Dimitris Kontogeorgakos of Chicago's Metal webzine Metal Kaoz recently conducted an interview with Judas Priest guitarist Richie Faulkner who discussed the creation of Firepower, the ongoing US tour and the band's 50th anniversary plans. An excerpt follows:

Q: Let’s go back to the music and talk about the band’s future plans; Rob has mentioned the band’s 50th anniversary, so do you know something about the plans for that? Is it about touring or re-releases…

A: "Obviously, I do have some idea of what is being talked about, but it is at the very early stages at the moment and I do not want to give anything away. But as Rob said, this is a fantastic milestone for the band and, again, the fans have put Priest there for all this time. This acknowledges the fans more than anything, so it will be all about giving back to them; an event that the fans will really remember. It is in progress and we are talking about what we want to do, but in true Judas Priest fashion, it is going to be something everyone will remember. We want to give back to the fans because, as I said, they have put the band there for nearly 50 years and they are still coming to the shows, they still love the band, so yeah, it will be something special."

Q: That’s awesome! Are there any Judas Priest songs that you would like to have in the setlists?

A: "Absolutely, there are tons of them, man! Like “Island Of Domination”, put “Sentinel” back in (we did that in the ‘Epitaph Tour’ and I’d love to play it again), “Delivering The Goods”, I’d love to play “Killing Machine”... There are so many great songs, so many like deep cuts like “Hot Rockin’”, “Exciter” and lots of others. Still, we are doing a lot of great ones in this tour, like “Sinner”, “Tyrant”, “Freewheel Burning”, “Saints In Hell”. We are doing a great cross section between the old songs plus the new ones and I’d love to play more of that stuff as well. As we go on with this tour, we will be adding more from the new album and swapping them around."

Q: It feels great seeing a band with 50 years of history playing more of the new stuff, as we do not like seeing bands playing only the old material.

A: "I hear ya and I think it is important to do that and maybe create future classics. I mean, “Another Thing Coming” was a new song once, and “Breaking The Law” was new back then, if you know what I mean. I think it is a careful balance because you do not want to put too many new songs as you may alienate part of the audience. You have to keep this balance and, as I said, we will be changing songs as we go on and add new songs as people getting more familiar to that material. At the moment, we are doing “Rising From Ruins”, we did “Evil Never Dies”, “Lightning Strike” from Firepower and we are looking if we can do “Traitor’s Gate”, “Necromancer”, “Sea Of Red” as we go through the tour, so it is exciting for us and also for the fans as they become more familiar with the [new] record."

Q: Have you ever discussed of adding songs from Jugulator or Demolition although Rob is not singing on those?

A: "Yeah, we have discussed it and Rob has said that he is more than up for it. The difficult thing is, as with all the songs we’d like to add, is deciding what song to remove from the set; if we are going to add “Cathedral Spires”, you have to choose what to remove and, you know, you’re adding someone’s favourite and then you’re removing someone else’s favourite (laughs). It is a battle, but it is a good one to have, but, like I said, we are totally up for it."

Read the entire interview here.

Judas Priest will join Ozzy Osbourne for a set of UK tour dates in February.

Ozzy Osbourne No More Tours 2 dates with Judas Priest:

February 2019
1 - Nottingham, UK - Motorpoint Arena
3 - Manchester, UK - Manchester Arena
5 - Newcastle, UK - Metro Radio Arena
7 - Glasgow, UK - The SSE Hydro
9 - Birmingham, UK - Genting Arena