For those who missed the breaking news yesterday, Gibson has this: British metal band Judas Priest announced this week that founding guitarist K.K. Downing, 59, retired from the band and will not join them on their forthcoming farewell tour, named the Epitaph Tour.Remaining members – singer Rob Halford, guitarist Glenn Tipton, bassist Ian Hill and drummer Scott Travis – issued a press release to announced Downing's replacement as Richie Faulkner, the 31-year-old guitarist behind Lauren Harris and Dirty Deeds.
In a recent interview Downing was asked for his thoughts on the farewell tour, and he said, "To be perfectly honest, I have not given any thought as to possible case scenarios after the final tour. At the moment though I feel that Priest has played its part in music history and feel very proud to have achieved what we have. So there is a good positive feeling inside me and, of course, I feel very indebted to the fans all over the world. As for the future, we probably need the help of [Priest's most recent album] Nostradamus." more on this story
