RICHIE FAULKNER Wants JUDAS PRIEST To Focus Future Tour On ‘Screaming For Vengeance’ And ‘Defenders Of The Faith’ Era

In a new interview with Slovenia’s PodRaznoKast podcast, JUDAS PRIEST guitarist Richie Faulkner reflected on which era of the band he would most like to spotlight in a future tour setlist — and he didn’t hesitate to name a very specific golden run from the early 1980s.

“Personally, I’d like to do a Screaming For Vengeance and Defenders Of The Faith tour, [focusing on] those two records,” he said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). “So maybe it could be called ‘Screaming For The Faith’ or ‘Defenders Of Vengeance’ or something like that. But that’s totally fantasy. That’s nothing that we’ve spoken about or anything like that, but that’s just something I’d like to do.”

Faulkner was quick to stress that the idea is purely hypothetical and not something currently being discussed within the band. Instead, he pointed to the group’s recent touring approach as something more flexible and wide-ranging, especially following their more concept-driven live runs tied to specific albums.

“The last [tour] was pretty album specific — it was [focusing on the] Invincible Shield and Painkiller — so I think this summer in Europe, it’s just gonna be a bit more free, over the band’s career, and nothing too specific — just a celebration, I think, of everything JUDAS PRIEST. So it will be fun to see what we come up with.”

As the conversation shifted toward deeper cuts and potential surprises in future setlists, Faulkner also touched on songs he would personally love to revisit — or finally bring to the stage with the current lineup.

“Let me think. I think we’ve done a lot of songs — over the last few years, we’ve done a lot of songs. Because usually if we go out for a third leg in the U.S. or something, we have to do different stuff, ’cause we can’t play the same stuff again that we played twice before,” Richie explained. “So we have to change it up. So, we pull some good ones out. But I would like to play — we’ve played it before, but I’d like to play ‘Night Comes Down’ again. I love ‘Night Comes Down’. I love that song. It’s such a great song, especially for festivals. But as far as songs that we haven’t played, ‘Reckless’ from the Turbo album — we haven’t played that one. I’d like to play that. We rehearsed it, I think, for the Redeemer Of Souls tour, I think, but we never played it. Or maybe it was [the] Firepower [tour]; I can’t remember. But we’ve played so many. No, I think apart from ‘Reckless’, we’ve played all the ones that I wanna play, really — unless I’m forgetting one.”

JUDAS PRIEST recently announced the upcoming release The Best Of Judas Priest, a career spanning collection celebrating one of the most influential and enduring bands in heavy metal, out via Sony Music on June 19th 2026.

The mighty JUDAS PRIEST have defined and redefined the sound and imagery of heavy metal for more than five decades. With over 50 million albums sold worldwide and more than 2.5 billion global streams across their catalogue, their impact on music and culture remains unmatched.

This special collection of songs brings together some of the band’s globally revered recordings, including “Breaking The Law”, “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming”, “Electric Eye”, “Turbo Lover” and “Painkiller”. Together, these tracks represent key moments from across their catalogue and trace the evolution of a band that helped shape the genre itself.

Internationally the band’s most iconic songs continue to reach new audiences. The Best Of Judas Priest serves as both an accessible entry point for new listeners and a definitive collection for longtime fans looking to revisit the songs that cemented the band’s legacy.

An in-depth documentary The Ballad Of Judas Priest was premiered at the Berlin Film Festival recently. Directed by Tom Morello and Sam Dunn, this fascinating insight into the bands vast career will be released later this year.