Judas Priest bassist Ian Hill has opened up on his decision to step away from the band. Hill had announced his retirement from the heavy metal legends last week, due to an ongoing battle with arthritis that forced the band to play without him for the first time in their 56-year history last month in London.
In a new interview with Ukrainian YouTuber Metal Pilgrim, apparently conducted the day after the announcement of Hill's retirement, the bassist discusses the difficulties he's faced.
"The last couple of tours have been a bit of a struggle," Hill admits. "This trouble with basically my shoulder and my thumb, a great big lump on my thumb which is all arthritis. I've been struggling with that for the past couple of tours or so, you know. And it doesn't go away, unfortunately, and it's one of those things that just gets worse as time goes by. I almost retired at the end of the last tour."
He goes on to explain how Priest's tour plans for 2026 came about, starting with an eventually scrapped plan to tour with Iron Maiden in America which eventually turned into festival appearances at Bloodstock and Wacken and a string of tour dates across Europe. Hill played his final gig with the band in Belgium, on September 18, though does confirm in the interview that he had been planning to retire regardless after the tour finale at Hammersmith.
"We did six shows in eight days," Hill says of his final tour. "That was running up to Brussels, so that's when the tendon snapped. Because we were averaging maybe a day on, a day off, day on, day off, so the crew could get to the next gig and what have you. And, of course, it was recovering on the days off. Obviously, I wasn't doing anything, so it recovered.
"And then, of course, you go on stage and you aggravate it all over again. But then it was sort of, like I say, six shows in eight days, and I'd never had time to recover. And right before the encores on the Brussels show, I just felt a snap and a real sharp, searing pain, and I thought, 'That's it. That's the end of it.' For the encores, I had to actually get my elbow and rest it on my stomach and pull the bass back so I could get down to the bottom of the neck."
"It's easing off a lot now," he shares. "I can sort of lift it and do things that I couldn't do immediately after that. I mean, I couldn't move it at all. From the elbow down, everything was fine. It worked a treat, but I just could not move my shoulder. And that's why I had to miss the London show. I physically could not play the bass.'"
Although Hill has officially retired from the band - with Uriah Heep bassist Dave Rimmer confirmed to be replacing him - he confirmed that he had already recorded his parts for Judas Priest's forthcoming 20th studio album, something he reiterates in the new interview.
Although a band named 'Judas Priest' formed in Birmingham in 1969 featuring original vocalist Al Atkins, the band never recorded material and had disbanded by 1970. Priest as the world knows them came together in late 1970 out of a group originally called "Freight" who changed their name when Atkins joined. Hill has played on every Judas Priest album over the last 56 years. Although he has retired, he hasn't ruled out occasional appearances with the group.
"I'm not gonna be a stranger," he tells Metal Pilgrim. "Every now and again, I'll show up and just go stand on the sound desk and really see what it sounds like. I'll probably be knocked out, because everything's happening behind you. You can't see a thing. You're concentrating what you're playing and the audience, and then every now and then you turn around and see what's going on."
Judas Priest have already announced a string of festival appearances for summer 2027. For the full list of upcoming dates, visit their official website. Watch the full Metal Pilgrim interview with Ian Hill below.
