Due to the nature of his Parkinson's progression, Judas Priest guitarist Glenn Tipton recently announced his retirement from touring life, requesting that Andy Sneap fly the flag on stage for him.

Speaking with TeamRock.com, Judas Priest bassist Ian Hill discusses Tipton's announcement, and reveals that the band went through a similar situation with the guitarist when they were rehearsing for their Redeemer Of Souls tour four years ago.

“When he started then, he was shaky, but, as we went through, he was getting better every day," says Hill. “At the end of the second week, he was ready to go. He put in a superb performance on the last tour, and we were all hoping that was going to happen again. But after the first week, it was obvious to all of us that it wasn’t getting any better.

“But Glenn being Glenn, he’s nothing if he’s not a scrapper. He will fight tooth and nail to make it happen and in the middle of last week, in the middle of rehearsals, he had to admit it. We were all hearing this and we were living it with him. We felt every note.

“He came in and he made the bravest decision anybody will ever make, saying, ‘I can’t do it any more.’ There wasn’t a dry eye in the control room where we were sitting at the time."

Read more at TeamRock.com.

The buzz surrounding legendary metal band Judas Priest’s forthcoming album, Firepower, is undeniably growing louder - on the strength of the video clip for the track “Lightning Strike”, as well as many of the attractive/limited edition purchasing options made available for fans via PledgeMusic already being sold out. And it will soon reach a fever pitch with the unveiling of another new killer track, plus another limited edition of the forthcoming album being made available for purchase.

Fans can now hear the title track from Firepower below, and can purchase a metallic silver-colored cassette version of the album via PledgeMusic, limited to only 300 copies. And if judging from how quickly some of the previous limited edition bundles sold out via the site (such as signed guitars from Glenn Tipton and Richie Faulkner, various colors of autographed vinyl, etc.), this rare cassette version will be an instant rarity and collector’s item. You can also pre-order the album here.

Set for release on Friday, March 9th via Epic Records - the album is comprised of fourteen tracks of pure and highly inspired metal.  And to mark the occasion Priest (singer Rob Halford, guitarists Glenn Tipton and Richie Faulkner, bassist Ian Hill, and drummer Scott Travis) has reunited with producer Tom Allom (the man behind the board for all of the band’s releases from 1979-1988, including such stellar classics as Unleashed In The East, British Steel, Screaming For Vengeance and Defenders Of The Faith) and with Grammy Award-winning producer Andy Sneap also helping to raise the sonic bar even higher.

“Tom Allom has got this classic metal thing,” explains Halford. “And Andy is a bit more of a ‘modern metal producer’ but his thinking is a little bit different to Tom’s. And I think to get this balance between that classic old school metal to what Andy’s world is was just a remarkable coalescence.”

“Tom Allom has been with us since 1979, so his knowledge of ourselves and our music in general is immense,” adds Hill.

And according to Travis, Priest returned back to a recording method that worked incredibly well on the band’s earlier classics - “We went back to the organic way of recording where it’s all of us in a room and we got to play together.”

Firepower tracklisting:

"Firepower"
"Lightning Strike"
"Evil Never Dies"
"Never The Heroes"
"Necromancer"
"Children Of The Sun"
"Guardians"
"Rising From Ruins"
"Flame Thrower"
"Spectre"
"Traitors Gate"
"No Surrender"
"Lone Wolf"
"Sea Of Red"

"Firepower":

"Lightning Strike" video:

Confirmed tour dates:

March
13 - Wilkes Barre, PA - Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza
15 - Youngstown, OH - Covelli Centre
17 - Uniondale, NY - Nassau Coliseum
18 - Washington, DC - The Anthem
20 - Newark, NJ - Prudential Center
22 - Uncasville, CT - Mohegan Sun Arena
25 - Ottawa, ON - The Arena at TD Place
27 - London, ON - Budweiser Gardens
28 - Oshawa, ON - Tribute Communities Centre
30 - Orillia, ON - Casino Rama
31 - Detroit, MI - Detroit Masonic Temple

April
3 - Milwaukee, WI - Riverside Theater
5 - Green Bay, WI - Resch Center
8 - Bloomington, IL - Grossinger Motors Arena
10 - Casper, WY - Casper Events Center
11 - Loveland, CO - Budweiser Events Center
15 - Kent, WA - ShoWare Center
17 - Portland, OR - Veterans Memorial Coliseum
19 - San Francisco - The Warfield
22 - Los Angeles, CA - Microsoft Theater
24 - Phoenix, AZ - Comerica Theatre
26 - Tulsa, OK - BOK Center
28 - Dallas, TX - The Bomb Factory
29 - Sugarland, TX - Smart Financial Centre

May
1 - San Antonio, TX - Freeman Coliseum

(Rob Halford photo - Mark Weiss, band photo - Justin Borucki)