Judas Priest will dig deep into their archives for 50th anniversary celebration

Judas Priest (Image credit: Columbia Records)

Judas Priest are planning on celebrating their 50th anniversary with a set at Wacken Open Air next summer.

And, according to frontman Rob Halford, the band have a few other surprises up their sleeves – and he’s been delving into Priest’s back catalogue in preparation of something “very special” in 2020.

The Metal God tells Rolling Stone: “I’ve been feverishly working over the last few weeks and months with our stage designers to make something very, very special.

“We’re going to go deep, deep, deep into the catalogue and try to find songs that we’ve never played before and wrap it up into the history of Priest and the 50th anniversary.

“The official Priest 50th spectacular starts next year, so it’s going to be a great show. We’ve got some really big surprises and it’s going to be a wonderful celebration of Priest and British heavy metal.”

In August last year, Halford confirmed that Judas Priest were putting the pieces in place to mark the “incredible milestone” this year.

However, those plans were curtailed when their planned tour with Ozzy Osbourne were shelved after Ozzy was forced to postpone his 2019 live shows after he was badly injured in a fall at his home.

Next year could also be a double celebration for Judas Priest as last week, they were nominated once again for The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.

They’ll find out if they’ve been successful early next year.

Meanwhile, Halford released his Christmas album Celestial last week and recently spoke to Classic Rock on why he loves the festive period so much.

Scott has spent 37 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in 2014 before moving into e-commerce in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, highlights deals, and reviews headphones, speakers, earplugs and more. Over the last 12 years, Scott has written more than 11,500 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog. He's previously written for publications including IGN, Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from news and features, to tech reviews, video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.