylvia Robinson, who will be receiving the Ahmet Ertegun Award.

Notably, it’s the first time in the Rock Hall’s 37-year history that six female acts have been inducted in one go.

Chairman of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame John Sykes said of the list, “This diverse group of inductees each had a profound impact on the sound of youth culture and helped change the course of rock ‘n’ roll. Their music moved generations and influenced so many artists that followed.”

The induction ceremony will take place on November 5, and will air on HBO and HBO Max at a later date.

To find out more about each inductee, head over to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame website.

Judas Priest are currently in the midst of their 50 Heavy Metal Years tour, which was postponed last fall after their guitarist, Richie Faulkner, suffered an aortic aneurysm onstage while performing with the band at the 2021 Louder Than Life festival.

Aside from the tour, Priest have also been working on their as-yet-untitled 19th studio album, which would be their first since 2018's Firepower.

Though he retired from full-time touring with the band in 2018 due to his battle with Parkinson’s disease, Glenn Tipton remains an integral part of Judas Priest's creative process, and still makes occasional onstage cameos with the group. 

In a recent interview with Consequence of Sound, Tipton offered some insight into the band's forthcoming album, saying that fans should expect the unexpected.

"We’re fortunate – or unfortunate, whichever way you want to look at it – that we’ve created a niche for ourself, and I think the fans would be disappointed if we strayed too far away from it," Tipton said. "But we’ve always wanted to try and go down new paths. So really, it’s a bit experimental. 

"There will be some tracks on there that people will either like or – I wouldn’t say 'hate,' but they might not be their favorite tracks. We haven’t finished it yet. We did some before the pandemic, then that put a halt to that, and then we’ve continued – and will continue – since. But it’s very strong, very good material. I think that all in all, the kids are really going to like it."

Tipton also cited the strength of the still-in-the-works album in a recent interview with Guitar World, saying, "I’m really happy with what we’ve done. The riffs are very strong and I think it will be a great album. If you went back and listened to the last two albums, you can feel the creativity there, and there’s a lot more to come.”

Aside from the tour, Judas Priest celebrated their 50th anniversary last fall with 50 Heavy Metal Years of Music, an immense 42-disc box set that includes every album from their catalog as well as 13 previously unreleased discs of live material spanning from 1979 to 1991. 

A single-disc sampler from the box set called Reflections: 50 Heavy Metal Years of Music – featuring a mixture of album tracks and live cuts from the box set – is also available.

Fans can pick up physical copies of either set at Judas Priest's website.

At the time of our interview, Judas Priest guitarist Glenn Tipton is getting ready for another victory lap to celebrate 50-plus years of the group’s eclectic, groundbreaking metal. Priest resumed their 50th Anniversary tour on March 4 in Peoria, Illinois, and dates are scheduled through June 14 in the band’s hometown of Birmingham, England, barring any more unexpected setbacks. 

To coincide with the tour, Judas Priest released the mammoth 42-disc box set, 50 Heavy Metal Years of Music, which includes every album from their catalog as well as 13 previously unreleased discs of live material spanning from 1979 to 1991. 

Also available is the 16-track single-disc taster, Reflections: 50 Heavy Metal Years of Music, a best-of that features nine album tracks and six live cuts from the box. 50 Heavy Metal Years of Music was entirely remastered by Tom Allom, who first worked with Judas Priest on the 1979 concert album Unleashed in the East, and who produced most of their best-selling records, including British Steel and Screaming for Vengeance.

“To have a boxset that is so all-encompassing and covers all our time with Judas Priest is amazing,” says Tipton from his estate in England. “50 years is a long time. You never think you’ll go on this long. I never thought I’d still be around now, let alone writing songs and performing a bit.”

It’s always a little strange for pioneer artists to pore through their back catalogs and unearth past stepping stones and revelations. For Tipton, it’s especially bittersweet since he’s coping with and combating Parkinson’s disease and has been unable to tour with Judas Priest since 2018, when producer Andy Sneap was recruited as the band’s second guitarist on stage. Since then, Tipton has performed encores as a special guest at various shows.

“I have good days and bad days,” Tipton says, speaking candidly about the illness he has struggled with for more than a decade. “I have to take my moment to catch a wave, if you know what I mean. But to walk onstage at the beginning of a show and hear the crowd scream, and then you kick into a Priest number – I miss that a lot.”

In one of the few interviews Tipton has set up, the guitarist talks about the boxset, reveals details about the band’s next studio album, reminisces over some of his proudest moments in Judas Priest and discusses how guitarist Richie Faulkner injected new life into the band, and Faulkner’s near-death experience onstage in Kentucky last September.

Tipton also reveals – for the first time – details about a mishap he had in 2021 that left him practically freezing to death. And, after holding his tongue for years, he pointedly responds to disparaging allegations and accusations from founding Priest guitarist K.K. Downing.

How did you choose which albums and live recordings to include in 50 Heavy Metal Years of Music?

“All the albums are in there – every Priest record and live album, including the ones we did with Tim [“Ripper” Owens”]. And then for the [previously unreleased] live stuff, we used whatever we could get our hands on. 

“We had quite a bit of input from everyone in the band into which songs we thought were good, and then we left most of the work to Tom [Allom] to pick and choose the tracks and see what he could do with them. He has always been involved in our live work and I think it turned out really good. It was interesting to look back over the years and remember certain venues or gigs. It really took us back.”

Were you surprised by any of the old recordings – maybe something you hadn’t heard before and really liked?

“There weren’t any surprises in there, but there were things I’d forgotten about. You find a few parts lurking around the corners of the tapes. It’s always interesting when you take time to go through stuff you haven’t heard in a long time. Plus, there were bits and pieces we never used that were fun to hear.”

Did any of the parts you unearthed inspire you in any way for the next Priest album? Or were there any riffs you liked that you may use? 

“There’s nothing we dusted off and decided to use. Things that went on the shelf with Priest generally stayed on the shelf. If we didn’t use something, we usually said we were going to use it in the future, but we never really got around to it. We preferred to come up with fresh things every time.”

Judas Priest brought so much to metal guitar, including overdriven, palm-muted chugging, a fist-tight two-guitar attack, incisive licks, guitar harmonies and dueling leads. Is there anything you introduced to the genre that you’re especially proud of?

“My classical influence, which is from my mother, and that encouraged me to inject a lot of melody into Priest. Hopefully, I’ve influenced some people to take up the guitar and realize there’s more to it than playing a thousand notes a second. Melody is a unique thing in the sense that it can change a song completely. 

“I believe our music has encouraged some people to search deeper when they’re composing lead breaks or songs, and I’m proud of that. I’m also proud that there are people who decided to start playing guitar after they heard Priest for the first time. If you can inspire people to pick up an instrument, you can change their lives.”

The guitar work in Judas Priest has rubbed off on so many styles of metal: the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, thrash, melodic death metal, and even metalcore. Do you ever feel like any of those subsequent bands perhaps bastardized what you pioneered?

“I used to get asked, ‘What did you think of the punk and new wave era?’ Truthfully, I thought it was great because without too much skill people can come up with songs that have so much energy. We tend to learn from everybody and I’m not ashamed to admit it. 

“That era gave us a kick up the backside to become more motivated and to write songs that were more gritty and rough. As a musician, you get something from everything and I definitely was altered by new wave and punk. I’m flattered by anyone who gets anything from our music, and I just think that if you keep an open mind you can learn something from everybody, and you should.” 

What can you say about the next Judas Priest studio album? Were you able to work on it between 2019 and 2020 when Covid shut down the tour business? 

“No, the pandemic stopped us in our tracks. But me, Richie, and [vocalist] Rob [Halford] went into the studio and wrote some stuff before that. I’m really happy with what we’ve done. The riffs are very strong and I think it will be a great album. If you went back and listened to the last two albums, you can feel the creativity there, and there’s a lot more to come.”

Were you able to play guitar parts for the next album or did you communicate your musical ideas to Richie and have him play them?

“I went into it with the understanding that I had to adapt. I have to realize my limitations. Basically, you just have to deal with what life throws at you and make the best of it. I don’t try to set the mark too high now because, obviously, my condition means I can’t play guitar like I used to. But I can still build songs and I can still get a mean riff out. So we’ll see how it goes when we get back in there and continue writing. I’m very much looking forward to that.” 

In August 2021 at Bloodstock Open Air in Walton-on-Trent, Derbyshire, you joined Priest at their first show in two years to play Metal Gods, Breaking the Law and Living After Midnight. Do you plan to make more special appearances during the remaining anniversary shows?  

“I certainly hope to get up to maybe play a few numbers and encores. And, honestly, I look forward to that just as much as I used to. When you hear that crowd roar, there’s no other feeling like it. But I have to be realistic. If I feel up to it, I’ll do it [at some shows], but I have a family and I’m not going to jeopardize my health.” 

On September 26 at the Louder Than Life festival in Louisville, Kentucky, Richie suffered an acute cardiac aortic dissection onstage during the closing number, Painkiller. The condition is often fatal, but the venue was near Rudd Heart & Lung Center at University of Louisville Health at Jewish Hospital, which had the staff and technology to perform a 10-hour emergency procedure that saved his life. Is Richie back up to speed or is he still regaining his strength from the condition and his post-op rehabilitation?

“I’ve talked to him and he’s pretty much up to speed. It’s incredible. He really had a close shave. But he’s amazing. He never puts that guitar down. I spoke to him briefly two or three nights ago, and he sounded good. But you have to be careful with any problems like that because what you need is rest. And what he wants to do is play the guitar, and that’s not always restful.”

At the same time, the guitar can be a great therapeutic tool. When patients come out of a major trauma, they often want to get back into their comfort zone and Richie looks more comfortable than ever when he’s sitting there just noodling away. 

“He’s a very talented player and a strong character. To pull through that and get to where he’s gotten now and be determined to get back in shape takes a lot of effort. And when he was getting back up to speed, it was probably very hard for him because he didn’t have a lot of energy. But like I say, he’s doing good and he’s enjoying playing the guitar.”

You suffered your own setback recently when you were outside your house with your dog. It wasn’t exactly a brush with death, but it might have been.

“Four months ago, I fell down a riverbank and shattered my shoulder and broke my arm. I couldn’t move. It was about nine o’clock at night and I jumped down to this path and my foot slipped and I fell and landed on my shoulder. I couldn’t get up. I couldn’t put any pressure on the arm to give me leverage to stand. 

“I had to stay in that position all night. It started to rain and I thought I might catch my death from the cold. It was the worst night of my life. My dog, a German wirehaired pointer, stayed with me for 10 hours. 

“In the early morning, the guy that looks after my land and the estate knew something was wrong because he couldn’t see the dog. So he went down to look around and then he saw the dog and me and got me help.”

