Judas Priest Bassist Ian Hill Wants to Tour with Iron Maiden

If this happens, which will make all my metal concert dreams come true, me and my sister shall be there. Oh yes, we shall be there!!

During the 1980s, Judas Priest were on the rise as one of metal's premier names. Iron Maiden were certainly on their way up as well, going from the punk-y sound of Paul Di'Anno to the more sweeping vocal acrobatics of Bruce Dickinson. Iron Maiden were one of the most frequent opening acts for Priest and even though the relationship between the two bands started out rocky and jagged, no doubt years later the bands would become best friends with each other. Priest bassist Ian Hill has hopes that the two bands can tour together while the members are alive and still able to.

"There’s always the big question of Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. That would be really interesting if we could get that together before some of us die. It’d be great! You run into these people over the years. We’ve played with quite a few of them, but we’ve got to get together with Iron Maiden." Ian told Audio Ink Radio in an interview.

Iron Maiden's first time with Priest was in 1980 when Priest was touring British Steel and Maiden was touring their self-titled debut album. A year later, Priest had, once again, selected the London metallers Iron Maiden to open for them. Priest was touring Point of Entry while Maiden was touring Killers, the last album to feature vocalist Paul Di'Anno. For the time being, both bands are sweeping across the world on their own tours. Judas Priest is continuing their Firepower tour while Iron Maiden is on the North American leg of their Legacy of the Beast tour.

For Priest, this is the first time that the band has toured without longtime guitarist Glenn Tipton. Glenn has been fighting with his diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease and to fill the shoes he left, producer Andy Sneap stepped in. In an interview with The Void with Christina, Andy said "I'm just filling in, really. They asked me to help out, so it was a case of jumping in and doing what I could do. I'd had a year in the studio with them — I was doing Accept and Saxon at the same time — so it's been good for me to step away from the studio, because mentally, I was getting a little bit burnt with that, if I'm honest. To be able to step back and still do something this size and musical has been great. Where it's going to go? I've got no idea. We haven't even discussed it. It's been, 'Andy, can you do this tour? Can you help us out here?' That's fine."