JUDAS PRIEST’s 50th-Anniversary Tour To Kick Off Next Year

Judas Priest
Photo credit: Justin Borucki

In an interview with Austin Chronicle, JUDAS PRIEST bassist Ian Hill has confirmed that the band is planning to mark the band’s 50th anniversary in 2020 with a special tour.

Ian said: “Technically, the 50th anniversary is this year, but we weren’t called JUDAS PRIEST until 1970, so we thought we’d leave it till next year. There’s a few ideas in the pipeline, but nothing solid yet, apart from the fact that we will tour.

“We’ve got some work to do with Ozzy [Osbourne] at the beginning of next year, January-February, which is the canceled shows from this year.  Ozzy got sick and wasn’t able to do those shows. After that, we’ll start with the 50-year celebrations and we’ll be around again playing… Well, we’re not sure what we’ll be playing, but it’ll be cool.”

JUDAS PRIEST‘s latest album Firepower is the first studio album since 1988’s Ram It Down to be produced by Tom Allom, and the first one with Andy Sneap as co-producer. The album sold around 49,000 copies in the United States within its first week of release, debuting at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 chart, making it the band’s highest-charting album in the US. Music videos were made for “Lightning Strike”, “Spectre” and “No Surrender”.