You’ve always been the quintessential polite English gentleman. The same could be said for most everyone in Priest, until recently. Over the past couple years, former Priest guitarist K.K. Downing has been bad mouthing you and the rest of the band. First, he made some comments in his 2018 book Heavy Duty: Days and Nights in Judas Priest. More recently, when he released the first album by his new band KK’s Priest, Sermons of the Sinner, he targeted you with more accusations.  

“You know, I never wanted to get into a public argument after K.K. left. I never said a word and I stuck to my guns for over 10 years, but there comes a point when you read things that have been said that are just crazy. It’s time to say something, really because he’s saying things that he really shouldn’t be saying. They aren’t fair.”

Are they mean or are they untrue?

“Both. He’s insinuated that he was the driving force of the band. It just isn’t true, you know? Priest are made up of five guys working together. They’re not just one person driving the band. He’s said all these things that, I think, are meant to upset us and get us to say something in response and for a long time we didn’t. But I’ve got a lot to say and enough’s enough.”

K.K. seems unhappy he’s no longer in the band. He said that the Epitaph tour in 2011 and 2012 was supposed to be a farewell run and that you had all agreed to break up after the dates. So when he quit the band before the tour, he claims he did so under the impression that there would be no more Judas Priest studio albums or shows. In other words, you were all leaving the band after the tour. 

“We spoke about what was probably going to be our farewell tour, and then Ken [K.K.] quit. Nothing could have been worse because after you play for all those years, you plan your farewell tour to sign off in a good way. All of a sudden, Ken quit and we didn’t know what to do. It was a nightmare.

“It was only when we found Richie that we realized we could go on and play the tour and then more. Richie injected so much speed and energy into the band that we decided to continue. He’s such a great fellow and a great player. When he doesn’t know there’s anyone around and he’s in the studio just playing random things, some of the stuff he comes up with is breathtaking, even for me. He can play anything.”

What did K.K. say about you that was most upsetting? 

“There was that ridiculous thing he said about me having to play the last note at a concert [so I would come across as the band’s star guitarist]. The fans aren’t stupid. They know what’s true and what isn’t true.” 

Were those accusations unexpected?

“They were surprising.” 

One of K.K.’s more personal jabs was that you were drinking too much on stage and your playing was sloppy during his final tours with the band.

“That’s silly, really, and everyone knows it’s not true. The fans aren’t stupid and they’ve seen me for 50 years playing around the world. I may have had a couple of beers onstage, but that’s all. It’s never affected the concert or my performance whatsoever and he knows that. Also, he said we asked him to play the hard parts. 

“Just tell that to Tom Allom and he’ll fall down laughing. Anyone who’s worked with us in the studio or live knows who plays the hard parts. Ken was there most of the time with me and we’ve written songs together. I’ve done nothing but help Ken.”

Did he need help?

“I used to piece his leads together and I did a lot of editing to make his lead breaks worthwhile. I would never have talked about Ken that way, it’s just that his accusations have gotten sillier and sillier – and I deserve [the chance] to respond. He left the band. We couldn’t convince him to stay. And then he accused me of taking six years off to write two solo albums. I only did the solo albums because we were inactive at the time while Rob was doing his solo things.”

After you announced you weren’t going to play the Firepower tour, K.K. seemed hurt that he wasn’t asked to rejoin. He said he contacted bassist Ian Hill, who sent him a setlist, but nothing ever happened.

“He never approached any of the band and asked to rejoin, so for all we knew, he didn’t want to rejoin. He said he wanted to leave the band and then leave the music industry. He told us he was desperate for a new kind of life.”

He didn’t ask to rejoin for the Firepower tour?

“No. Right before we got Richie, Ian said, ‘If you really want to come back, you’d better come back now’ because we were moving on. But he didn’t do anything. He didn’t ask to come back. And then after he was out, he said all sorts of ridiculous things. He tried to take credit for just about everything – the stage clothes, the image, the songwriting. He refers to them as his songs. 

“He’s got to be joking. Everybody knows who wrote the songs, and that’s being kind. But whatever the case was, we’ve always made it clear that all of the decisions we made were made by the band as a whole, without exception. If anyone doesn’t agree with something, it isn’t used. That’s the way we’ve always worked.”

It must have taken a lot of willpower to keep your silence for so long.

“I never wanted this kind of back-and-forth thing, but you can imagine how I feel – especially now that my playing has become more difficult – and he’s continued bashing me in the press and in his book.”

Was there always tension between you and K.K.?

“That’s the thing. I always considered me and Ken to be friends. We had some great times. We’ve been fishing together. We played tennis in courts that were so rough there were roots growing up through the cracks. We’ve sat on the 18th hole of many golf courses and had a laugh. So it shouldn’t be like this.”

Were you surprised that the new KK’s Priest album is called Sermons of the Sinner, an obvious reference to the Priest song The Sinner, and that his lyrics are filled with animosity against Judas Priest? Also, The Return of the Sentinel includes the opening guitar line from the Priest song The Sentinel.

“I suppose if I left a band and regretted it then I’d try to regain that energy from tracks I’d loved and played throughout the years. Therefore, I suppose it’s a natural thing to want to lean toward the music that you love. So I can understand that. I just can’t understand why he’s saying things that people know aren’t true.”

Do you think it’s strange that K.K. hired ex-Priest vocalist Tim “Ripper” Owens and worked with drummer Les Binks? Does it seem he’s trying too hard to step back up on the Priest pedestal?

“It’s difficult for me to comment on that, really. When I did my solo album, the songs were very un-Priest-like. They were just songs I wanted to get off my chest. Why would I want to play something that sounded like Priest? I think a solo album should be different from your main band because you let your emotions come out in different ways.

“But Ken wanted to make music like he did in Priest. I have no problem with Ripper [being involved]. I always got along with him. Tim’s a good singer and it was good to play with him in Priest for a number of years.”

So, you’re okay with Judas Priest and K.K.’s Priest existing at the same time.

“I just wish he’d grow up a bit and stop saying ridiculous things. I’d like to see both bands go on and enjoy heavy metal, as you should do. It would be nice to see our careers out together, even if we’re in different bands.”

• Reflections – 50 Heavy Metal Years of Music is out now via Legacy Recordings.

Glenn Tipton joined Judas Priest for the encores of two shows last weekend at the Fox Theater in Oakland, California on Saturday (March 12) and the Zappos Theater in Las Vegas, Nevada on Sunday (March 13).

Having previously suggested that Tipton would join the band for select dates on their ongoing 50 Heavy Metal Years Tour, frontman Rob Halford brought Tipton out to roaring crowds on both dates to play through Metal Gods, Breaking the Law and Living After Midnight.

Tipton stepped back from touring duties with Judas Priest in 2018 after being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, but remains hellbent on not letting the condition stop him from playing. Watch as he blazes through three Priest classics, and serves up the solo in Living After Midnight, in the footage below.

Despite taking a step back from official touring duties, Tipton is set to play guitar on the next Judas Priest album, Halford confirmed late last year.

“He can play, so he'll be on this next album,” Halford told Spain's Mariskal Rock. “Whatever work he does, he's valuable – really important.”

“He's a member of Judas Priest,” the frontman continued. “He's still there. He's still an important component of this band and what this band represents, particularly in the writing sense. He made a massive contribution to the songs that we have so far. And we'll still keep writing – we'll still keep putting together the ideas. Because you can never stop writing.”

"So, yeah, he's good, man," Halford added. "He's still a fighter. He never lets anything stop him. He's a great force for people that are living their lives actively and productively with Parkinson's. So he's still very much [like] that No Surrender song – a heavy metal hero."

Judas Priest guitarist Richie Faulkner appears to be back into the swing of things, too, after suffering an aortic aneurysm onstage with the band at Louder Than Life in September last year.

In a remarkable recovery following the incident, Faulkner was shredding on Instagram Live just 10 weeks afterwards, and back in December, he revealed he was back in the studio recording a guest solo for Demon Hunter's next album.

Priest's full-time guitar tandem is currently completed by Andy Sneap, who produced their 2018 album Firepower, and has filled in for Tipton ever since. Back in January, the band announced that they would go forth touring without Sneap, but following fan backlash, his place in the group's touring lineup was reinstated.

The band's setlist was the same in both Oakland and Las Vegas. Check it out below.

1. One Shot at Glory
2. Lightning Strike
3. You've Got Another Thing Comin'
4. Freewheel Burning
5. Turbo Lover
6. Hell Patrol
7. The Sentinel
8. A Touch of Evil
9. Rocka Rolla
10. Victim of Changes
11. Desert Plains
12. Blood Red Skies
13. Diamonds & Rust (Joan Baez cover)
14. Painkiller
15. Electric Eye
16. Hell Bent for Leather
17. Metal Gods
18. Breaking the Law
19. Living After Midnight

Judas Priest's 50 Heavy Metal Years Tour continues tomorrow (March 15) at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California.

Judas Priest have kicked off a series of rescheduled dates on the North American leg of their 50 Heavy Metal Years Tour, marking the return of guitarist Richie Faulkner, who suffered an aortic aneurysm onstage with the band back in September. The tour was postponed following the incident.

Taking to the stage on Friday night (March 4) at the Peoria Civic Center in Illinois, Faulkner appeared to be back firing on all cylinders, helping the band rattle through a discography-spanning selection of their greatest hits, including You've Got Another Thing Comin', Turbo Lover and Painkiller, before concluding with fan favorite, Living After Midnight. Check out footage below.

Judas Priest's touring lineup currently consists of frontman Rob Halford, bassist Ian Hill and drummer Scott Travis, while Richie Faulkner and Andy Sneap make up the band's guitar tandem.

Back in January, the band announced their intention to resume the 50 Heavy Metal Years Tour as a four-piece. This meant the departure of Andy Sneap, who produced the band's 2018 effort, Firepower, and had assumed live duties since. At the time, Sneap said he was “incredibly disappointed”, but respected the band's decision.

However following fan backlash, Priest reversed the decision, announcing that Sneap would indeed join them for the remainder of the tour. They also confirmed that longtime guitarist Glenn Tipton – who was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease in 2018 – would join them “whenever he's able”.

Richie Faulkner has made a remarkable recovery since suffering an aortic aneurysm onstage at Louder Than Life in September. Just 10 weeks after the incident, he was shredding on Instagram Live, and back in December, he revealed he was back in the studio recording a guest solo for Demon Hunter's forthcoming album.

Faulkner joined Judas Priest in 2011, replacing longtime guitarist K.K. Downing. To date, he has appeared on two of the band's albums: Redeemer of Souls (2014) and Firepower (2018).

