Technically, Ian Hill, 67, remains the last original member of Judas Priest. In 1970, bassist Hill, guitarist K.K. Downing, and drummer John Ellis – then known as Freight – teamed up with singer Al Atkins, who brought along the exclamatory moniker cribbed from a track on Bob Dylan’s 1967 LP John Wesley Harding. Downing split from the West Bromwich metal gods in 2011.: “No, I don’t feel like the ‘last man standing,’” laughs Hill. “I mean there’s Rob [Halford] obviously, and Glenn [Tipton] still counts, although he’s not doing a great deal of live work. And of course Scott [Travis] has now been with us since 1989. Even [Downing replacement] Richie Faulkner, this is his ninth year.: “So, it’s kind of a fluid current.”: From that white water emerged last year’s 18th studio JP LP, the universally acclaimed Firepower.: “For the first time in quite a long time, we actually went in and played the songs live in the studio – Richie, myself, and Scott,” recounts Hill. “Belted through them. It makes all the difference. We threw away the click track and just made it natural.: “Click tracks are great. It makes things very accurate, but it can also be mechanical, so we threw that away. You do get almost imperceptible rises and falls in tempo to go with the feel of the song, but it adds life and gives the song a soul.: “It all came together with that album. It’s my favorite album. I mean all musicians say the new album’s their favorite, but in this case, I genuinely believe it’s the best album we’ve done, ever.”
Tue., May 28, 8pm