Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford recently spoke with The Georgia Straight about the band's enduring legacy. In the excerpt below he discusses guitarist Richie Faulkner's contributions to Priest:

“We were so looking forward to writing with him after we did the Epitaph world tour together,” notes Halford, “I remember the first day of being in the writing sessions with Richie and the room was electric, you know; there was solid things happening hour after hour. We just kept writing and writing, but we had to put the brakes on because we were on a time schedule.”

Although (original guitarist) KK Downing’s aggressive playing style had become an integral part of Judas Priest’s sound over the years, Halford says the band welcomed whatever musical traits Faulkner brought to the game.

“He’s his own man!” he asserts. “We didn’t want a copycat, we didn’t want somebody that was just gonna replicate things. The basic components of the song are already in place, but we said to Richie: ‘Don’t be afraid to do your own thing, because it’s important that you establish your own identity.’ Which he did.

“And the fans were so receptive,” he adds. “There was no negativity towards the guy. Let’s face it, to some extent Richie saved Judas Priest, because if we hadn’t have found him at the crucial time that we were looking for a guitar player things could have turned out quite differently.”

Go to this location for the complete story.

Judas Priest performed the song “Desert Plains” during their show on October 17th in Las Vegas, NV. Multi-cam footage of the performance is streaming below:

Judas Priest's North American schedule is now as follows:

October
23 - William Saroyan Theater - Fresno, CA
24 - Knotfest - San Bernardino, CA
27 - Hard Rock - Vancouver, BC
28 - Hard Rock - Vancouver, BC
31 - Brandt Center - Regina, SK

November
1 - MTS Center - Winnipeg, MB
3 - Civic Center - Peoria, IL
5 - Paramount Theater - Huntington, NY
6 - Paramount Theater - Huntington, NY
7 - Prudential Center - Newark, NJ
10 - Scotiabank Center, Halifax, NS
12 - Air Canada Center - Toronto, ON

More details and ticket links at this location.