JUDAS PRIEST's IAN HILL: 'We Want To Be Out There And Doing What We Love'

JUDAS PRIEST bassist Ian Hill says that he is grateful for his band's decades-spanning career and says that there are no plans for PRIEST to retire, despite a 2010 announcement that the band's "Epitaph" tour would be its last.

"When I look back over 40 years, I do so with a great sense of gratitude, really, and privilege to have done that over all of these years and be successful," Hill tells GreenvilleOnline.com. "And to have been able to earn your coin from it, it's been a brilliant, brilliant, very privileged sort of way of making a living."

He adds: "We all still love it, and we're are still able to do it... What else are we going to do? Sit around gardening and stuff like that? That's not for old rock 'n' rollers. We want to be out there and doing what we love."

In a recent interview with AXS.com, JUDAS PRIEST guitarist Glenn Tipton explained that the addition of axeman Richie Faulkner to the band gave PRIEST a fresh lease of life and inspired the group to embark on a tour to promote its latest album, "Redeemer Of Souls".

"When we got obviously new blood in the band, it was needed at the time," Glenn said. "It would be the same thing; you get some new blood in there and there’s energy and enthusiasm — motivation, you see things in a different way. He just gave everybody a kick up the backside, really. And that's what happened. We went from literally meaning it was our last tour to there's such great songs on this album, it's a shame we can't get out and play them. So, by any means, this isn't another world tour. I'm glad we're doing it. I feel that it would be great to get on stage and play these new numbers as well as the old classics."

JUDAS PRIEST's 17th studio album, "Redeemer Of Souls", sold around 32,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 6 on The Billboard 200 chart.