In a recent interview with The Pick, Judas Priest bassist Ian Hill discussed the band’s surprising decision to continue their musical journey, even after announcing what was meant to be their ‘farewell’ tour almost 15 years ago. Hill revealed that a key factor in their continued success and longevity has been the addition of guitarist Richie Faulkner to the lineup.
“Richie Faulkner. Yeah, he came, he replaced Ken [‘K.K.’ Downing], who went off to do his own thing,” Hill said. He continued, explaining that while the initial plan was to scale down their activity, Faulkner’s arrival injected fresh energy into the band. “Of course, the whole idea was to slow down a little bit and to take the workload down a notch. But Richie came along with boundless enthusiasm and all this energy, and he just sort of rubbed off on the rest of us,” Hill shared.
Faulkner’s arrival helped reignite the band’s passion, with Hill noting that Judas Priest has since released three albums and completed multiple tours, surpassing their original expectations. “And here we are three albums, three tours, four tours later — well, five tours later, if you count the [2011-2012] ‘Epitaph’ [‘farewell’] tour — and we’re still going strong. I mean, we’re motoring. We’re loving it. We really are.”
Faulkner stepped in as the replacement for original guitarist Kenneth ‘K.K.’ Downing, who left to pursue other projects.
Earlier, Faulkner spoke about a time when he briefly quit the band and then made the decision to return. “The best decisions I’ve made so far; having a baby, and I remember I quit, you know, one of those moments where I was carrying Marshalls out at three o’clock in the morning, and I quit the band like, ‘I’m not f*cking doing this,’ and a week later, I’ve decided to join again, that was a good decision.”
Looking ahead, Faulkner hinted that new music is in the works. “Is there another record? I know we’ve got ideas coming up all the time — riffs and melodies and song ideas and stuff. We’re creative people — as a group of creative people, that’s gonna happen. So I think, hopefully if we get some time early next year, we’ll be able to pool those ideas and see what we’ve got and then hopefully hit the road again somewhere else,” Faulkner said in November.