K.K. Downing's relationship with Judas Priest has soured in recent years. In 2018, he released a memoir titled Heavy Duty: Days and Nights in Judas Priest, which delved into the reasons behind his departure. He noted his relationship with Glenn Tipton as a major contributing factor.

“I never found Glenn to be particularly easy to get along with,” Downing wrote (per The Guardian). “Very early on, I was fully aware of the limited conditions under which he operated. If you were going to relate to him, you would do so entirely on his terms.”

And in the new issue of Guitar World, Tipton fires back, stating why he feels much of what's been said by Downing is untrue and unfair.

“He's insinuated that he was the driving force of the band,” he says. “It just isn't true. Priest [is] made up of five guys working together. [There's] not just one person driving the band. He's said all these things that, I think, are meant to upset us and get us to say something in response and for a long time we didn't. But I've got a lot to say and enough's enough.”

The North American leg of Judas Priest's 50 Heavy Metal Years Tour will make stops in LA, San Antonio, Philadelphia and more, before wrapping up April 13 in Hamilton, Canada.

The band is then scheduled to head to Russia to begin the European leg of the tour in May, though the status of their Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Kyiv shows remains up in the air following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

See below for the band's full setlist from the Peoria Civic Center on March 4.

1. One Shot At Glory
2. Lightning Strike
3. You've Got Another Thing Comin'
4. Freewheel Burning
5. Turbo Lover
6. Hell Patrol
7. The Sentinel
8. A Touch Of Evil
9. Rocka Rolla
10. Victim Of Changes
11. Desert Plains
12. Blood Red Skies
13. Invader
14. Painkiller

Encore:

1. The Hellion / Electric Eye
2. Hell Bent For Leather
3. Breaking The Law
4. Living After Midnight

Following K.K. Downing's departure from Judas Priest in 2011, his relationship with the band has been tumultuous, to say the least – particularly in recent years.

When the guitarist quit prior to the band's Epitaph World Tour of 2011 and 2012 – which at the time was planned as their farewell tour – he cited an “ongoing breakdown in working relationships between myself, elements of the band and management for some time”, giving away little in the way of further details at his time of departure.

However, in 2018, Downing released a memoir titled Heavy Duty: Days and Nights in Judas Priest, in which he delved further into the reasons behind his departure, noting his relationship with co-guitarist Glenn Tipton as a major contributing factor.

“I never found Glenn to be particularly easy to get along with,” Downing wrote (per The Guardian). “Very early on, I was fully aware of the limited conditions under which he operated. If you were going to relate to him, you would do so entirely on his terms.”

In a December 2021 interview with Guitar World, Downing noted how he never expected Judas Priest to continue following the Epitaph tour, adding, “They didn't want any part of me, even though I was one of the only original members.”

And now, in the new issue of Guitar World, Tipton offers his side of the story, and explains why, in his view, much of what's been said by Downing is both untrue and unfair.

“I never wanted to get into a public argument after K.K. left,” he says. “I never said a word and I stuck to my guns for over 10 years, but there comes a point when you read things that have been said that are just crazy. It's time to say something, really because he's saying things that he really shouldn't be saying. They aren't fair.”

“He's insinuated that he was the driving force of the band,” he continues. “It just isn't true. Priest [is] made up of five guys working together. [There's] not just one person driving the band. He's said all these things that, I think, are meant to upset us and get us to say something in response and for a long time we didn't. But I've got a lot to say and enough's enough.”

One of the more personal jabs Downing leveled at Tipton centered around his alcohol consumption. In the December 2021 interview with Guitar World, Downing claimed that Tipton's drinking before shows and in between songs was “slowing us down”.

“It made the rest of us feel insecure because it’s just like if you drive in a car and somebody is drinking at the wheel – you just don’t feel comfortable,” he said.

In Tipton's new Guitar World interview, he brands these claims as “silly”. “Everyone knows it's not true,” he says. “Like I said, the fans aren't stupid and they've seen me for 50 years playing around the world. I may have had a couple of beers onstage, but that's all. It's never affected the concert or my performance whatsoever and he knows that.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Tipton says that he “used to piece [Downing's] leads together” in the studio. “I did a lot of editing to make his lead breaks worthwhile,” he says. 

“I would never have talked about Ken that way,” he continues. “It’s just that his accusations have gotten sillier and sillier – and I deserve to respond. He left the band. We couldn’t convince him to stay. And then he accused me of taking six years off to write two solo albums. I only did the solo albums because we were inactive at the time while Rob was doing his solo things.”

In 2020, Downing revealed that he had formed a new band, KK's Priest, with former Judas Priest members Tim "Ripper" Owens and Les Binks on vocals and drums, respectively, as well as bassist Tony Newton and guitarist A.J. Mills.

And in a 2021 interview, Downing said that Judas Priest had threatened him with legal action over the band's name.

“Their lawyers sent a letter to my record company making threats of legal action if I went forward with KK’s Priest,” he said. “But for the moment, nothing happened. I think they made the threat but decided not to follow through. They made the threat to stop me making the band.”

Glenn Tipton stepped back from touring with Judas Priest in 2018 after being diagnosed with Parkinson's in 2008, though he joined the band onstage during their encore at Bloodstock Open Air in August last year. In December, frontman Rob Halford confirmed that Tipton would play on the next Judas Priest album.

“He's still a fighter,” Halford told Spain's Mariskal Rock. “He never lets anything stop him. He's a great force for people that are living their lives actively and productively with Parkinson's. So he's still very much [like] that No Surrender song – a heavy metal hero.”

Judas Priest are scheduled to hit the road for their 50 Heavy Metal Years Tour later this year. Richie Faulkner – who suffered an aortic aneurysm onstage with the band back in December, and has since recovered – and Andy Sneap will assume guitar duties.

Earlier this year, it emerged that Judas Priest had decided to embark on the 50 Heavy Metal Years Tour without Sneap, who was originally recruited for their 2018 Firepower World Tour. Following fan backlash, the decision was reversed, meaning Sneap will indeed join the band for the trek.

Read the full interview with Glenn Tipton in the new issue of Guitar World. Head to Magazines Direct to pick up your copy.

Judas Priest man Richie Faulkner appeared on Ryan Roxie’s In The Trenches podcast recently and revealed that he has been building a stockpile of solo material.

“I haven't really spoken much about it publicly,” says Faulkner. “But there is something I've kind of been [putting] together during the COVID period… I've used that time to kind of get [together] some songs I've been working on… polish them up, get some people together that I respect in the music business and record some stuff.”

Faulkner revealed that the material – thought to be a solo album – is now in its final stages of preparation and he’s now looking at how he can get it out there. “We're looking for deals at the moment,” says Faulkner. “We’re looking for record labels, so I don't wanna get too far ahead of myself.”

Faulkner joined Priest in 2011 following the departure of KK Downing, while Roxie joined Alice Cooper in 1996, so the guitarists share something in common, having both joined later lineups of established heavy acts. 

Faulkner says that his warm welcome and loyalty to Priest is what has prevented him from paying attention to his solo material before. 

“When I joined Priest, I didn't wanna sort of get the gig and then, straight away, 'Oh, now listen to my solo thing.’” says the guitarist. 

“‘Priest, they welcomed me in, they gave me a voice, they gave me an opinion, and I felt like this was my band. They've made me a part of it and I gave back a thousand percent. So I didn't wanna sort of then do my own thing and abuse that opportunity… But 10 or 11 years in, I feel that fans know that I'm not gonna abuse that opportunity.”

Faulkner says of the material: “You can hear where the roots are, from Priest, but I think it's different enough to be its own monster.”

In the same interview, the guitarist also discusses the incredible ordeal and treatment relating to his 2021 onstage aortic rupture.

“If the odds were stacked slightly differently, dude.. I don’t know how I even made it to the hospital,” says Faulkner.

“My other half was out there waiting for me and the surgeon came out and told her ‘You better call family to come and be with you. He’s not coming out…’ [In the end] they gave me four blood transfusions, I’ve got five mechanical valves. They’re miracle workers. I don’t know how they did it – Rob’s jealous, I’m made of metal now – but all joking aside, the doctors, nurses, the support system I’ve had is miraculous. I shouldn’t be here.”

Watch the full interview above and keep an eye on Richie Faulkner's Instagram for more information on his solo material.

17 artists are up for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2022, the organization announced today.

Among the artists on the ballot this year are Rage Against the Machine, Fela Kuti, the New York Dolls, Dionne Warwick, Devo, Kate Bush, MC5, Eurythmics, Pat Benatar and Judas Priest.

Making the nominee list for the first time, meanwhile, is an eclectic group that includes hip-hop legends (Eminem, A Tribe Called Quest), new-wave hitmakers (Duran Duran), a country superstar (Dolly Parton), an alt-rock non-conformist (Beck), and two hugely successful singer/songwriters (Lionel Richie and Carly Simon).

Nominees are voted on by a voting body that includes over 1,000 artists, historians and music industry figures.

Starting today, through April 29, the public can also participate in the selection process by voting at the Rock Hall's website or at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame museum in Cleveland. The public's top five artists will comprise a “fans’ ballot” that will be tallied along with the other ballots to select the 2022 inductees.

The 2022 inductees will be announced in May, while the induction ceremony will take place this fall, though the date and venue have yet to be announced as of press time. 

2021's ceremony saw the induction of the Foo Fighters, Tina Turner, Carole King, the Go-Go’s, Jay-Z and Todd Rundgren, and the posthumous awarding of the Musical Excellence Award to late Ozzy Osbourne electric guitar player Randy Rhoads.

For more info on the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame museum, ballot and induction ceremony, stop by Rock Hall.

Judas Priest have reversed their decision to remove electric guitar player Andy Sneap from their touring lineup.

The U-turn comes amid fan backlash in response to Judas Priest’s original announcement, in which they had planned to resume their 50 Heavy Metal Years Tour as “an even more powerful, relentless four-piece heavy metal band”.

However, a new statement issued by the band has now confirmed they've ditched their plans to tour as a quartet, and will instead hit the road with the support of Sneap when the run resumes in March.

“Hello metal maniacs,” the statement reads. “Given all that has recently evolved and transpired we have decided unanimously as a band to continue our live shows unchanged with Rob, Ian, Richie, Scott, Andy and Glenn joining us whenever he’s able, so see you all soon as we forge ahead celebrating 50 massive heavy metal years of Judas Priest together!”

Fans didn’t particularly warm to the prospect of Priest touring as a four-piece, with many citing the double-axe action as a bedrock of the group’s sound. 

Indeed, it would have been the first time they performed as a quartet since 1974 – the year in which Tipton would join Rob Halford, K.K. Downing, Ian Hill and John Hinch in the Judas Priest lineup.

