British heavy metal icons Judas Priest have announced that KK Downing, one of the founding members of the band, has decided to retire from the band and as a result, will not be taking part in the group's forthcoming, Epitath tour. A press release from the band reads as follows:"It is with regret that Judas Priest announce that K.K. Downing has formally retired from the band and will therefore not be joining them on their forthcoming Epitath Tour.
"Having thought long and hard about how to proceed, Rob, Glenn, Ian and Scott uninimously agreed that they should go ahead with the tour and not let the fans down around the world.
"Fate also stepped in and delivered the perfect replacement - 31 year old British guitarist Richie Faulkner - he has blended into the band perfectly and is a great talent who is going to set the stage on fire!
"The Epitath tour will include songs from every Judas Priest album and also tracks they have never performed on stage, plus all the old favourites!
"With a new album due to be released next year, the Metal Gods are preparing to tour the planet once more - Heavy metal at it's best with lasers, lights, bikes and hellfire! It's a show not to be missed!"
I actually had to look at my calendar a few times to make sure it wasn't April Fools day. Last album, last tour - something big must have went down for someone as integral as he was to the band to just leave.
The thought of Priest without Downing is really weird. Gonna be strange seeing them at Graspop knowing they've not got one of their key ingredients of brilliance.
I hope this is just another misunderstanding, like when many of you assumed that there are not gonna be another album, cause without him, well, I dont want another Priest album...
I did the same as Avant Garde, I checked the date too! Too bad to see KK step away, I hope there isn't a serious underlying factor in his life that caused this.
That sucks, I hope nothing bad happened in his personal life. Some people deserve to retire and have a break though and I'm sure he probably constitutes as one.
Amazing how "fate stepped in" and provided a fully prepped replacement. Sounds to me like this must have been bubbling around for a while.
Now I'm really glad I saw them in '09......this is truly shocking news......can't imagine Priest without K.K......and anyone else replacing him, IMO, is a let down to the fans......why couldn't he just do this last show and be done with it......is there more to the story....Hmmm????
This isn't news I wanted to wake up and read! Holy sh**! One of my all time favorite bands ! Tipton @ Downing were the template for dual guitarists in the early 80s. Was hoping to see these metal gods for one more go around before they hung it up for good. No I'm really kicking myself for not seeing em do British Steel in its entirety a couple of years ago!
hmm... halford's continuing his career after this... and you don't go and see priest on their last ever tour to see ian hill and scott travis, you go to see halford, downing and tipton... and i can see halford another time... so i just lost half my reason to go see them.
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