Speaking with Ultimate Guitar's Justin Beckner, Judas Priest guitarist Richie Faulkner talked about the band's current state of affairs, guitarist Glenn Tipton, the group's creative process since he joined in 2011, future plans, and more. Following is an excerpt.

UG: I heard the plan, about a year ago, was to have Glenn involved with the writing and recording on the next record, whenever that should happen. Is that still the plan?

Faulkner: "Absolutely, yeah. Glenn has some physical challenges with Parkinson's as we all know, but as far as ideas and creativity, Glenn is still very much a behemoth in terms of what he creates and what he thinks and how he sees music and riffs and melodies. He's a really unique musician/guitar player/songwriter. And I think it's one of the contributing factors to why Judas Priest has always been one of the forbearers, one of those unique players in heavy metal. They've always had their own voice. There are lots of reasons for that, but one of the big reasons, in my opinion, is Glenn Tipton's way of writing and phrasing and note choices. And he's still very much in control of all that stuff. Also, in the studio, it's a bit of a more relaxed environment in terms of time constraints.

For example, Glenn had to pull back from touring, when you play live in front of 10,000 people, you've got to play it once and you've got to play it correctly. If there are challenges with that in the studio, there is a bit more leniency - you can play it again, you can go over that take and take the better take. Time is very much on your side in the studio, so Glenn is very much involved in the creative process and he will very much be involved in the creation of the next record, no doubt.

Read the complete interview here.

Ahead of Judas Priest's two headline shows at the Warfield in San Francisco on June 24 - 25, frontman Rob Halford spoke with CBS San Francisco. An excerpt from the chat follows:

CBS SF: You’ve talked a little bit in recent interviews about the Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody and I don’t know if you’ve watched the Mötley Crüe movie that’s come out on Netflix yet. I was curious if you’d prefer to see a movie like that portrays your story and the story of the band with actors, or would you rather to see a documentary about Priest?

Rob Halford: "Well there’s been loads of unauthorized documentaries floating around for a while, but not to the level of Bohemian Rhapsody. I haven’t seen The Dirt yet, but I will watch it. I love Crüe. They’re good friends of mine. So I don’t know. Priest has had a very interesting life. We’re one of the longest surviving working heavy metal bands and a lot of our life story has been documented, but a lot of it hasn’t.

"I think you have to have a strong storyline to really push, otherwise it kind of falls flat in today’s sensationalist TMZ world. You’ve got to have some stuff going on there. For us in Priest, that’s difficult, because we’ve always tried to keep the privacy of what happens offstage in its correct place. But having said that, there’s no doubt the story that we’ve told musically, the way we came from where we came from and our place in this style of music called heavy metal, there’s a lot to focus on there that would be really interesting.

"Every band is made up of different characters. I think that’s the attraction of Bohemian Rhapsody, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Although, being a Queen fan, I know everything about that band, so I didn’t see much that I didn’t already know. But I thought that Remi was brilliant and so were all the other actors. I think it was a superb effort. But as far as Priest, who knows? We’ll have to wait and see."

Read the full interview at CBS San Francisco.

Find the band's tour itinerary here.