Sneap himself also voiced his disapproval of the decision, telling Blabbermouth he was “incredibly disappointed” that Halford had informed him of their intentions to continue as a quartet.

Producer of the band’s Firepower record, Sneap has been a part of Judas Priest’s live line-up since 2018, after Glenn Tipton’s Parkinson’s diagnosis forced him to retire from full-time touring.

He had rejoined the group last year as they began their 50th anniversary tour around the US, though the live shows were postponed after Richie Faulkner suffered an onstage aortic aneurysm.

It’s twice been confirmed now that Faulkner has had a successful recovery period – including when he linked up with Demon Hunter in the studio – and the guitarist will be meeting up with his bandmates when the tour resumes in March.

Tipton, who has been called on in the past for some live cameos, will also crop up throughout the tour.

For a full list of tour dates, head over to Judas Priest’s website.

Andy Sneap has said he’s disappointed by Judas Priest’s decision to continue as a four-piece, after being informed by Rob Halford he will not be rejoining the band to continue their 50 Heavy Metal Years Tour.

It was confirmed yesterday that Judas Priest will recommence their run of 50th anniversary live shows without their second electric guitar player, who was originally recruited in 2018 to fill in for the Firepower tour.

Sneap, who co-produced that album, issued a statement to Blabbermouth that said, while he's disappointed with the overall decision, it’s one he respects.

“Rob called me last Monday and said they wanted to move on as a four-piece,” Sneap commented, “which I find incredibly disappointing after this amount of time. 

“But I respect his decision as they obviously have a vision how they want this to play out,” he added. "This always was a temporary situation, and like I've said before, I'll always help the band any way I can, and that applies going forward also.”

As per Judas Priest’s original statement, Sneap will leave the lineup in order to refocus on his production duties, and will return to the studio with the band in order to create a “killer” new record.

“I've been a huge fan of the band since the early '80s and it was mind-blowing to play onstage with the guys and quite frankly terrifying in the beginning at such short notice,” Sneap said. “We are moving forward with the new album next month and look forward to making a killer follow-up to Firepower.”

Despite starting the 50 Heavy Metal Years Tour as a quintet, the show – delayed due to Richie Faulkner’s medical emergency – will get back on the road this March as a streamlined four-piece for the first time since 1974.

In their statement, Judas Priest said they were “chomping at the bit” to return to touring, and voiced their excitement at continuing as “an even more powerful, relentless four-piece heavy metal band”.

They later confirmed that Tipton, who stepped back from performing in 2018 after being diagnosed with Parkinson's, will be making sporadic cameos across the tour.

Faulkner is also set to continue his role as lead guitarist after recovering from an aortic aneurysm he suffered onstage last year.

To find out more, visit Judas Priest’s website.

It’s been announced that Andy Sneap has left the Judas Priest live lineup in order to focus on his production work, meaning the band will continue their 50 Heavy Metal Years Tour as a quartet.

The announcement was made in a statement issued by the band, which also revealed Glenn Tipton – who stepped back from his Priestly duties after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2018 – will once again be called upon to make cameo appearances throughout the tour.

Sneap, who co-produced the band’s 2018 album Firepower, was brought into the fold to replace Tipton on the album’s tour, and initially rejoined them on their run of 50th anniversary Judas Priest live shows around the US last year.

However, after the tour was postponed last September following Richie Faulkner’s onstage aortic aneurysm, it’s now been confirmed Sneap will not complete the tour, choosing instead to turn his attention back to production.

The statement also seemingly confirms the return of Faulkner, who recently issued a series of promising updates regarding his recovery, and was seen in the studio recording a guest solo for Demon Hunter.

“Hello maniacs!” said Judas Priest in their statement (via Louder). “We are chomping at the British Steel bit to return to world touring, celebrating 50 years of Judas Priest as an even more powerful, relentless four-piece heavy metal band – with Glenn coming out on stage with us here and there as before. 

“Big thanks to Andy for all you’ve done and continuing to be in the production team for our new album,” they continued. “See you all soon, headbangers!”

As such, it will be the first time the band have performed as a one-guitar four-piece since 1974 – the year in which Tipton would join Rob Halford, K.K. Downing, Ian Hill and John Hinch in the Judas Priest lineup.

If all goes according to plan, the band will continue their 50 Heavy Metal Years Tour on March 4 at the Peoria Civic Center in Illinois. 

To find out more about the 50 Heavy Metal Years Tour, head over to the Judas Priest website.

For anyone who thinks Judas Priest co-founder K.K. Downing ran out of musical steam and mental energy when he “quit” the band in 2011 and was replaced by Richie Faulkner – you’ve got another thing coming.

Downing’s new band, KK’s Priest, is pugilistic and propulsive, rife with instantly engaging riffs, blazing solos and memorable hooks. Does it sound like Judas Priest? Sure it does, but who has more of a right to make music that sounds like everything else he’s done than one of the forefathers of Judas Priest and the metal movement? 

KK’s Priest’s debut album, Sermons of the Sinner, the first major metal project on which Downing has played since Judas Priest’s 2008 operatic Nostradamus, is a feast of palm-muted riffs that burst into infectious, but not always predictable rhythms. 

From track to track, the music conjures the multi-faceted strains of Sad Wings of Destiny, the anthemic surge of Screaming for Vengeance and Defenders of the Faith, and the jackhammer grind of Painkiller. 

Beyond the album title, an unapologetic reference to Judas Priest’s 1977 fan-favorite Sinner, there are other musical and lyrical nods to Judas Priest, including the closing track The Return of the Sentinel, which nicks part of the opening lick from the 1984 song The Sentinel, and addresses the apocalyptic aftermath of a war fought by the main character. 

Throughout, Downing writes and plays like he’s still a member of Judas Priest – not to thumb his nose in the face of his former bandmates, but to prove his metal might and cement his legacy – and he doubles down on Sermons of the Sinner by hiring ex-Judas Priest singer Tim “Ripper” Owens to front the band.

“I suppose consciously or subconsciously, I didn’t know whether this was the last thing I was ever going to do, so I wanted it to be very exciting and very metal,” Downing says from his home in the UK. “I think it’s a fitting example of what I’ve done before and what I plan on doing for quite a while. But you never know. I’m 69 now and I just lost my sister a couple weeks ago and she was 67. So, just in case this is it for me, I want it to be a lasting reminder.”

Downing’s aspiration to create a barreling Judas Priest-style record that features a former Judas Priest singer and song titles that reference Judas Priest songs has rankled his former bandmates so much that they threatened to hit Downing with a cease-and-desist order to prevent him from using the name KK’s Priest. 

They’re not the only ones to accuse Downing of heresy. Smack-talkers have called KK’s Priest a “desperate cover band” that threw together an album of “derivative” musical parts and hired a “Rob Halford clone” to play old Judas Priest songs live.

Downing is unrepentant about what he’s doing and insists that writing in a style that didn’t resemble Judas Priest would be disingenuous. Also, he has no regrets about hiring Owens, who certainly wails like Halford, but is also influenced by Ronnie James Dio and Philip Anselmo.

“There’s probably only three guys in the world that can do what Ripper, Halford and maybe Bruce Dickinson can do night after night,” Downing says. “I don’t know how they do it. It’s incredible. But I couldn’t have Bruce. I couldn’t have Halford. So Ripper was the obvious choice. We’ve made albums together, we’ve toured together and Ripper is a great guy. And, of course, he has been a Priest before” [singing on 1997’s Jugulator and 2001’s Demolition].

When asked if he was ever concerned that something on the album might sound too much like the material he wrote for Judas Priest, Downing snickers a little and points out that, having played in Judas Priest on 16 albums over 42 years, it would be difficult and inauthentic to try to write in a different style.

“I’ve always been a Priest, and this is why I’m sticking to my guns now,” Downing says. “There’s people [in Judas Priest now that] I’ve never met playing my songs and solos calling themselves Priests. Why can’t I be a Priest? I can and I am. So this is KK’s Priest, and when you look at the history of this music, I am a big part of the past as well as the present and the future. 

“I don’t want to discard my heritage, my legacy, who I am, what I sound like and my style of writing. It’s there for the world for now and the future, and that’s my new path and my new journey.”

The Punishment of the Sinner

There’s a reason Downing sounds defiant and even arrogant when talking about Judas Priest. He left the band before its “farewell” tour because he didn’t feel comfortable playing with Glenn Tipton anymore. When he discovered the band wasn’t retiring after all, he says he expressed interest in re-entering the fold, only to be rejected and ripped off.

“Lots of things were happening and coming to a boil in 2010 [right before the band announced the career-ending Epitaph World Tour],” Downing says. “Rob [Halford] released two albums in that year and did a world tour, including Ozzfest, with his band [Halford] playing Priest songs. At the same time, I wasn’t particularly happy with the last couple of Priest tours I had done and I wasn’t terribly excited about playing the farewell tour.”

As the Epitaph tour approached, Downing got tangled in band politics, bad timing and blown opportunities. Between then and the release of his 2018 autobiography, Heavy Duty Days and Nights in Judas Priest, he revealed few details about the terms of his departure. Now that he’s out of the band and on his own with KK’s Priest, the guitarist is spilling the beans about the behind-the-scenes machinations that led to his permanent dismissal.

“I never wanted to be a part of a big, public spectacle,” he insists. “I just made it clear that I didn’t want to play the final tour. But then they continued, which I never expected, and they didn’t want any part of me, even though I was one of the only original members.”

Downing’s unhappiness with Priest circa 2011 had less to do with personality clashes than it did with what he viewed as the band’s waning professionalism. In his book, Downing revealed that he grew increasingly frustrated with Tipton in particular.

“On these last tours [I played with the band], it felt as if some petty one-upmanship was going on. Whenever we ended a song, Glenn always, always had to make sure that the last sound that anyone heard came from his guitar… On many occasions, particularly near the end, I felt that Judas Priest’s live performances were suffering.”

Today, he elaborates on the other major element that marred his final tours with Judas Priest. “Glenn was drinking beer before the stage and and on the stage between every song, and it was slowing us down,” Downing says. “It made the rest of us feel insecure because it’s just like if you drive in a car and somebody is drinking at the wheel – you just don’t feel comfortable. 

“I know it’s rock and roll and everybody has a right to do it their way, but I like to be very efficient and I get off on the music being very tight, and it was losing some of that. And Rob was reading the teleprompter. We just seemed to be not the band that we were.”

For Downing, the final insult came when the band asked him to write for a five-track EP to support the farewell tour. “I thought that idea stunk and my voice wasn’t being heard,” he says. “I felt that they should have listened to my opinion because I had been there a long time and I had a valid opinion, but it seemed as though people were ganging up on me. So I thought, ‘Enough is enough. I’m out.’”

