Only Heavy Metal

JUDAS PRIEST guitarist Glenn Tipton has thanked fans for their messages of support in the four weeks since he announced that he was retiring from the road due to his battle with Parkinson's disease. He is being replaced on tour by "Firepower" album producer Andy Sneap, also known for his work as the guitar player in NWOBHM revivalists HELL and cult thrash outfit SABBAT.

Said Tipton: "By now, many of you will know I won't be doing the forthcoming JUDAS PRIEST tour because of health issues. I'm so sorry, but four years ago, I was diagnosed with Parkinson's and was told by my specialist that I had already had it for over ten years. I knew something was wrong with my co-ordination and fluency regarding my playing, but I worked around it and battled on. I have good days and bad days, but the disease is degenerative and I would never want to compromise the greatest metal band in the world. It was therefore during the last rehearsals I decided to step down and have Andy Sneap fill in. He's a great guy and I'm sure he'll do a great job. I'm sure the band will be as strong than ever.

"I have been overwhelmed by the massive support and love I've had from other artists and from fans all over the world and from many friends and metal maniacs out there. It's not the end for me — I'll still be able to write and record and on good days even join the band on stage for a few songs. With new medication and advances being made, who knows what the future holds, but one thing's for sure: it will certainly involve PRIEST!

"Finally, the biggest thanks goes to Rob, Richie, Ian and Scott who have stood by me and supported me through everything."

JUDAS PRIEST's "Firepower" has landed at position No. 5 on the U.K. albums chart. It marks the band's highest ranking, and first time in the Top 10, since "British Steel" reached No. 4 in 1980. Elsewhere, "Firepower" has become PRIEST's first-ever No. 1 in Sweden, while in the U.S., the album is expected to enter the Billboard 200 at No. 2, bested only by David Byrne's "American Utopia".

According to Billboard, JUDAS PRIEST's "Firepower" has entered the Billboard 200 chart at position No. 5, making it the band's highest-charting album ever. 2014's "Redeemer Of Souls" debuted and peaked at No. 6, while 2008's "Nostradamus" landed at No. 11 and 2005's "Angel Of Retribution" came in at No. 13.

"Firepower" moved 49,000 equivalent album units in first week of release. Of that sum, 48,000 were in traditional album sales, just shy of the 54,000 copies sold by "Angel Of Retribution" in that album's first week. The "Firepower" chart position was bolstered by sales generated from a concert ticket/album sale redemption offer in association with the band's current North American tour.

According to Billboard, Round Hill Music has acquired a signifcant stake in JUDAS PRIEST's catalog.

Former PRIEST guitarist K.K. Downing's rights to 136 songs, including classic tracks like "Breaking The Law" and "Living After Midnight", were put up for sale earlier this year. The move followed last year's announcement that original Downing's luxury golf resort fell into administration (similar to Chapter 11 insolvency in the U.S.). As a result, the 320-acre estate, located in Shropshire, England, was put up for immediate sale with an asking price of more than £10 million ($13.5 million).

According to administrators FRP Advisory LLP, who handled the rights sale, Downing's catalog share generates between £250,000 (approximately $337,000) and £300,000 (approximately $405,000) a year.

The latest development comes two years after Downing bought out his Birmingham, U.K.-based partners, stating at the time that he was planning to build a leisure resort around his countryside golf course. The estate has an 18-hole, 71-par championship golf course and a stately home used for charity and corporate events.

Administrators from FRP Advisory blamed "tougher economic times within the wider corporate hospitality market," which had put "unsustainable pressure on the cashflow of the estate under its current financial structure."

The sale was initiated by Alastair Massey and Steve Stokes from financial services firm FRP Advisory which is handling the administration of Ken Downing Ltd.

Giving birth to new metal babies. #judaspriest writing sessions 2020 with grand master Tipton and the Mg RHRF DOTF #forgingthesteel

AntHero: Deep Purple. Your latest album has achieved massive global success. Does it still surprise you regarding the enduring appeal of the band?

Don Airey: "Yes. It really has. You do an album; you don’t know how people are going to react to it. Usually we have a law saying they loved the last one, they’re going to hate this one. But it doesn’t seem to have worked like that this time. The reaction has been overwhelming, I must say."

AntiHero: Just to pick out another band that you’ve worked with, that you contributed keyboards to Judas Priest's Painkiller album. What was your given remit going into creating keyboards in a band that isn’t generally renowned for it using any keyboards?"

Don Airey: "They were so worried about it they didn’t even give me a credit, I don’t think, on the album. They paid me, which is always the point. But recently, I mean this last month or so… it’s a wonderful album, Painkiller."

AntiHero: Absolutely.

Don Airey: "And Scott Travis (drums) has spilled the beans about it, that all the bass parts are me playing on the mini. It’s Moog bass on the whole album; that was Ian Hill’s bass mixed in as well on parts. But at the time Ian wasn’t very well so he wasn’t at the sessions. So, I got made to do all the bass and they kept it. I mean, it was a funny old job. I only got to play proper keyboards on one track, I can’t remember what the track is. I just read about it yesterday that they’d actually said, I’ve never said a word about it before. I mean, it was an exciting album to do. They’re wonderful people to be around."

Lady Gaga and Su-Metal will be the special guests on the new JUDAS PRIEST album.

Rob Halford, vocalist of Judas Priest, in a conversation with People magazine, confessed that he would like to sing with Lady Gaga on stage: "I knew she was going to be a giant artist the first time I saw her: she is without a doubt the best in what it does, "said the singer. "I would sing 'Breaking The Law' with her because it talks about the frustration we go through, particularly when we are young. 'You don't know what it's like, you have no idea, you'll do the same too, break the law."

Well, it seems that due to the pandemic, it will partially fulfill that wish, for now we will not have the opportunity to see them interpret "Breaking The Law" as a duet, but to listen to them in a new two-voice song, about which Halford says that it is in the vein of another great rock classic, such as "Total Eclipse of the Heart".

As with Lady Gaga, the vocalist had also stated on different occasions that she was a BabyMetal fan, but in this case the Su-Metal collaboration would come as a bonus track in the limited editions of the new album. The theme chosen for this collaboration is nothing more and nothing less than "Painkiller". Rob Halford said of the new version: "Su-Metal has managed to take the higher parts of the song to levels never before reached, the sound is eerie, only comparable to the feeling of a fingernail ripping a slate".