K.K. DOWNING Retiring From JUDAS PRIEST; Replacement Announced

April 20, 2011

British metal legends JUDAS PRIEST have announced that original guitarist K.K. Downing has formally retired from the band and will therefore not be joining them on their forthcoming Epitaph Tour. The remaining members of the group respect his decision and naturally all wish him well. Having thought long and hard about how to proceed, singer Rob Halford, guitarist Glenn Tipton, bassist Ian Hill and drummer Scott Travis unanimously agreed that they should go ahead with the tour and not let fans around the world down. Fate also stepped in and delivered the perfect replacement — 31 year-old British guitar player Richie Faulkner (LAUREN HARRIS, DIRTY DEEDS). He has blended into the band perfectly and is a great talent who is going to set the stage on fire, according to a press release.

The Epitaph Tour will include songs from every PRIEST studio album and also tracks that they have never before performed on stage plus all the old favorites.

With a new album due to be released next year, the "metal gods" are preparing to tour the planet once more. Heavy metal at its best complete with lasers, lights, bikes and hellfire! It's a show not to be missed!

When questioned about his plans for the future after PRIEST completes its previously announced farewell tour, Downing recently 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 Nostradamus."

JUDAS PRIEST's most recent double-disc concept album, "Nostradamus", sold 42,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 11 on The Billboard 200 chart. This marked the band's highest-ever chart position in the U.S. In Canada, the CD opened at position No. 9 after shifting close to 4,000 units.

JUDAS PRIEST's previous studio CD, "Angel of Retribution", premiered with 58,000 copies in the U.S. back in March 2005 to debut at No. 13.

JUDAS PRIEST announced in December that it will head out on its farewell world tour beginning in 2011. The band intends to hit all major cities across the globe as they sign off on a career that has lasted for nearly 40 years.

Richie Faulkner in action:

Find more on

Prev More News Next

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).