When Downing made it clear that he didn’t want to play the farewell tour, management asked him to send an official letter of resignation. Under contract, he was still a shareholder and director in the company, so he wanted to leave on good terms. 

“As far as I knew, we would still be talking to each other to deal with the purse strings,” he says. “So I sent a letter saying I had given everything and I didn’t have anymore to give and I was retiring from the business, which wasn’t true because I went straight into a production job with other musicians.”

As the Epitaph tour approached, one of Downing’s close friends told him he was making a mistake and that he should contact the band and tell them he changed his mind and he’d like to play the tour to create a nice bookend for his career with Judas Priest. 

Though he was resistant at first, Downing finally agreed and called bassist Ian Hill, with whom he had attended primary school starting in kindergarten. He asked Hill if he could see the setlist for the Epitaph shows and the bassist sent Downing the list, but his demeanor was icy and no one else on the Priest team would talk to him.

With Downing’s retirement letter in the file cabinet, Judas Priest issued a press release stating that Downing was leaving the band and had been replaced by “31-year-old guitar player Richie Faulkner… a great talent who is going to help set the stage on fire!”

In press interviews, the members mentioned that Downing was quitting the music business to operate a golf course he founded in Shropshire, on the Welsh border. In truth, Downing had no intention to stop rocking. Incensed by further comments that indicated the band would likely work on a new record after the tour, Downing sent a second, less-diplomatic letter to Priest management.

“I said, ‘Ignore everything in my first letter,’ because I felt like I was prostituting myself anyway. And then I said everything I really thought and explained what really made me not want to do the tour, and that’s what got me in trouble and why they shut me out.”

Downing didn’t do as well with his golf course as he did in Priest and was forced to abandon the venture and sell the royalty rights to 136 Judas Priest songs to Round Hill Music to pay off his debts. But he insists he never sold his share of the band. 

When Tipton stopped touring in early 2018 because he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, Downing suggested that everyone in the band cast aside their grievances and he would rejoin as the lone longtime Priest guitarist onstage. He was surprised to find that no-one wanted him back.

“When I was in the band, I was always the loyal Priest,” he says. “I didn’t leave for 14 years like Rob. I didn’t leave for six years to do albums like Glenn did – with [drummer] Cozy [Powell] and [the Who bassist] John [Entwistle] [in 1997 and 2006]. I never had my own websites selling my own T-shirts. All of my good music went to Priest. And so, if I did retire, why wouldn’t I be allowed out of retirement when there was an opportunity and a space? 

“I was there before Rob and Glenn, and I was instrumental in re-introducing Rob back into the band after he did his other things, so why would he say, ‘No, you can’t be a member of this band anymore,’ even though there was an opening? It doesn’t make sense.”

Instead of welcoming Downing back into the fold, Judas Priest immediately hired the co-producer of their 2018 album, Firepower, Andy Sneap [Sabbat] to play guitar on the tour alongside Faulkner. Then, Downing says, the group’s handlers told him he wasn’t entitled to any future band income.

“They didn’t just close the door and shut me out,” he says. “They tried to deny my contributions to the band. They tried to take all the revenue from me and not give me anything, not pay me anything. I begged them not to go the legal route. I said I’ll come down, sit around the table and discuss it. They said no.”

Now Downing and his former bandmates only communicate through lawyers, and the longer the conflict continues the more confusing the scenario becomes. Downing feels that by denying him money he is owed, his former bandmates are punishing him for disagreeing with them and for being honest about what was happening in the band before he left. It’s not just vindictive, it’s cruel.

“They want to take everything away from me that I actually have an entitlement to, really, which is the right to the band name, the right to the imagery, certainly the rights to the T-shirts and things they sell,” he says. “With British Steel or Screaming for Vengeance, I was instrumental in creating those images and I was promised a share of what I was a part of, but now they and their lawyers are saying no, I’m not. 

“So, even if fans buy a T-shirt with artwork from British Steel or Sad Wings of Destiny, they get the money and I don’t. So that was it, really. I had no choice but to continue as KK’s Priest.”

The Revenge of the Sinner

The rusty, hinged gate to KK’s Priest started to creak open on August 11, 2019, at Bloodstock Open Air festival in Walton-on-Trent, England, when Downing was invited to take the stage with Ross the Boss (ex-Manowar) about two months shy of the guitarist’s 10-year absence from Judas Priest (his last show with the band was October 17, 2009). 

The group covered Fleetwood Mac’s Green Manalishi (with the Two-Pronged Crown) (which was on Priest’s Hell Bent for Leather), Breaking the Law, Heading Out to the Highway” and Running Wild. Then, on November 3, after one night of rehearsal, Downing, Owens, Hostile guitarist AJ Mills, bassist Dave Ellefson (ex-Megadeth) and drummer Les Binks (ex-Judas Priest) played a one-off show at KK’s Steel Mill in Wolverhampton, England, and lit up the packed crowd with the Judas Priest standards Hell Bent for Leather, Living After Midnight, Breaking the Law, Metal Gods, Exciter and more.

“That was great fun, and I got an appetite for doing it again,” Downing says. “But I said, ‘I’m not gonna try to put a band together around an album that isn’t there. So I shut myself away for Christmas 2019, sat down and started playing. And I was amazed at how fast it all came together.”

A week after Downing started working, he had completed the framework for the songs for Sermons of the Sinner. A few days later he finished the song intros, the main riffs, middle eights and melody lines, and had a lyrical and visual theme for the album. “It was like all this stuff was just waiting for an opportunity to come out of me,” he says. “It felt good and the ideas are still coming, so I’m already working on the next album.”

The cover art for Sermons of the Sinner depicts a priest in a hooded brown robe standing at the edge of the ocean, with rocky cliffs and foreboding storm clouds looming in the background. The priest looks down at a large open book he holds in his open right hand. 

The front and back covers are decorated with golden “K”s. And in his left hand, the robed man holds a sash that reads “Priest.” Though the priest’s face is shrouded by his hood, the long blond strands that stick out from the sides make it clear who the religious figure is supposed to be. If the visuals seem provocative they’re meant to be.  

“Those guys deceived the media and the fans for 10 years, and I’ve had to suffer the wrath of that,” Downing says in a calm voice that belies his frustration.

“I called the album Sermons of the Sinner because I became the sinner in people’s minds because they think I deserted them. That’s what they’ve been told, but that’s not what happened. So, hey, I don’t care what they say. I wish the guys all the success in the world, but I’m still a Priest and this is KK’s Priest and I’m moving forward.”

About a month after he plugged in the trusted Gibson and Hamer guitars he played for years in Judas Priest, Downing had a complete demo of Sermons of the Sinner, music, lyrics and all. Originally, he planned to deliver the album to his label in late April 2020, in time to schedule summer festival shows in Europe. 

With the help of Owens, Mills, Voodoo Six bassist Tony Newton and Cage drummer Sean Elg (who stepped in after Binks suffered a wrist injury), KK’s Priest easily met their deadline, which was then pushed back substantially due to COVID, giving Downing and Mills extra time to fine-tune some of the guitar lines and hone the production. 

When asked how he was able to write and complete a multi-faceted batch of songs in less than a month, Downing says composing comes easily to him, but when he was a member of Judas Priest he had to compromise, which delayed the completion of the songs.

“I’m so glad now not to have to collaborate with Glenn and Rob on songs,” he emphasizes. “I’m glad that if I think something’s good, it goes on the record. I get to play the amount of solos I should have always been playing on a record, which is good for me because I can do it. I don’t find any of it difficult.”

Almost every song on Sermons of the Sinner features two or three pyrotechnic solo parts, and the way they blend together, one after another, is reminiscent of the way Downing and Tipton used to feed off each other, especially when KK’s Priest launch into a harmonized lead. 

“What I really love is that I could have written this album now, which I have, or I could have written it in the future. And I could have written it 20 years ago,” Downing says. “It’s timeless because it isn’t music for now, it’s music for forever. Judas Priest probably got caught up in trying to create songs to fit a time for a while. We tried to keep inventing. I think it’s more important to realize what works and stick to it.”

In addition to striving to recapture the glory sounds of vintage Judas Priest, Downing wanted Sermons of the Sinner to stand out at a time when fewer bands are playing incendiary songs with complex guitar solos, and that by sticking to his loaded guns, his accomplished playing will inspire a new breed of guitar bands. 

He plans to continue pushing KK’s Priest as long as he’s healthy, but he knows that for metal to stay vibrant and captivating, younger musicians need to study their predecessors and grab the mantle.

“My advice to young bands is don’t try to reinvent the wheel because there’s already a fan base there and they already love this wheel,” he tells us. “You just have to give your interpretation or version of it. 

“Don’t try to invent a new style of metal or a new genre of music or whatever because it’s all being done. But there are so many fans out there that know what they love so bands just have to provide more of that, but with their own identity.”

A quick glance at the Billboard rock charts doesn’t offer much hope. Yet Downing remains optimistic and points to Greta Van Fleet as possible saviors or a fading genre. 

“We haven’t had a Led Zeppelin, so why can’t we have a bunch of younger guys that enjoy the band and are writing new songs, new material, and have a new face and a new voice?” Downing enthuses. “That gives me hope for what we’re doing. There’s a massive rejoicement in this album of our music and our legacy, which is an endangered species, in a way. 

“So hopefully, KK’s Priest will help us rise again, and maybe some of the musicians who like it will get on board and want to be a part of this music and write material like this in the years to come so they can keep it going long after we’re gone.”

Leaving a lasting impression and remaining relevant have been objectives Downing has thought about more than usual over the past year. Recently, the rock world has lost such icons as Eddie Van Halen, Dusty Hill, Charlie Watts, Neil Peart, Alexi Laiho, Joey Jordison, Tim Bogert and early Priest drummer John Hinch, and every week it seems another rocker passes before his or her time.

“We’re losing friends too often,” Downing agrees. “That will probably accelerate as all of us get older and us dinosaurs fall off the edge of the earth. In 50 years, will we just be a page in a history book or will we still be kept alive by the new blood? 

“I wish I knew right now which way it’s gonna go. I can only do my part to try to stay in people’s heads as long as possible.” 

• Sermons of the Sinner is out now via EX1 Records.

It's been 10 weeks since Judas Priest guitarist Richie Faulkner suffered an aortic aneurysm during the band's set at Louder Than Life festival in Kentucky. The aneurysm – which landed him in 10-and-a-half-hour open-heart surgery – subsequently resulted in Judas Priest postponing the remainder of their 50 Heavy Metal Years Tour.

But despite the seriousness of the incident, and the relatively short period of time since, Faulkner is back tearing up the fretboard, as seen on his latest Instagram Live jam session.

