(Gibson) At a recent press conference in Sφlvesborg, Sweden, all five members of Judas Priest fielded questions at a press conference. Topics of conversation included K.K. Downing's departure, the Epitaph tour setlist and the group's future plans. Regarding the latter, guitarist Glenn Tipton squashed any rumors that this was it for the metal gods."We don't plan on retiring," said Tipton. "We've said that this is our last world tour. It takes a chunk out of your life18 months. We won't be doing any more world tours, as such, and in many parts of the world, it will be the last time people will get a chance to see us. But we're not gonna stop. We've got an album in the can now, we will start to write with [new guitarist] Richie [Faulkner], there will be more albums, and who knows? There might be a string of dates that we can manage to do. We're just not going to do another major world tour. We've been doing it for 40 years and it's time to let the younger bands have the chance."
Regarding the departure of founding member K.K. Downing, frontman Rob Halford said the group still is not completely sure of the guitarist's reasons for walking away from the farewell tour. "I don't think any of us will really know," the singer said. "You probably read what he put on his website about saying that he just felt that if he was to stand on the stage not for the right reasons, then that was the wrong thing to do. And that's a really sincere thing to say. When you walk out on stage in front of those thousands and thousands of fans, you want to be there, you want to be able to play. None of us really understand the true reasons [for his departure], 'cause we've all got different theories. I think what we would really love everybody to focus upon now is that this is a great time to celebrate for Judas Priest, 'cause it is a farewell. We don't want people to be depressed and sad, we want people to rock out and have a great time and enjoy seeing this amazing guitar player, Richie, with us in the band and just live the metal." Check out video