The hour-and-a-half livestream – which took place on Sunday (December 5) – sees Faulkner explore almost everything in his creative arsenal, as he serves up rapid-fire lead licks, thunderous powerchord lines and spacey arpeggiated passages aplenty. Check it out below.

In the days following his hospitalization at the Rudd Heart and Lung Center in Louisville, Kentucky, Faulkner said that doctors had informed him that “people with this don’t usually make it to the hospital alive”, adding that five parts of his chest have now been replaced with “mechanical components”.

“Today just being able to type this to you all is the biggest gift of all,” he wrote back in October. “As I watch footage from the Louder Than Life Festival in Kentucky, I can see in my face the confusion and anguish I was feeling whilst playing Painkiller as my aorta ruptured and started to spill blood into my chest cavity.”

Offering an update on the status of his recovery last month, Faulkner wrote: “I was able to return home from hospital 10 days after my surgery to continue recovery at home. It has now been seven weeks since the night it all happened and I'm feeling very strong and positive.

“My incisions have healed very well and I can definitely see the light at the end of the tunnel. I'm walking well and moving freely, I'm pretty active and I'm starting cardiac therapy very soon.

“I'm playing guitar everyday and with the love and support of my family, the continued support from you guys and the inspiration that I get from the guitar, I'll be back on stage in no time! My surgeons are very pleased with my progress and have all reserved front row tickets for the next Priest show.”

Judas Priest are set to play the remaining shows of their postponed 50 Heavy Metal Years Tour from March 2022. At present, it's unclear whether Faulkner will be fit to join the band for the run, though given he's still sharp as ever on the fretboard, we'd say the chances are pretty good.

Prior to the original tour's postponement, Andy Sneap had been filling in for longtime Priest guitarist Glenn Tipton, who was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease in 2018.

Regarding how he views both Sneap and Tipton in a Guitar World interview earlier this year, Faulkner said: “There's no difference of admiration, really – Andy is up there, he's doing his bit, and he's taking the challenge on, when we asked him to fill in for Glenn.

“Andy is a very take-the-bull-by-the-horns type guy, and he's getting more comfortable with the songs and being up there. All credit to him. Obviously there's a difference, but they have the same tenacity and drive to do their best. You can only give them respect for that.”

Back in 2018, Judas Priest electric guitar legend Glenn Tipton retired from touring with the group due to his battle with Parkinson’s disease, which he was first diagnosed with in 2008.

Tipton is still active though, and has made periodic live guest appearances with the band in the years since his retirement from touring, in addition to extensive contributions to the band's last studio album, 2018's Firepower.

According to Priest frontman Rob Halford, Tipton will also contribute to, and play on, the band's as-yet-untitled, in-progress 19th studio LP. 

"There's ways of doing this. Glenn can still play the guitar. He plays it differently, but he can still play," Halford told Spain's Mariskal Rock in an interview. "He walked out with us on Bloodstock recently [and played] Metal Gods, Breaking The Law and Living After Midnight, I think it was. He can play. So he'll be on this next album. Whatever work he does, he's valuable – really important. 

"He's a member of Judas Priest," Halford continued. "He's still there. He's still an important component of this band and what this band represents, particularly in the writing sense. He made a massive contribution to the songs that we have so far. And we'll still keep writing – we'll still keep putting together the ideas. Because you can never not stop writing. 

"The calendar tells you, the label says, 'We would like a record blah blah,' because it takes months to prepare and then months of promotion. And the clock is ticking.

"So, yeah, he's good, man," Halford added. "He's still a fighter. He never lets anything stop him. He's a great force for people that are living their lives actively and productively with Parkinson's. So he's still very much [like] that No Surrender song – a heavy metal hero."

Of the new album in general, Halford said, "It's sounding good, man. It's sounding really strong. I'm very excited for our fans again. I think it's gonna be another great display of the passion that we still have as writers and as players to get this down and to unleash some new metal.

"We've got a bunch of stuff," Halford continued. "I don't know when you and I talked last, but since then, we did have that one big writing session – March, whatever year that was; not this year, but last year I think it was. And then another one before the Bloodstock festival [in August]. So we've got a strong, strong bunch of id[eas]… Well, they're more than ideas – they're completed songs. We haven't gone into full production yet.

"It's gonna be great," Halford said. "It's gonna be a really, really good moment."

Back in September, Judas Priest postponed the remainder of their 50 Heavy Metal Years tour, after the band's guitarist, Richie Faulkner, suffered an aortic aneurysm while performing onstage with the group at the Louder Than Life festival in Louisville, Kentucky on September 26. Faulkner recently said that he was feeling “very strong and positive,” and was “playing guitar everyday” as part of his recovery.

Halford also suffered a recent health scare, having undergone surgery and radiation for prostate cancer in 2020 and 2021, respectively. He is now in remission. 

Richie Faulkner has issued an update on his recovery, saying he’s feeling “very strong and positive” after receiving life-saving open-heart surgery less than two months ago.

The Judas Priest electric player, who suffered an aortic aneurysm onstage during the band’s Louder Than Life Festival set on September 26, was recently discharged from hospital, and revealed in a statement that he’s “walking well and moving freely”.

And, in a show of just how well his recovery is currently going, Faulkner also says he’s “playing guitar everyday”, and speculated he’ll be back on stage in no time thanks to everyone’s support and “the inspiration that I get from the guitar”.

In a post to the Judas Priest social media account, Faulkner said, “Hello there maniacs! I just wanted to post, and I’ve had many of you asking for an update on how my recovery is going. 

“I was able to return home from hospital 10 days after my surgery to continue recovery at home. It has now been seven weeks since the night it all happened and I’m feeling very strong and positive,” he continued. “My incisions have healed very well and I can definitely see the light at the end of the tunnel. 

“I’m walking well and moving freely, I’m pretty active and I’m starting cardiac therapy very soon. I’m playing guitar everyday, and with the love and support of my family, the continued support from you guys and the inspiration that I get from the guitar, I’ll be back on stage in no time! 

“My surgeons are very pleased with my progress and have all reserved front row tickets for the next Priest show. It’s Thanksgiving this month, and whether you celebrate it or not, I have a lot to give thanks for this year; Including all of you for your patience, your love and your support."

After suffering the onstage aneurysm, Faulkner was rushed to a hospital that was only four miles, with cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Siddharth Pahwa saying, "Mr. Faulkner is alive today because the stars aligned.

"He had an outstanding emergency care team, he was close to a world class heart center, and he was quick to recognize he needed help."

At the time, Faulkner was told that "people with this don’t usually make it to the hospital alive”.

Judas Priest’s Rob Halford has revealed that he has been treated for prostate cancer, and that he is now in remission.

The vocalist made the announcement rather candidly while in conversation with Heavy Consequence, having never previously spoken about his battle before. 

During the interview, he said his symptoms began back in 2017, and reassured fans that he is now – after receiving surgery last year and a stint of radiation therapy earlier this year – in remission.

“I had my little cancer battle a year ago, which I got through and that’s in remission now, thank God,” began Halford. “That happened while we were all locked down, so things happen for a reason as far as time sequence of events.

“I have nothing but gratitude to be at this point in my life, still doing what I love the most.”

The 70-year-singer delved deeper into his battle with cancer in a newly released chapter of his 2020 memoir, Confess, saying that he underwent extensive testing before receiving his diagnosis.

“I felt a combination of shock, horror, and oddly, relief – at least now I know!” he wrote. “‘Am I going to die?’ It was all I could think of. I know blokes who’ve died of prostate cancer. ‘No, you’re not going to die, Rob,’ said Dr. Ali.”

After his diagnosis, Halford underwent prostatectomy surgery in 2020, though was forced to follow it up with further radiation treatment in April and May this year after more cancer was discovered at the start of 2021. By June, the cancer was in remission.

“It’s been a draining year, I can’t deny it,” he continued, “but I’m delighted to have come through it. I feel like I’ve had the most thorough MOT that a Metal God can have.”

He also wrote that he "told hardly anyone I had cancer," apart from his partner and his close family, and reveals he had Judas Priest management break the news to his fellow bandmates.

Halford and Judas Priest were forced to postpone the remainder of their 50 Heavy Metal Years Tour last month after guitarist Richie Faulkner was hospitalized due to major heart condition issues.

In an update, Faulkner revealed he had suffered an aortic aneurysm onstage during the band’s set at Louder Than Life Festival in Kentucky on September 26, and that doctors had informed him that “people with this don’t usually make it to the hospital alive."

Judas Priest guitarist Richie Faulkner has been discharged from the Louisville, Kentucky hospital where he had been convalescing after undergoing 10-and-a-half hours of open-heart surgery last week, and is now resting at his home in Nashville.

While performing with Priest at the Louder Than Life festival in Louisville, Kentucky on September 26, Faulkner suffered from “an aortic aneurysm and complete aortic dissection.” 

After being taken to the Rudd Heart & Lung Center at the University of Louisville, Faulkner was taken to surgery, where – according to the guitarist – five parts of his chest were "replaced with mechanical components." Faulkner said that surgeons informed him that people who suffer from similar cardiac events "don’t usually make it to the hospital alive."

The Louder Than Life festival took place just four miles away from the hospital where Faulkner was taken, and Priest happened to be second on the bill to Metallica on the evening of the 26th, rather than scheduled for a full set. 

“He was only four miles away, but miles equal minutes and he did not have many to spare,” Dr. Siddharth Pahwa, a cardiothoracic surgeon at University of Louisville Health, said in a statement. “Mr. Faulkner is alive today because the stars aligned. He had an outstanding emergency care team, he was close to a world class heart center, and he was quick to recognize he needed help.”

Following Faulkner's hospitalization, Judas Priest postponed their 50 Heavy Metal Years tour indefinitely. Though Faulkner mentioned that he has "a recovery road ahead of me," he added that "as soon as I’m able to get up and running again, you’ll be the first to know and we’ll get back out there delivering the goods for you all!" 

Richie Faulkner has issued an update regarding his health, after the Judas Priest guitarist was hospitalized in order to receive major emergency heart surgery last week.

In the statement, Faulkner revealed he suffered “an aortic aneurysm and complete aortic dissection” during the middle of Priest’s set at Kentucky’s Louder Than Life festival on September 26, and said doctors informed him that “people with this don’t usually make it to the hospital alive”.

Faulkner underwent a 10-and-a-half hour emergency open heart surgery after being taken to Rudd Heart & Lung Center – also in Kentucky, four miles from the festival – and said that five parts of his chest have now been replaced with “mechanical components”.

Judas Priest announced the postponement of their 50 Heavy Metal Years tour following the onset of Faulkner's heart issues, and though the guitarist has spoken of his upcoming recovery road, he's voiced his eagerness to resume his duties when he's "able to get back up and running again".

Faulkner’s full statement can be found below.

“I’ve always been grateful for the opportunities I’ve been presented with. I’ve always considered myself the most fortunate man ever – to be able to play my favourite music – with my favourite band – to my favourite people around the world.

“Today just being able to type this to you all is the biggest gift of all. As I watch footage from the Louder Than Life Festival in Kentucky, I can see in my face the confusion and anguish I was feeling whilst playing Painkiller as my aorta ruptured and started to spill blood into my chest cavity.

“I was having what my doctor called an aortic aneurysm and complete aortic dissection. From what I’ve been told by my surgeon, people with this don’t usually make it to the hospital alive.

“I was taken to nearby Rudd Heart & Lung Center and quickly went into what turned out to be a 10-and-a-half hour emergency open heart surgery. Five parts of my chest were replaced with mechanical components. I’m literally made of metal now.

“It could have all ended so differently – we only had an hour set that night due to Metallica’s performance after us – and it does cross my mind if it was a full set, would I have played until total collapse? If it hadn’t happened in such a high adrenaline situation, would my body have been able to keep going long enough to reach the hospital?

“The amazing Heart & Lung Center was 4 miles away from the gig site – if it had been further away…

“We can always drive ourselves crazy with these things but I’m still alive thankfully. Whatever the circumstances, when watching that footage, the truth is, knowing what I know now, I see a dying man.

“I’ve been moved to tears and humbled by friends, family, my fantastic band, crew and management and also you guys sending me videos and messages of love and support during the last week.

“I thank you all so much and although I have a recovery road ahead of me, as soon as I’m able to get up and running again, you’ll be the first to know and we’ll get back out there delivering the goods for you all! 

“One last thing, maniacs, this came totally out of the blue for me – no history of a bad heart, no clogged arteries etc…My point is I don’t even have high cholesterol and this could’ve been the end for me. If you can get yourselves checked – do it for me please.

“Lots of love and see you down the front again soon. Richie.”

Richie Faulkner is in a “stable condition” after he was hospitalized earlier this week following major medical heart conditions.

The Judas Priest guitarist underwent “emergency major heart surgery”, with Faulkner’s partner Mariah Lynch confirming on social media that the operation had been successful.

“Thank you to everyone for all your messages,” Lynch wrote on Instagram. “I will try to get back to you as soon as I can.

“Richie underwent major emergency medical heart surgery. He is stable and resting,” she continued. “If you know him, you know how tough and strong he is. So tough that he finished the show and kept the hair flips coming. There’s no one like him.”

Judas Priest – who were in the midst of their 50 Heavy Metal Years Tour – confirmed earlier this week that they had been forced to postpone the remainder of the US schedule after Faulkner’s emergency heart condition “landed him in hospital”.

The band noted in a post on social media that they will look to reschedule the tour following updates from Faulkner’s doctors, and added that “we are all sending love to our Falcon to wish him a speedy recovery”.

Priest’s most recent performance came at the Louder Than Life festival, for which the metal gods recruited a Greeny-wielding Kirk Hammett for a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s The Green Manalishi (With The Two Pronged Crown).

Since news of Faulkner’s health issues broke, many have flocked to social media to voice their support, with Gibson tweeting, “The Gibson family joins Judas Priest and guitarist Richie Faulkner’s loved ones in wishing him a fast and healthy recovery, so he can return to the stage, where he belongs."

Zakk Wylde, meanwhile, wrote, “Prayers of strength and light to our Jedi brethren o’shred – Father Richie Faulkner. Love you Father Richie, I’ll be checking in on you. Get better my brother.”

Faulkner originally joined the Judas Priest family back in 2011 as a replacement for the outgoing KK Downing. 

The Gibson Flying V-wielding guitarist’s own health issues come off the back of Priest’s 2018 announcement that Glenn Tipton – the band’s long-serving six-string stalwart – had retired from touring, though would continue his involvement in songwriting duties.

Speaking to Guitar World in a recent interview, Faulkner labelled Tipton a “50-year veteran and a rock star”, and that the guitarist elevates Judas Priest’s “rock star level another 50%”.

Judas Priest have postponed the remainder of their current US tour as guitarist Richie Faulkner is experiencing “major medical heart condition issues” that have “landed him in hospital”.

In a new statement published to social media by their publicist Chipster PR, the band write: “It is with deep regret that we have to postpone the rest of our US tour. Richie Faulkner has major medical heart condition issues which have landed him in hospital where he is being treated.

“In the meantime, we are all sending love to our Falcon to wish him a speedy recovery.”

The statement concludes: “As soon as we have any updates from his doctors on when we can reschedule the dates, we will of course announce them – tickets will be valid...”

The trek – dubbed 50 Heavy Metal Years Tour – commenced September 8 in Reading, Pennsylvania, and was scheduled to wrap up Hamilton, Ontario on November 5. 

The metal giants' latest show was at Kentucky's Louder Than Life music festival last weekend (September 26), where they recruited Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett for a performance of Fleetwood Mac's The Green Manalishi (With The Two Pronged Crown).

For the track – which was originally written by Fleetwood Mac guitarist Peter Green, and later covered on Judas Priest's 1978 album Hell Bent For Leather – Hammett played his 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard, affectionately dubbed “Greeny” after its original owner, Peter Green.

Richie Faulkner joined Judas Priest in 2011, following the departure of longtime guitarist KK Downing. In a recent interview with Guitar World, Faulkner spoke of finding his voice upon joining the fold.

“I remember when I joined the band, my influences were – and still are – very much on my sleeve. You know, there's Zakk Wylde, Michael Schenker, and Dave Murray – it would be silly to try and hide those influences. But when I joined the band, it became about ‘What am I going to say? These guys have got their voice... what's my voice going to be?’”

Faulkner's heart-related health issues follow the 2018 announcement that long-serving Judas Priest guitarist Glenn Tipton had retired from touring due to Parkinson's disease.

In the same GW interview, Faulkner called Tipton a “50-year veteran and a rock star”. “Glenn just being there elevates the ‘rock star level’ another 50% in my opinion,” he said. “I had Glenn in my cassette collection, I had Glenn's picture on my wall with KK [Downing].”

Prior to the tour's postponement, guitarist Andy Sneap had been filling in for Tipton.

“There's no difference of admiration, really – Andy is up there, he's doing his bit, and he's taking the challenge on, when we asked him to fill in for Glenn,” Faulkner continued.

“Andy is a very take-the-bull-by-the-horns type guy, and he's getting more comfortable with the songs and being up there. All credit to him. Obviously there's a difference, but they have the same tenacity and drive to do their best. You can only give them respect for that.”

Kirk Hammett joined Judas Priest onstage during their set at the Louder Than Life music festival over the weekend (September 26) for a performance of The Green Manalishi (With the Two Pronged Crown).

For the track – which was originally written by late Fleetwood Mac guitarist Peter Green, and later covered by Judas Priest for their 1979 album Hell Bent for Leather – the Metallica guitarist played his 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard, affectionately dubbed “Greeny” after its original owner, Peter Green. Check out fan-filmed footage of the performance below.

A photo posted to Instagram by Judas Priest guitar tech Robb Philpotts shows Hammett with bassist Ian Hill and guitarist Andy Sneap – who has been filling in for Glenn Tipton, who retired from the band due to his battle with Parkinson's disease in 2018.

“A pretty special moment tonight with Kirk Hammett from Metallica joining us for [The] Green Manalishi,” his caption reads.

“I even managed to tick off a bucket list moment by getting a picture with Greeny before soundcheck. A huge thanks to Kirk for being very cool and his tech Justin for being even cooler. A pleasure gents.”

Back in June, Hammett told Guitar World about how Judas Priest led him to The Green Manalishi, and Green-era Fleetwood Mac in general.

"I have to admit I was introduced to that song [Manalishi] by Judas Priest when they covered it on [1979’s] Unleashed in the East," Hammett said. "I looked at the label one day and saw the song credits: 'Peter Green, John McVie and Mick Fleetwood,' and I went, 'Huh, what’s this about?' I asked someone and he said, 'Oh yeah, it’s old Fleetwood Mac.' 

"I said, 'What do you mean old Fleetwood Mac?' And he said, 'Yeah, Fleetwood Mac used to be a blues band.' He gave me a tape of Green Manalishi and some of their other songs, including Rattlesnake Shake and Black Magic Woman. I listened to it and really, I felt like it was more rocking than their stuff on the radio." 

In response to a question about how Priest's cover stacks up with the original, Hammett said "In retrospect, I obviously have a lot of respect for Judas Priest, and their cover version of Green Manalishi is really heavy. 

"But the original is dark as night and it comes from a deep, deep place in Peter Green’s soul. It resonates from within, and I can relate to it from the dark place in my own soul. I always liked darkness and I still do. I have that outlook, that perspective, that awareness."

Hammett – with Greeny in tow – played a major role in Mick Fleetwood & Friends Celebrate The Music Of Peter Green And The Early Years Of Fleetwood Mac, an all-star Peter Green tribute concert that took place on February 25, 2020 at the London Palladium.

At that particular show, Hammett teamed up with ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons for a similarly red-hot version of, you guessed it, The Green Manalishi. 

Before the pandemic hit, Judas Priest had grand plans for 2020 – particularly, celebrating a half-century of their existence with a global jaunt, dubbed the 50 Heavy Metal Years Tour. However, like all other performers, they had to scrap their plans and wait it out. 

But their break finally came to an end on August 15, 2021, when Priest performed a headlining set at Bloodstock Festival in the UK, with a full-on tour of the US starting on September 8th, and a Euro tour kicking off in early 2022.

One half of Priest’s guitar tandem, Richie Faulkner, spoke with Guitar World shortly before the launch of the tour.

Priest’s first performance in two years occurred recently at Bloodstock – how did it feel to finally get back on stage?

“It was an incredibly emotional experience for me, personally. From not being on stage for two years, from all the uncertainty that we’ve all had to deal with in the last 18 months, two years. For it all to come to a head in that setting – with 20,000-plus metal maniacs, a new setlist, and new production... and hopefully turning a corner in the way that all this is going with live music – it was just an incredible emotional moment, really.

“I won’t spoil it for anyone, but there were some songs that the band have never played before – or haven’t played in a very long time. Powerful songs for me as a fan to be up there playing after so long off and so much uncertainty, was just an emotional experience. 

“I had a pair of sunglasses on, and it was a good thing I did, really – because I shed an emotional tear underneath those sunglasses. Because it was a powerful, coming together of fans, music, and a celebration for live music and heavy metal. It was a big deal.”

How was the setlist determined? Because I give Priest a lot of credit – unlike some veteran rock/metal bands, Priest reintroduces rarities for each tour.

“We look at what we’ve done on the previous tour or the previous leg – whether it’s an album or live show, there’s an unwavering priority on ‘How do we make it a bigger, better, new, unheard of experience for the fans that have put the band there for the last 50 years?’ 

“So, we look at what we’ve done on the last tour or tour leg, what we haven’t done in a while, what we haven’t done ever or what the band haven’t played in a long time, new stuff, old stuff. And then, ‘Are there any landmarks that we need to hit?’ – in terms of albums and stuff like that. 

“There’s a dynamic in the set – there’s a ‘party dynamic’ and there’s a ‘serious dynamic,’ and there’s a ‘moody dynamic’ and there’s a ‘fast dynamic.’ So, we’ve got to get that journey through the set right. 

“And then, we throw out ideas. Literally, me and Rob [Halford] write all the songs down in a big list of about 50 contenders, and we cut them out. We put them in lists. It’s kind of old-school, but you can see them in front of you and you can move them around. 

“Once we’ve got a ballpark set, we try it out in rehearsals, and if it works, we go with it. But usually, we have to move a few things around – for the dynamic. And we go from there. Again, not spoiling anything for anyone, but the setlist we put together for Bloodstock in the UK seems to be getting some real strong, positive feedback from the fans on the internet, so I think we may have got it almost right.”

How do you compare playing with Andy [Sneap] to playing with Glenn [Tipton]?

“Glenn is a 50-year veteran and a rock star. [Laughs] Glenn just being there elevates the ‘rock star level’ another 50% in my opinion. I had Glenn in my cassette collection, I had Glenn’s picture on my wall with K.K. [Downing]. I didn’t have Andy’s picture on my wall. 

“But there’s no difference of admiration, really – Andy is up there, he’s doing his bit, and he’s taking the challenge on, when we asked him to fill in for Glenn. He’s risen from strength to strength, really. So, the admiration for Andy is there, as well – just a different one. I didn’t have Andy on my wall as a kid. 

“But Andy is a very take-the-bull-by-the-horns type guy, and he’s getting more comfortable with the songs and being up there. All credit to him. Obviously there’s a difference, but they have the same tenacity and drive to do their best. You can only give them respect for that.”

What is your current guitar setup?

“On one hand, it’s very simple. I’ve always been an amp head and stompbox type of guy from playing in the pubs, and that’s carried on to the Priest world. 

“So, I’m playing Wizard heads, and I’ve got an MXR Carbon Copy Delay, an MXR Chorus, a wah pedal, and that’s it. All the high-tech stuff goes into the switching. 

“To be honest with you, I’ve got no desire to know anything about that – as long as I can put the patches on that I want. But it basically controls the amps and the effects speaking to each other as I kick them in and out, and switch amps and stuff throughout the show. Again, that’s my tech’s world, really. But at the heart of it, it’s amp and pedals.

“And I’ve been using – exclusively with Priest – Gibson guitars. I’ve been using Flying Vs and Explorers the last couple of years. And Les Pauls – I’ve always been a Les Paul player. And we’re working on a signature Flying V with Gibson at the moment. So, I’ve got a couple of those prototypes out with me with signature EMG pickups in there, which I’m looking at releasing with EMG. 

“But they’re all based on guitars that I’ve used and modified and grown with over the last 10 years. So, the V has a double pickguard, it’s Pelham Blue, ebony neck, block inlay, Floyd Rose. And the Explorers I use, they’ve all been customized in some way or another. But it’s all Gibson guitars and EMG pickups. I’m a ‘cable guy’ – I don’t like radio wireless systems. It’s a pretty simple arsenal. It’s just the switching that gets a bit complicated.

“I’ve always been about Gibson guitars. Gibsons do the job – since I was introduced to them. It will really never be anything other than Gibson for me. Whereas amplifiers, I’m not as committed. I don’t know really what goes into them. 

“I think there are four KT88 power tubes. And apart from that, it’s a heavy-sounding amp, but the Wizards, there is a midrange quality which I really like. A midrange ‘bark’ – it’s not really that scooped. I like mids in your face. 

“If you imagine that old Metallica curve – where you have tons of bottom end, the scooped mids, and the high treble – mine is the opposite. I boost the mids the other way. So, there’s tons of mids and it’s right in your face. Sometimes it makes it a bit harder to play, but I think it cuts through and is really in your face. 

“All the tone controls are on 10 – treble, middle, bass, everything on 10. Gain is around half and volume is up loud. It’s pretty simple – there’s not really a lot of magic going on with them. They’re just good, solid, loud amplifiers.”

How is work coming along on Priest’s next studio album?

“Obviously, we faced some challenges with schedules due to the pandemic. We wanted to keep it the same dynamic as [latest album] Firepower – as we all got together, played the songs in pre-production before recording them. Obviously, we haven’t been able to do that in the last 18 months because of the pandemic. 

“So, we’ve got a ton of stuff written and a ton of songs almost ready to go. We just need to get together and start playing them together and ‘trimming the fat,’ as they say. 

“You get a sense of that when you play them together – you get a feeling for ‘we need an extra bit here’ or ‘we need to trim that bit there.’ Just to sharpen those songs up and give them the last 20 percent.

“So, once we are able to do that, we can get in a room together, play them, trim the fat, and record them, we will. But we’ve got a bunch of songs that are pretty ready to go and they sound fantastic. We just want to put them down properly and release them to the world. So, I can’t give you a date, but as soon as we can, we’ll get in there and start work on that.”

If you had to pick a favorite solo on a Priest album you’ve played on, what would it be? 

“I think Rising From Ruins from the Firepower record was one of my favorites. Traitors Gate from the same record. And why? I don’t know. Sometimes, they resonate with you, or you accomplish everything you wanted to say with that guitar solo. 

“I remember when I joined the band, my influences were – and still are – very much on my sleeve. You know, there’s Zakk Wylde, Michael Schenker, and Dave Murray – it would be silly to try and hide those influences. But when I joined the band, it became about, ‘What am I doing to say? These guys have got their voice... what’s my voice going to be?’

“So, I think those solos are some of my favorites because they contain what I think is my voice. Now, someone else could think completely different and they sound like Michael Schenker solos, and that’s fine. But I think they’re my favorites because they contain what I think is my voice in there somewhere. So, I’m going to go with those two.”

Which Priest classics are most fun for you to play? 

“My favorites are Victim of Changes, The Sentinel, Freewheel Burning, One Shot at Glory, Painkiller is always a blast. Purely because of the history of those songs and how much they mean to me and all the fans. And from a guitar point of view, the dynamics – the soft passages, the fast passages, the harmonies. They’re just a rollercoaster for a guitar player.”

What are the band's future plans?

“As you know, we’re just about to embark on our first American tour in two years. So that’s the immediate future. We’ve all been out of work facing struggles because of the pandemic. So, to be back out in the US taking this production out is incredible. 

“Also, as I said, we want to try to get some time soon to start putting down songs for the new record. And then hopefully, we will tour that, as well. Nothing is set in stone, but if we start the next tour cycle now, it will go on for the next 18 months, get in the studio, put it out, and do it again. 

“The future for Priest is looking quite bright at the moment. Just get out on the road and start getting some shows under our belt.”

Why do you think Priest has not yet been admitted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

“I don’t know. And I don’t think it means much, anyway. It’s my own opinion – it’s not the opinion of the band or anyone specific in the band – but I just think if you have an institution called ‘The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’ and bands like Priest and Iron Maiden aren’t in there, it almost means more to not be in it. 

“And I think to be carrying on and blazing forward with new music and new tours after 50 years, loved by the fans and being given that lifeblood by the fans for 50 years, I think that is more of an accolade than any ornament on a shelf. We’ll see what happens, but it doesn’t really mean much to me.”

• Judas Priest tour the USA throughout September and October – head to the band's official website for full dates.

Judas Priest have “at least an album or two of new material”, according to bassist Ian Hill. 

In a new interview with The Morning Call (via Blabbermouth), Hill offers an update regarding the band's followup to 2018's Firepower, and explains how COVID-19 has affected its creation.

“The big problem has been Covid over the last year,” he says. “We haven't been able to get together, you know? Some of the guys live in the states and a couple of others live in Britain, so we can't really get together to rehearse. It's just opening up now, just easing a bit now, which is a bonus.”

The bassist also shares insight into the band's creative process. “[Guitarists Richie Faulkner and Glenn Tipton] formulate new songs out of a pool of ideas,” he says. And when they sort of have a rough working track, myself and Scott [Travis, drums] get a copy of that and we'll put our basslines and drum patterns down and we'll go from there.”

“But that's what we haven't been able to do,” he continues. “You can send them backwards and forward, but it's such a messy process. It's much easier to be there in the room with everybody and them tell you to your face, ‘That's a load of crap, start again.’

“Or, ‘We love it, don't touch a note.’ It's much easier and it's more real doing it that was, as well. You pick up off everybody's vibe anyway. So it's preferable to do it face-to-face, when we're all together.”

Judas Priest are currently gearing up to embark on their 50th anniversary tour, which commences September 8 at the Santander Arena in Reading, PA, hitting almost 40 stops across the US and Canada, before heading over to Europe in the new year.

Guitarist Andy Sneap is set to once again replace Glenn Tipton on the tour, who recently stepped back from the band following his Parkinson's diagnosis.

As Hill explains, the tour is “going to be a celebration of surviving for 50 years in the music industry”.

“It's something that very few artists, well, up until now, have been able to do,” he says. “All those years ago, when we first started in the late '60s, early '70s, the concept of popular music and still doing it in their 70s just didn't exist.

“I mean, when we started out, the rock 'n' rollers, the Elvises, they were still in their 40s and even the old crooners, they were only in their early 60s. And we looked upon those as being old people! Now we're in our 70s and still relevant, which is reason to be cheerful if nothing else.

Both Hill and frontman Rob Halford turned 70 earlier this year, guitarists Glenn Tipton and Richie Faulkner are 73 and 41, respectively, and drummer Scott Travis is 59.

“None of us is stupid,” Hill continues. “We all know how old we are and you still groan when you get out of a chair and stuff like that. You know the end date is looking at your right in the face.

“I think the yardstick is, as long as we can put on a good quality show and make quality music, we’ll continue, you know? But if standards start to drop a little bit, well, there’s no real point in doing that sort of stuff.”

Last month, Judas Priest took to the stage for the first time in over two years with a performance at the UK's Bloodstock Open Air Festival.

“Everybody was worried about how rusty we were going to be,” Hill recalls regarding the set. “But we did do a lot of rehearsing beforehand, and we got up there on stage and everything sort of clicked back into place and everybody had a good show. So as long as we can do the same kind of shows we put on at Bloodstock, we’re in fine health.”